What my dreams means

Dream meanings explained: What does my dream mean?

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We've reached out to experts to get our dream meanings explained, so we can finally answer that age old question - what does my dream mean?

We all have dreams every now and then that really stick in our minds. Ever dreamt about an ex-partner that you haven't thought about in years? How about the one we all hate - finding yourself naked in public? Although most of our dreams don’t make any sense, that doesn’t stop us from asking questions about them, like why are my dreams so vivid and why do I keep having nightmares ? You might even want to know how to lucid dream . But perhaps the most common question we ask ourselves when we wake up from a deep slumber is: what does my dream mean?

Psychologist Dr Keith Hearne says, "Sometimes meanings behind these weird dreams aren't quite as obvious as you might think. "Dreams are often mistranslated and the actual message is different to the original. They should be taken metaphorically, not literally." So, before you start worrying that you're really in love with the postman, read our guide below to make sense of some of the most common dream meanings.

Dream meanings explained

1. Your ex

Break-ups happen for a reason (whether they're romantic relationships or friendships) and most of us don't like to be reminded of ex-partners or friends years down the line, especially if we're happy with the relationships we have now. But it’s not uncommon to dream about an ex, leaving you wondering why you're being plagued by the past.

UKCP Psychotherapist Yuko Nippoda says that the meaning behind the dream depends on the relationship. "The re-experience of the relationship might have sweet memories, and people might be unconsciously fantasising to go back to the time of this relationship. However, if it was a sour relationship, people might feel that they have unfinished business or regret, and be unconsciously wishing to fix it. "

(Image credit: Getty Images)

She adds "If it was a damaging relationship, then it can become a nightmare which creates further fear, instead of offering a safe place. In that case, it is important to be aware that the relationship has already ended and it will not come back, so that the dreamer can create a safe place for themselves."

Counsellor Dwight Turner agrees with Nippoda, saying "It is ultimately about the nature of that relationship and how it still impacts upon us unconsciously."

2. Cheating

Perhaps even less pleasant than dreaming about an ex - but just as common - is dreaming about being cheated on.

Dream analyst Lauri Lowenberg told Harper's Bazaar "If there’s infidelity in your past, either in this relationship or a past relationship, this will keep cropping up because it’s a bone of contention within yourself."

However, she adds that if there are no trust issues in your relationship, another hidden meaning could be that there is something else you feel is taking time and attention away from you, such as a job, a hobby or a new friend.

If you're the one cheating in the dream, then think about the person you're cheating with. Bed retailer Dreams says "Typically, these dreams don’t indicate a sexual attraction but that they may have certain qualities that you wish your partner could emulate."

3. Being naked in public

We've all had that dream where we're at work or in a busy public place and all of a sudden we realise we've forgotten to get dressed. The way we react to this in our dreams is key to working out the meaning.

Psychologist Dr Keith Hearne says, "In this case, a feeling of embarrassment and shame probably accurately reveals the essential emotion, and the content symbolically displays the cause of the dream. The dreamer should focus on what they have done or said to ‘show themselves up’.”

However, dreams of this type aren’t always negative.

"It may be a rebuke from the unconscious of unacceptable social behaviour, but if the feeling in the dream is of exhilaration, it may represent a new-found sense of freedom," explains Dr Hearne.

4. Teeth falling out

Losing your teeth is a common dream to have during deep sleep . Sometimes the dream starts off with teeth having already fallen out, or in other versions of this dream the teeth drop out one-by-one. Both are unpleasant, but what do they mean?

One interpretation of a teeth-loss dream is that you're concerned about losing your looks. Have you recently found a new cluster of grey hairs or feel like your wrinkles are deepening? Something as simple as this could trigger a dream of this sort. Women experiencing menopause symptoms reportedly dream frequently about teeth loss, and in this instance it often represents worries about growing old and losing their femininity.

Dr Hearne adds, "This dream may be interpreted as a warning that time is passing and important things need to be done in life, or that you are embarrassed over something insensitive you’ve said to someone else."

Additionally, bed retailer Dreams says that dreams about losing teeth can also be about communication, and may relate to your difficulty communicating with a person in your life or a lack of confidence.

