Yup, we're all unique flowers who are special and individual in every way. Except when it comes to our dreams. However different we might seem as humans, how similar we really are all shows up in our dreams. The top 10 dreams everyone has and what they mean.
Skip right to the dream meanings.
In the great tradition of people who bore other people by recounting their dreams, I … am going to recount my dreams to you. Don't worry. You're gonna get the chance to bore everyone else, including me, later.
Since I was young I've had nightmares. Lots of them. Death, destruction, chasing, kidnapping, murderous heart pounding dreams. You name the nightmare and I've had it. Oftentimes over and over again.
In the past few years I've switched over to general anxiety dreams that are still very disturbing but not quite as death filled. I've never thought much about these nightmares of mine. They're just who I am and believe it or not, and this will sound really insane, but … I find them kind of comforting now.
I'm sure it's some sort of subconscious appreciation of how my dreams are dealing with the real life problems I have. Not that I feel like I have any at the moment, but my dreams know better - they know we're all dealing with something.
That's generally what dreams do. They deal with all the stuff you aren't dealing with in your waking life because you're too busy paying bills and wondering where you hid the vodka.
According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders only a small percentage of people have nightmares on a regular basis. Nightmares aren't just scary dreams, they're terrifying. They can wake you up and the fear will stay with you.
About half of all people who suffer with nightmares also suffer from psychiatric disorders. I don't think I have a psychiatric disorder, at least not one fierce enough to cause nightmares every night so I'm more inclined to go with the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorder's other rationale for people with nightly nightmares which is the fact that artistic or creative people are at a greater risk of nightmares. Mainly because they have better imaginations.
5 or so years ago, around the time my fella of 11 years ran away from home, I was having nightmares that revolved around cloudy, scary, turbulent water. And I was in the scary water. I wasn't afraid of drowning, that wasn't the feeling - it was just dark and ominous. The dreams were me finding my way.
1 year ago, just after I had the relief of finding out that I *didn't* have breast cancer (I really encourage you to read that post here), I started having anxiety dreams.
It's amazing that there are so many of us with such different brains and personalities - yet we all have the same themes in dreams. Don't believe me? Here's a look at 10 of the most common dreams. I'm guessing you've experienced at least half of them.
If you're looking for a little more information on dream interpretation get The Dream Dictionary for Dummies.
Table of Contents
Dreams Analysis
Being Chased
Having a person chasing you in a dream can mean you feel threatened by something in your life or you're avoiding something. You are running from something in your conscious life; emotions, a relationship, worries or even your taxes.
It's a classic anxiety dream.
If you're being chased by someone who is trying to to kill you, you can take that as a pretty direct translation. That something or someone that has to do with you is bad for you. It doesn't necessarily mean it will literally kill you, but could kill parts of you. Your creativity, your happiness or your sanity for instance.
It could be a direction you yourself are going in that isn't healthy like hard drug use or other bad habits like eating a pound of butter for breakfast every day.
NOW, if you're the one doing the chasing it can mean a couple of things. You're possibly trying to run off that morning pound of butter orrrr you're running towards something (an ambition, person or goal).
Water
If the water is calm and clear, you're at peace obviously. If the waters are murky or turbulent you're struggling with equally turbulent emotions.
THIS is the dream I had a lot after my breakup. Murky, turbulent, violent water. I had no idea it was such a common dream because I don't remember ever dreaming about it before.
Teeth falling out
It's surprising how your teeth falling out in a dream can be every bit as horrifying as it would be in real life. You're in your dream, walking down the middle of a highway with your new florist Jeff Goldblum, as one does in dreams, and you feel something in your moth. A tooth. Then another and another and soon you have no teeth.
This seems like a bad sign.
BUT as with a lot of dreams, something that seems negative in a dream isn't necessarily bad. There CAN be a positive interpretation.
When you lose your baby teeth in real life it's a step towards growing up. The meaning of the dream about your teeth falling out could be that you're maturing and growing as a person.
On the other hand, it can have a negative connotation too. (Weirdly, dream science isn't very sciency. Actually, that's not weird at all)
The negative analysis of dreaming that your teeth fell out of your head is that you're afraid that you're losing control over something. It's a symbol of powerlessness and insecurity.
Flying
You live in Canada where pot is legal and you're super high. No wait, that's not right. Flying dreams represent experiencing a newfound sense of freedom or control. The next time you dream about flying make a point of thinking about whether you are experiencing either of these things in your life. You know. Just for dream analysis fun.
