What does it mean to dream that I lose my phone?

The truth is, that dream sounds more like pure anxiety than anything else. Your phone these days is like an extension of ourselves, so losing it in a dream basically reflects the fear of losing control or being cut off from communication. If it happens especially when you're stressed at work, your brain is probably processing that tension and translating it into this fear. The fact that you wake up with that feeling so real is typical of anxiety - your body stays in panic mode even though you're already awake.

What would probably help you is tackling the stress at its root rather than the dream itself. Try to see if there's something concrete at work that's making you anxious those days. Sometimes when you manage to lower your overall stress, the dreams disappear on their own. It also helps to leave your phone out of the bedroom for a while before sleeping - sounds weird but a lot of people say that calms down that kind of dreams because you're not so "plugged into" the device's anxiety right before bed.

Recurring dreams about losing your phone are almost always tied to real anxiety (it's no coincidence they show up when you're stressed at work), so what's happening to you is pretty normal. That said, the danger is getting stuck analyzing what the dream "means" instead of tackling what's actually stressing you out during the day - because as long as you keep that level of tension, your brain will keep reshaping the same nightmare over and over again.

While the others have a point about anxiety, I'd say the key thing is that your brain is using the phone as a symbol for something deeper: control, connectivity, your identity at work. The dream isn't really about the device itself, but about the fear of losing control or not being "available" when people need you to be. If those three years line up with changes in your job or more pressure, there's your answer - you don't need some mystical interpretation, just need to actually reduce that stress.