If I could stop dreaming about my teeth falling out that would be greatJuly 18, 2021

5. Falling

Many people wake with a start after having a dream that they're falling. The common myth is that if you ever actually hit the ground you'll die in real life, but this, unsurprisingly, isn't true.

A study of 2,000 UK adults carried out by Bed SOS found falling to be the second most common dream (45%), after having sex (48%). Being chased (37%) was in third place.

"Falling dreams can cover several different scenarios, and often seems to come up as a linguistic pun," says Dr Hearne. "The word ‘fall’ is used in several contexts in everyday life. It may appear either as a wish (for example to fall in love, or to fall pregnant), or refer to a negative event (say, to fall out with someone, to decline or fail in some way). Recall what was happening in the dream, and the characters present, to uncover the probable topic. "

6. Flying

Flying dreams can be really fun - who wouldn’t want to soar through the sky without a care? When you dream you're flying and it feels like the most natural thing in the world, it indicates that you are on top of a situation and feel confident that you will succeed.

Dr Hearne says "This is a well known metaphor for doing well in life, and progressing with ease."

However, Dreams say that if you find yourself struggling to fly, this has a less positive meaning. They say “A tough time flying in your dream suggests that someone (or something) is stopping you from moving to the next step in your life. If you are unable to fly it suggests that you might be struggling to meet the high goals you set for yourself.”

7. Being lost

"The feeling of being lost is a powerful emotion, in life and in dreams," Dr Hearne explains. "Children can be traumatised by such an experience, and a ‘sub-personality’ may form, stuck at that age, subsequently influencing their life and their dreams.

"Symbolically, the dreamer many be ‘lost in life’, and needs to find a way forward to a rewarding place."

Have you been worrying about your career path? Or perhaps you're concerned about how a relationship with a partner has changed lately? This could be a good chance to assess where things are going.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

8. Someone that has died

Being visited in our dreams by loved ones that have died can be comforting or upsetting. Some people see it as a sign that the person is trying to communicate from the afterlife, but watch out for reading too much into this as it can lead to an obsession over what they're trying to tell you.

Another interpretation is that it means you still need to deal with issues surrounding their death, even if it was a long time ago. Whichever you choose to believe, their appearnace in your dream means this person remains in your memories.

"The ancients understood the concept of opposites in dreams," reveals Dr Hearn, saying "The unconscious message might be that a birth is in fact imminent. " This could mean an actual birth, or a new beginning.

The best books to help you interpret your dreams

The Complete A to Z Dictionary of Dreams: Be Your Own Dream Expert £13.15 | Amazon

Written by highly respected Dream Psychologist Ian Wallace, this comprehensive guide will help you interpret the imagery you see in your dreams and analyse the hidden meaning and messages within them.

12,000 Dreams Interpreted: A New Edition for the 21st Century £9.19 | Amazon

Popular psychic and medium Linda Shields has updated this classic, with revisions and additions to more than 2000 of his original interpretations as well as 2000 entirely new entries.

The Dream Dictionary from A to Z: The Ultimate A-Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams £13.25 | Amazon

Packed with fascinating information, The Dream Dictionary from A to Z is an extensive collection of the symbols that appear in your dreams and how to interpret what they mean for you.

The Dream Interpretation Handbook: A Guide and Dictionary to Unlock the Meanings of Your Dreams £9.81 | Amazon

With The Dream Interpretation Handbook, you'll learn to decipher your dreams and use what you discover to connect more deeply with yourself and make changes in your waking life.

Dream Dictionary: An A-to-Z Guide to Understanding Your Unconscious Mind £6.56 | Amazon

Video of the Week

Psychologist

Dr Keith Hearne is an internationally known psychologist who conducted the world’s first sleep-laboratory research into ‘lucid’ dreams (in which the dreamer becomes aware of being in a dream) for his PhD – completed in at Liverpool University.

UKCP Registered Psychotherapist

Yuko Nippoda is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor with 35 years’ experience in the field of psychotherapist and counselling. this field, and currently represents UKCP as a spokesperson.