The most reasonable explanation for dreaming about flying is that you got a new cape, so ...
Exam time/Audition time
Dreaming about missing exams or suddenly realizing you haven't studied for a test make sense for someone in high school or University. But these dreams continue into adulthood.
The ubiquitous "I have an exam or test and I never went to class and never studied" dream can happen through your whole life. The test could be in another language or you can't get into the exam room … whatever the case it's a test and you're anxious about it. This is a classic anxiety dream and usually means you feel like you're being judged or evaluated by someone in your life.
I have both exam and audition dreams. Audition dreams happen more often than test dreams in people who went to performing art schools or studied music and acting. I have them because of my career as a television host.
omg i'm naked
You're feeling exposed or ashamed of something if you dream you're naked in public. It can also mean you're feeling vulnerable. Or you're just a hippie.
Death
Dreaming that you die means you actually died while sleeping. Just kidding. My 12 year old self couldn't resist saying t hat.
Dreaming of your own death signifies starting over. So it's not a bad thing, it's the chance to start over. New job, new relationship, or a new you after coming out of a relationship.
Dreaming of a parent's death can mean a couple of things. Well, a million really, but I'm trying to keep these interpretations to what most experts believe is the most plausible explanation. Dreaming of a parent's death is often literal. You're literally afraid of your parent dying either because they're sick or it's a deep seeded fear of yours.
It can also mean that you're finally a grown up - the dream is like a rebirth. Dreaming of a parent dying can mean you're personally at the point where you can live your own life. Your own mature life where you can survive and take care of yourself without any parenting. For women this kind of dream is typical around the age of 10. For men, it's around 73. Just kidding.
Dreaming of a sibling's death generally means you miss them.
If the death of the person in your dream doesn't make you sad do you feel like that person betrayed you in real life? Having them die in your dream is your retribution. It doesn't mean you actually want them dead, your dream is just giving you a chance to punish them so you can get over it.
Cheating
Cheating dreams are another common anxiety dream. If you dream your husband/wife is cheating it can mean you're actually worried about them cheating. It can also mean you have trust issues with them or are feeling insecure for some reason.
Sex
Dreaming about sex means you want to have sex. Seriously. Well sometimes it does.
Gay Sex (when you're not gay) means you're secretly gay. No it doesn't.
Same sex dreams often mean you need to get in touch with your feminine side (if you're a gal) or your more masculine side (if you're a dude). So break out the nail polish or start swinging that hammer.
Falling
Dreams where you're falling are also classic anxiety dreams. They usually mean a situation in your life is spiralling out of control. It could be your job or a relationship.
If you're falling but aren't afraid, it means you're in control of your situation and will easily get through it.
Some interesting less common dreams??
Poop. Dreaming about poop is NOT common. Butttttt, it's the 3rd most Googled dream, lol. So I guess even if it doesn't happen often, dreaming about poop is alarming enough that everyone who does it searches for the meaning of it.
So what does it mean if you dream about poop? That your life stinks? That you feel like crap? No. Shockingly, dreaming about poop is kind of a good (albeit disturbing and gross) thing. It means you're letting go of negativity and positive changes are ahead. But maybe buy some Immodium, just in case.
Alligators. Dreaming about alligators means you're feeling vulnerable about something. It can also mean that you're worried about a decision you're having to make in real life.
Keep in mind dreams can be interpreted in a few different ways. Also keep in mind some people think dream interpretation is a bunch of hoodoo. By nature, I'm a skeptic who always wants to be proven wrong. So my inclination is to scream HOOEY about all of this.
But if that was the case, if dreams and dream interpretation was hooey, then chances are we wouldn't all be having the same dreams as each other. A dream may mean one thing for you and another thing for someone else but as long as you know what you're going through in your real life you should be able to figure out what your dream means to you.
If you don't know what you're going through in your own life you're very, very dead so it doesn't matter.
If you want to delve a bit further into your dreams (and who doesn't) I can recommend 2 books to keep on your bedside table.
The Dreamer's Dictionary which as published in 1986 with the majority of hundreds of readers on Amazon giving it a 5 star review and The Dream Dictionary for Dummies which includes not only dream interpretations but also techniques for dreaming more and remembering the dreams you do have.
If you want to keep track of your dreams, you need to keep a journal beside your bed to write them down immediately when you wake up. You think you'll remember them, and you might for a few hours, but then they're gone.
THIS is the most fun dream journal I've ever seen. I mean, it has a strangeness meter at the top of every page.