She extensive experience in clinical work, covering a wide range of psychological and mental health issues with the mainstream population and those from ethnic minority groups.

Lauren is a senior content editor covering everything from the latest royal news to fashion, beauty and health content. Lauren graduated from her masters in magazine journalism in 2011, quickly making the transition over to digital and has never looked back. From getting out a breaking news story to penning an in-depth feature, she loves the variety of writing for digital platforms.

With contributions from

Ellie HutchingsJunior Features Writer

Dream Dictionary – Dream Interpretation & Dream Analysis

Heights Dreams

Teeth Dreams

Gifts from The Dead

Old Friend Dreams

Ear Dreams

Celebrity Dreams

Cellphone Dreams

Flower Dreams

Flying Dreams

Ring Dreams

Dream Dictionary provides a Free Online Dream Analysis and a complete A to Z translated dictionary. Over thousands of skillfully Interpreted Dream Symbols for people who want to access the deeper parts of their minds. Each Dream Meaning contains a message coded in metaphors, images and symbols – unraveling the meaning you will find the hidden gem below the surface.

A Dream Dictionary is a tool that is used to help people find the Meaning Of Their Dreams by extracting the symbols through various techniques. A symbol or image that appears for one person might be interpreted different than someone else. The unconscious paints a story around a particular symbol that often relates to the individuals life experiences, emotions, the world, and the people around them. Considered the Best Dream Dictionary online we try to extract as many different translations to help the dreamer piece together their dream themselves.

Animal dreams are one of the most common types of dreams we all experience. Seeing animals in our dreams often represents the primal and instinctual qualities we associate with them. We may even desire to express those instincts in waking life, but keep them confined to our dreams where they are expressed through our subconscious.

Cat Dreams
Goat Dreams
Hawk Dreams
Shark Dreams
Snake Dreams
Spider Dreams
Wolf Dreams

Learn about animals in dreams

Nightmares are the bad dreams we have beginning very early in life. They are filled with negative or unpleasant situations, and often startle us awake ad make it difficult to get back to sleep. Some nightmares are filled with disturbing images and leave us feeling anxious, but they also serve a purpose. Processing these negative emotions in bad dreams helps clear out our minds and process difficult emotions and experiences we may be facing in waking life. They may even shock us into making changes or taking action when we interpret their meanings.

Dreams of a Dead Baby
Falling Dreams
Dreams of Being Ignored
Death Dreams
Dreams of Being Lost
Intruder Dreams

Learn more about nightmares

What really constitutes as a dream symbols? Dream Symbols are archetypal patterns that encompass contents of religions, mythologies, numbers, shapes, legends and fairytales. These patterns or motifs which come from the collective unconscious expresses itself in metaphors or sacred geometric shapes. In our dreams these specific images, characters, and themes symbolically expresses itself regardless of what religion, culture, age or geographic region you reside in. These dream symbols share the same story of the human experience that contain the same meaning.

Ouroboros in Dreams
Phoenix in Dreams
Crescent Moon in Dreams
Cross in Dreams
Dragons in Dreams

Learn more about dream symbols

Dream interpretation is not as difficult as it seems, in fact remembering and recording them is actually the hardest part. Here at dream dictionary we offer free dream analysis and skillful Dream Interpretations gathered from psychologists such as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

Interpret My Dream

There are many theories about why we dream, yet the mystery has still yet to be figured out. Some view that dreams contain no purpose or meaning whatsoever, yet others suggest that dreams are necessary for mental, emotional and physical health.

Psychoanalysts such as Carl Jung understood dreams that connect us to the unconscious part of ourselves which is beneficial for insight and personal growth. According to Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud stated that our dreams are the royal road to the unconscious comprised of wishful fulfillment and repressed desires.

Types of Dreams
Recurring Dreams
False Awakening
Psychic Dreams

Learn more about dreaming

Latest Dream Interpretations

What dreams mean and where they come from

If you dream that you are suffocating, this may be a sign of lung disease. If in a dream you were covered with earth, perhaps not everything is in order with your heart. You can learn to control your sleep - however, experienced oneironauts say that it's boring. About how scientists are trying to understand what a sleeping person sees and where prophetic dreams come from - in an excerpt from a new book by somnologist Mikhail Poluektov.

Riddles of sleep. From insomnia to lethargy

Mikhail Poluektov

Alpina non-fiction. 2019

[…] A systematic study of the influence of external stimuli on the content of dreams was carried out by Alfred Maury back in 1867. Here is what he tells about his experiments:

“The first observation. I was sequentially tickled with a feather on my lips and the tip of my nose. And I saw in a dream that I was subjected to terrible torture, that they put a resin mask on my face and then quickly tore it off, along with the skin of my lips, nose and face.

Second observation. At some distance from my ear, steel scissors were driven over metal tweezers. And I saw in a dream that I heard the ringing of bells, then this sound turned into an alarm - and it seemed to me that it was during the July days of 1848 ...

Ninth observation. A candle covered with red paper was passed before my eyes several times. And now I see a thunderstorm, lightning - and the memory of the terrible storm that I endured in the English Channel on the way from Mordle to Le Havre becomes the plot of my dream "*.

It's all Mori's fantasy! Can they be trusted? — Approx. scientific ed.

According to modern ideas, sensory sensation partially breaks through the "thalamic block" that occurs in the state of sleep, and invades the dream tissue, modifying it. During much of REM sleep (the so-called tonic phase), from which it is quite easy to get out, the inclusion of a stimulus in the dream plot seems to prevent the sleeper from awakening. […]

It has been regularly found in dream content analysis since [sleep researcher] William Dement's earliest experiments that the number of words in which subjects describe their dream increases as the sleep period lengthens. More words - the dream lasts longer. The authors of these studies conclude that the duration of a dream reflects the natural flow of time. However, in a later study, it was shown that for long enough periods of sleep, after which a dream report was obtained, the number of words describing the dream changes along a sinusoid: at first their number increases, but after 45 minutes it begins to decrease. That is

dream time flows in accordance with astronomical time for half the sleep cycle, and then it begins to shrink more and more.

Based on the results of this work, carried out in 2001, the researchers suggested the existence of a dream generator with a 90-minute period in the brain. A definite answer to the question whether the flow of time in a dream corresponds to astronomical has not yet been received. Perhaps there are two types of dreams in which time flows differently**.

You can also refer to the work of Danilin and Latash, published at the time in Nature: New Biology. This whole story is built on a misunderstanding: there is no clear and generally accepted definition of a dream! Therefore, different researchers mean different things by this term: Fulkes, for example, finds dreams everywhere, even in wakefulness ... In fact, mental activity changes during sleep, but does not disappear completely, unlike anesthesia, coma, etc. In stage 1, these are hypnogagic hallucinations, in stages 2 and 3 - "thought-like" activity, gradually weakening with the deepening of non-REM sleep, and only in the REM phase - "true" dreams.

The features of reports from REM sleep are well known to somnologists; their main characteristic, which differs from all other types of mental activity in sleep, is high emotionality, which is confirmed by objective data from neuroscanning. It is worth accepting these definitions and studying each type of mental activity in a dream separately - and everything will fall into place! — Approx. scientific ed.

For example, dreams upon awakening from REM sleep are vivid, emotional, reports of them are more detailed, the maximum number of words used to describe a dream in REM sleep is four times higher than that in non-REM sleep. REM dreams more often have a meaningful plot that unfolds in time (there is a narrative, i.e. narrative, structure), contain a lot of motor activity. This is because dreams in REM sleep are supposed to reflect the processes of consolidation of visual and emotional memory. At the same time, dreams told after waking up from slow-wave sleep are less definite, they are more like “dreams”, abstract reflections, often containing the plot of recent events or works read / seen. It is believed that these features of dreams in non-REM sleep may be a reflection of the process of consolidation of declarative memory (memory for events). […]

The use of high-resolution EEG (when 256 electrodes are placed on the head and neck area) by the group of Giulio Tononi in 2017 made it possible to deepen the understanding of the relationship of dreams with typical EEG patterns. The scientists found that the frequency of dream reports, on the one hand, correlates with a decrease in the power of delta activity in the posterior regions of the brain, and on the other hand, the power of gamma oscillations increases in the same areas of the brain. This confirms the common assumption that

Change in the number of words in dream reports depending on the duration of sleep in a certain phase

During the experience of dreams, the areas of the brain associated with visual perception (occipital region) and processing of sensory (sensory) information (parietal region) are most active.