It's now time for you to bore everyone with your dreams!
Can you remember what you dreamed about last night? Lay it on me!
[ratings]
attygreen13
I have nightmares about alligators all the time! I thought it was because I’m Cajun, and from Louisiana, but it’s not like I grew up bareback riding gators?!? And the gator is usually eating/attacking one of my loved ones (usually my youngest, but as a toddler). WTF. Glad to hear I’m not the only one with alligator nightmares, but still boggles the mind.
Shelagh Ryan
Last night I was naked clutching a pair of flannel pyjamas around myself and trying to find an empty bed in a very crowded house full of strangers who were apparently my husband's extended family in town for some sort of holiday event. I was searching for this empty bed because I was fed up with the other 6 people in my bed including Aunt Alice who had to have her diaper changed.....we don't have an Aunt Alice btw.
There was a lot of activity in a huge kitchen but all I could see being made were these disgusting looking bricks of hard candy dyed in blacks and purples...I also desperately needed to use a toilet but there was only one bathroom and in my search for an empty bed I kept missing my turn. Just as I finally got to the bathroom, everyone was called to supper....disgusted I woke myself up and went to my own bathroom.
Straight back to bed where I went back to dream land...this time I was sitting in a sling with a hot air balloon over me so that I could control the altitude. I had company but I had no idea who it was so I ignored them. I gently flew along enjoying the scenery even the black bear standing on her hind legs gesturing me to come closer so she could eat me didn't bother me one bit. Then I was visiting an old neighbourhood and I was on the ground peering through the windows to see what the neighbour had done with his house...he had gutted the whole place...I laughed and asked him if he had ever heard the Stuart McLean story where Dave tries to install an electrical outlet beside the kitchen table....by this time quite the crowd had gathered but it was all people from my family who have died ...looking alive and well and happy to see me.
Sherrill
I used to have the teeth falling out dream, all the time. So much I would have dreams where I woke up( still dreaming);and my teeth would start falling out again.
I used to have night terrors. My poor husband has seen be do a lot of pretty strange things. One night I Dreamt there was a huge wall of woven baskets, and they started to fall over onto me. My husband woke to seeing me with my arms and legs over my head
Trying to protect myself from them crushing me.
I’m sure his favourite was the night I literately jumped up and sat on his chest (he was sleeping) because I was sure there was a Snake in the bed! He finally got me off after reminding me it was winter and snakes can’t live in the snow! Never a dull moment, for my guy. Lol!
Shelagh Ryan
Lol ....poor guy...yes, snakes do live in snowy places...they hibernate...but when it gets extra cold they actually wake up and I if they have been in your walls...they come through into the basement looking for somewhere warmer.
True story...I found 4 garter snakes in my basement one really really cold January...they were very sluggish but definitely alive!
Audrey
Women at 10, men at 73, LOL !
Jill G
I have extremely vivid dreams and often nightmares, usually about someone trying to murder me. I remember every single detail about my dreams. My most common dream is that i am around a lot of people and my teeth get covered with with a gummy substance that i have to painfully keep pulling off. Weird
Debra B Milam
I finally learned to diagnose my own reoccurring dream theme. If I am upset or something is bothering me, I am at work and everything is going wrong. I used to be a bakery manager for a large grocery chain, so this usually means the baker didn't show up or the oven doesn't work or I am alone with racks and racks of pastries that need to be put out for sale. LOL . If my life is going well my bakery looks great and I am getting compliments on it.
Bruce Cisco
In grade school, I would have the recurring dream of being on a bridge over turbulent, nasty water at night. Windy with waves crashing against jagged rock AND the bridge would slowly disappear into the water and I couldn't turn around..... Damn that was scary!
Also, have the naked one every so often. :-)
candace ford
looking at the dates on these comments (1915) this must have been a reallllly old post
Carlee
I have two recurring dream themes. I believe both are anxiety dreams, which is not surprising because I am a very anxious person.
The first started from when I was in the military and was deployed. When you're deployed, you spend the first few months living out of your duffel bags because you train in different places and you basically live in a tent for awhile. Then, when you get to where you'll be for awhile, you unpack and "move in". During this time, it is amazing how much crap you will accumulate and so packing up at the end of a deployment is sometimes quite the process and usually involves shipping things home that don't fit in your duffel bags (basically anything personal you've acquired). I often dream that everyone else is packed up and we are about to leave, but I have not packed a single thing and it is very distressing.
The other dream I have a lot is that I am back teaching English in my tiny Japanese village and I haven't prepared lesson plans and I've forgotten how to speak any Japanese. I am also (always) running late and I am met with very strong disapproval from my Japanese co-workers and teachers. The house that I used to live in usually appears very run down as well. I know this to be an anxiety dream, but the message is a little less direct than the deployment dream.
I also often dream that I am traveling and I have no money. Or that I am getting deployed again, but then I realize I'm not in the military anymore.
Eileen
For years, variations on needing to get somewhere/be somewhere and having everything conspire against this happening. Not being able to get to the right train track, getting lost, being blocked in some other way. In all sorts of exotic and not so places. Rushing, sweaty and with heart pounding....
Oh, and the most utterly terrifying one? Dick Cheney (remember him???) was madly in love with me and stalking me, using everything in his arsenal of legal and illegal tools to constantly find me and keep coming after me with that blood-curdling smirk he had.
Brrr. Skin crawling just thinking of it....
alison
Recurring. I enter a huge public bathroom with virtually no one in it. I check the first stall and it's disgusting. Then the next, and the next and the next. I cannot find a single toilet that I want to use. I remember my elementary school was this in reality so I was often running home off the bus because I couldn't bear using the school toilets.
Tina
I guess I’m the first (this year) to dream. I had a doozy last night. I was at my hometown, Astoria OR on vacation. I’m currently living in MA and I miss my OR life.
So for some reason a bunch of people were there with me so I hired a bus to drive us all around but everything was different. It was very sad because the people couldn’t see what was so wonderful about my town.
Then I got a handwritten letter from my daughter saying that if I didn’t come see her right away, then I wouldn’t be received, ever again. I guess I need to go down and visit.
Karen
Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty literal dream, lol. :) ~ karen!
Amanda Gries
Have you heard of Ainslie MacLeod? He’s a psychic who helps people resolve longstanding problems. I’m kind of obsessed with him right now. He’s been interviewed for a number of podcasts including Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday —she seems a bit skeptical of him, but if you search his name + podcast you’ll find a number of episodes. I bet he could tell you why you have these dreams and apparently when he tells people why they have certain ailments it clears up soon after.
Karen
Hmm. I'll take a look at the podcasts, but I might be with Oprah on this one, lol. ~ karen!
Carol
I opened the garage and saw the Batmobile and realized that I, a mild-mannered mom, was Batman!
Karen
LOL!!! Oh, that's great. ~ karen!
Sylvia
I had a dream that there was a fight and one of my daughters was fighting and then it switched over to me running from a man shoiting at me I ran to my old house and my ex was there sleeping and I told him someone was chasing me with a gun and he woke up holding a gun and then I woke up it's been two days now and its bothering me
Roxanne St Amour
I had a terrified dream last night that my 9 year old daughter was kidnapped and the police found her in the bushes what does that mean it's scared me so much that I woke up in tears
LNU
I walk into the living room. My gf is fingering her cousin's ass hole. I'm like wtf? She is like what? It's not like I'm getting off on it. I was like what are you doing?
Star
Um so I'm a teen and basically what happened in my bad dream or nightmare I just had um so this creepy guy and a woman they were strange I was starving it was hot outside the air was hard to breathe the couple or whoever they were or are I looked at my water bottle and i made an inference that it was turning so I opened the door said it's too hot for you and. I ran down the street and asked the eldery lady I went to and told her what happened to me and asked for.her phone but I woke up and I was thinking about it, couldn't understand the nightmare or bad dream so I looked it up and read this article. But my living conditions in my house are good which I don't understand why this happened. I was crying thinking about it outside of my bad dream. I think i was kidnapped but it started in that place but idk how I got there. So may someone please interpret this bad dream for me and tell me what it could be bc it's bugging me and i got school today.
Hello
My dream was that my Mom was trying to kill me at a shopping mall so i dove into the fountain (Idk why I guess I was trying to hide?). When my head was under water I saw one of my family members floating dead next to me. I tried to scream but then I was suddenly falling.
Daniel Medina
I had a dream that I was being chased by someone I didn’t know but they had the intention to kill me I ran through my neighborhood untill he caoght up with me behind some houses and right as he was about to kill me I got super scared and tried to pause the game. like what? So I pulled up the pause menue and paused and the killer came into view he was an animal crossing character again what but later I realized when I woke up that when he was chasing me I thought the person chasing me was me so myself I’m so confused and creeped out