At the same time, the activity of the mentioned brain areas is preserved regardless of whether the dreamer sees a dream in a slow sleep or in a fast one. One of the interesting findings of this study was the discovery of differences in brain activity depending on the certainty of the dream report. The subjects, who spoke in detail about dream images, demonstrated an increase in gamma activity in additional areas of the brain, which, according to the authors, are responsible for the concretization of images. In this regard, the discussion of the question resumed: is it possible to understand at all what exactly a person saw in a dream?

This question was raised back in 2011 by a group of German scientists from the Max Planck Institute who studied lucid dreams. Lucid (lucid) dreams are those in which a person understands that he is sleeping and can partially control the content of his dream. Maintaining volitional control in a dream can be learned. The pioneer of lucid dream research was the American psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge. In the 1980s at Stanford University, he conducted a series of studies aimed at studying this phenomenon. It has been shown that lucidity is not usually very characteristic of dreams: 20% of people in the general population have such dreams at least once a month, and only 1% - several times a week. It was also found that during lucid dreaming, a person's EEG behaves differently than it should in REM or non-REM sleep. At this time, fast frequencies appear on the EEG - alpha and gamma rhythms, reflecting the presence of directed attention.

Stephen LaBerge developed techniques for teaching people to have lucid dreams. The key to one of the techniques made famous by Christopher Nolan's Inception is to constantly ask yourself, "Am I dreaming?" To do this, a reality check is carried out - an element of the environment with known physical properties is selected and its behavior is evaluated. In the film, it was a spinning top that could spin indefinitely in a dream, despite the fact that the force of friction in the real world would not allow this. People trained in lucid dreaming are called oneironauts ( oneiros in Greek "dream, dream"). For experimental purposes, they are trained to signal that they have already realized that they are asleep with the help of characteristic left-right eye movements (this story is no longer from a movie, but from real life). With the use of such trained volunteers, the study of the neurophysiological correlates of lucid dreaming is carried out and, in general, the so-called "higher-level consciousness", which is characteristic only of people, is being studied.

Despite the temptation to learn how to control your dream and the real possibility for most people to do this, the technique of lucid dreaming, in general, remains unclaimed. On the one hand, this is due to the large expenditure of time and effort to master it. The situation is exactly the same in real life with auto-training or yoga - everyone knows that this is good and good for health, but only a few manage to go through the entire training cycle. On the other hand, I was recently struck by an opinion expressed at one of the sleep seminars at the Central House of Scientists by a man who had learned to control his dreams. He said that at first he was pleased with the newfound ability, because he was able to make fantastic journeys, meet wonderful women in his dreams. But rather quickly these dreams bored him. He couldn't come up with anything new and lost interest in them. So

From a practical point of view, not everyone needs lucid dreams. Consciousness researchers and psychotherapists are most interested in using this phenomenon.

Based on the concept of the unconscious, a person who has learned to control a dream can, under the guidance of a psychotherapist, realize the symbolic meaning of his dreams. Even without these "psychoanalytic tricks," lucid dreams have proved useful in dealing with nightmares, enabling the person to actively counter or even befriend the terrifying dream images.

[In the work of German scientists on the study of motor activity in lucid dreams], six subjects trained to enter the state of lucid dreaming were given the task: after they realized that they were in their dream, they had to give a standard signal with their eyes (look to the right -left), and after that make the established movement with the hand - clench it into a fist. At the same time, they slept "in the tube" of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. Two subjects were able to fully complete the task. Changes in the fMRI pattern, which were observed in the sensorimotor area of the brain of oneironauts during the movement imagined in a dream, turned out to be identical to those that occurred during the control study in wakefulness, when they squeezed the hand or imagined squeezing it. Scientists have suggested that in the future,

having accumulated many "elementary patterns" of movements appearing in a dream, we will be able to decipher its code - to understand what action is presented to a person when he sees a dream.

Additional confirmation of the ability to understand what a sleeping person sees was obtained in 2013 by a group of scientists from Japan while studying patterns of visual perception in the process of dreams. In this experiment, using fMRI, it was determined which area of the brain was activated when viewing various images, and then these indicators were compared with the results of the description by the subjects of what they saw in a dream. It turned out that it was possible to identify specific patterns of activity in the visual cortex corresponding to elementary images that, according to the reports of the subjects, were encountered in a dream, for example, the image of a building, a car, a woman, etc. It is possible that further research will also decode the visual (visual) series dreams, despite the fact that a holistic representation, according to the classical theory, is formed as a result of the interaction of several brain areas, and not the work of just one area of the visual cortex. […]

The areas of the brain associated with movement and sensation, located in the posterior sections of the frontal and anterior sections of the parietal lobe, despite the fact that they are activated during dreams, do not cause a response visible from the side - movements and sensations in a dream are only "seen" by a person, just as a mentally ill person in a state of hallucinosis sees and hears something, it seems to him that he is actively acting, but none of this is recorded by an external observer. The bizarreness of dream plots is explained by the reactivation of memory traces associated with the perception of information about what the sleeper did or saw, while more recent or more important memory traces for a person are reactivated statistically significantly more often than memories of what happened a long time ago, it just takes less time to excite fresh traces. electrical signal intensity.

According to [American psychiatrist] Hobson's theory, the dream state is closer to a mental illness, such as schizophrenia, than to normal wakefulness.

Schizophrenia is characterized by excessive activity of the "inner life" (hallucinations) with a paucity of external manifestations (apathy, poverty of emotions). From the point of view of the authors of the theory, to the greatest extent, the "switching" of sensations from external to internal, the change in the processes of memorization and perception is characteristic of REM sleep, but it can also occur in its slow phase, only to a lesser extent. This explains both the lower frequency of dream reports in non-REM sleep and the different nature of dream reports in it (more calm, dreamlike). From Hobson's point of view, during late periods of non-REM sleep (which occur already in the morning), the brain activation processes characteristic of REM sleep are introduced into the phase of non-REM sleep, anticipating the onset of the next period of REM sleep. More aphoristically, Hobson's activation-synthetic theory of dreams can be formulated as "tales that the brain tells itself. " […]

The psychoanalytic concept of dreams created by Freud and his followers put an end to attempts to isolate universal dream symbols for interpretation. Carl Gustav Jung wrote: “In a broader sense, it would be a great folly to assume that there is a ready-made systematic interpreter of dreams that you just need to buy and find the appropriate symbol in it. Not a single symbol of sleep can be taken separately from the person who saw this dream, just as there is no single unambiguous interpretation of any dream. Each person differs so much in the way in which his unconscious complements or compensates for consciousness that it is completely impossible to be sure that dreams and their symbolism can be in any way classified. True, there are dreams and individual symbols (I would prefer to call them "motives") that are quite typical and often encountered. Among such motives, the most frequent are falling, flying, being pursued by predatory animals or enemies, appearing in public places in a naked or half-naked form or in ridiculous clothes, a state of haste or loss in an unorganized crowd, fighting unarmed or with unusable weapons, exhausting running away to nowhere. ... But it should be emphasized that these motifs must be considered in the context of the entire dream, and not as self-explanatory ciphers.

What about dreams, which can show the future not in the form of some kind of ciphers, but in an explicit form? The most complete and detailed classification of the so-called prophetic dreams was proposed by the American psychologists Stanley Kripner and Joseph Dillard in 2001 in the book Dreams and Creative Problem Solving. Here we present this classification with the addition of "dreams about illness" made by Professor E.A. Korabelnikova.

Coincidence dreams.
Dreams-inferences, in which the dreamer intuitively compares information, often perceived outside the knowledge of the waking consciousness, which is then transformed in a dream into a correct assessment of future events. So, Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov once saw in a dream his father, who died after a shipwreck, on a deserted island. His friend describes these events in this way: “On the way back by sea to the fatherland (from Germany, where he studied), he once dreamed that he saw his father, thrown out after a shipwreck, on an uninhabited island in the Arctic Sea, to which he had visited in his youth once brought with him by a storm . .. I found my brother there (in Moscow. - Approx. Aut.) and heard from him that their father of the same year, after the first opening of the waters, went, as usual, to the sea for fishing; that four months have already passed, and neither he, nor anyone else from his artel who traveled with him, has yet returned ... In the same autumn, the body of Vasily Lomonosov was truly found exactly on that empty island and buried, laying a large stone on the grave. In this case, Mikhailo Lomonosov, who was born and brought up in a family of Pomors, was aware of the danger they were exposed to when going fishing, and, apparently, represented the sailing routes of fishermen. This information, against the background of parting with the family and worry about relatives, at some point formed a forecast that had a high probability of coming true.
Self-fulfilling predictions, that is, those cases when a person who has seen a dream begins to unconsciously behave in such a way that the dream comes true. Such a case is described by K.G. Jung: “Another typical case happened to a lady who was overly moral. During the day she was haughty and arrogant, but at night she had dreams filled with a wide variety of obscenities. When I suspected their presence, the lady indignantly refused to admit it. But the dreams, meanwhile, continued, and their content became more threatening and reminiscent of the walks that this woman used to take in the forest, during which she indulged in her fantasies. I saw danger in this, but she did not heed my warnings. Soon, a sexual maniac attacked her in the forest, and only the intervention of people who heard cries for help saved her from imminent murder.
Pseudo-anomalous dreams, about the content of which a person either consciously lies, unconsciously fabricates or distorts the facts. So, for example, the dream of Scipio mentioned at the beginning of the chapter was invented by Cicero to enhance the instructive effect of his work.
Abnormal dreams in which the incoming information may be beyond anything known to the science of space, time or energy.
Dreams about illness. Soviet researcher Vasily Nikolaevich Kasatkin at 19In 83 he published a unique monograph "The Theory of Dreams", which became a generalization of 47,000 observations of dreams made by him. In it, he described in detail the features of the dreams of people suffering from various diseases. Often these unusual dreams were harbingers of the development of the disease. According to the observations of V.N. Kasatkina,

dreams of people with lung diseases are characterized by plots of drowning, squeezing through a narrow hole, strangulation. In case of heart disease, a person in a dream can see that he was covered with earth or he was hit by a stone, wounded in the region of the heart, while he wakes up with a feeling of fear.

E.A. Korabelnikova also showed that in people with neurosis, dreams are more common, they are more vivid, emotional. The features of perception in the dreams of patients with neurotic disorders also included: a large proportion of the novelty factor (appearance of strangers, surroundings), symptoms of direct and reverse "age transference" (perception of oneself older or younger than one's age). While the events in the dreams of healthy people predominantly occurred in the present, patients with neuroses more often experienced events of the past and future. Their dreams more often turned out to be incomplete or had an unfavorable outcome - in general, the dreams of patients with neuroses were a reflection of a violation of their mental adaptation.

In the "Open Reading" section, we publish excerpts from books in the form in which they are provided by the publishers. Minor abbreviations are indicated by ellipsis in square brackets. The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.

What does my dream mean? How dreams that recur are interpreted

If you dream of any of these dreams more than once, perhaps it really means something.

Masha Guseva

Shutterstock

You fly through the air, you walk naked into a conference room full of your colleagues, you find a secret door at home - all these strange events often happen to us in dreams. But what do they mean? Is it true that dreams contain some useful information for us? The answer to this question is affirmative. “Dreams show us where we need to go to fulfill our deepest desires, and the interpretation of dreams helps guide us,” says Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., founder of the Association for the Study of Dreams, “during the day we are too busy to notice everything, but when we fall into a dream, there is a restoration of the hidden processes that take place inside us, whether it be fear, stress or passionate desire. In order to learn to understand your subconscious, we suggest studying the meaning of some dreams.

Dream #1

You are back at school, going to an exam you are not ready for.

This is a classic dream indicating that you are under stress. Nightmares about coming to an exam without a pen or unprepared indicate that you are overwhelmed at work, taking on more than you can handle. Perhaps this refers to a new project or the fact that you have agreed to lead the parent committee at the school. This dream means that you need to understand where you are most overloaded and try to redistribute the load so that you experience less stress.

Dream #2

You stand naked in front of people.

If you dream that you are naked in a hall full of people, or on a crowded street, it means that you feel vulnerable. For example, if in a dream you find yourself in an office in an evening dress, then this means that you are afraid of the discontent of your colleagues. Try to understand why you feel insecure so that you can actively work to get rid of uncertainty and be better prepared for work.

Dream #3

You float in the air without fear.

Dreams like this symbolize liberation. It means that you have found a solution to some emotional problem or a way out of a difficult life situation. Also, this dream can talk about some kind of achievement at work or at home, for example, a successful presentation in the office or the completion of an apartment renovation.

Dream #4

Your house was damaged by fire or flood.

In dreams, our cars or houses symbolize ourselves. We can say that this is our outer shell, the shell that protects us. When something happens to our house or car in a dream, this may mean that the same thing happens to our body or mind. If you dreamed that your living room was destroyed, perhaps in reality you are experiencing stress in relationships with people. Or, if you dream that your bedroom is flooded, then you may have problems with your partner. It is worth considering why you are using that part of the house that you dreamed of being damaged, and why this particular part of the house is important to you. This will help you understand what signal your subconscious is giving you. Losing a wallet in a dream can mean losing yourself. If in a dream you cannot find your bag, this may mean that you are losing your sense of self-identity.

Dream #5

You are paralyzed or trapped.

If you dream that you cannot move, it may mean that you do not know what to do in some real situation. (The same dream means when you are lost on unfamiliar streets or in an unknown building).

Dream #6

You find one or more unknown rooms in your house.

If in a dream you find a space unknown to you in your own house, for example, that there is a staircase behind the door, the existence of which you did not suspect, then this is a symbolic designation of hidden or new possibilities of your personality. For example, if in a dream you suddenly found a room full of works of art, perhaps you should realize your desire to take up painting. If you dreamed of a previously unknown office with family heirlooms, then this may mean gaining new family ties.

Dream #7

You are in a hurry to get on a plane or train, but you do not have time.

If in a dream you are trying to catch some type of transport, this means that you are trying to establish some kind of connection. The place where you are in such a hurry in a dream symbolizes the connection that you seek to establish in reality. For example, if you miss your flight to visit your boyfriend, this is a sign that you want to develop a closer relationship with this person. If in a dream you are in a hurry, but you miss transport to work, then you may be worried that you are behind on work.

Dream #8

You are in a romantic relationship with another person (not your spouse).

Even if you are happily married, you still often have dreams that you are romantically involved with someone else. Sometimes such dreams about adultery can mean that you have problems in family life. But most often, the scenario is meant when the sleeper is looking for some qualities that, in his opinion, he lacks in real life. Such dreams are a signal to gain those feelings that seem lost in real life.

Dream #9

You drive a car without brakes.

You feel that some area of your life is beyond your control. Often such dreams are dreamed by women entering into a romantic relationship with a new partner. The meaning of such a dream is to slow down.

Dream #10

Your teeth are falling out.

So you have hidden anger. When we suppress anger, we usually grit our teeth, and this can hurt them. The dream warns about this. Usually our anger has a specific source, such as problems at work or family drama. Quick fix - You need physical activity to beat stress. If the tension is very serious, look for how to cope with it or change the situation.

Dream #11

You fall through and fall down.

This dream has a special meaning for women: if you feel that the ground is slipping from under your feet, this may be due to the fact that you have been betrayed by your friend or husband. You will have this dream until you change the situation. You need to find out the relationship with the person, or at least write down your feelings in a diary. How can writing practice help?

Dream #12

You are being followed.

Someone or something threatens you. Once you understand who or what is meant in real life, it will become clear to you what you are subconsciously afraid of.

Dream №13

You or someone close to you is seriously injured or dying.

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