What The Most Weird And Common Dreams Actually Mean

We’ve all had that feeling, when you wake up from a bizarre dream and think: “WTF?”

At the time it seems to make perfect sense but when you actually wake up and come out of your slumber, you wonder if you might be going a little crazy.

But first, ever wondered what it's like to get a reading from the Kardashian's actual medium.....

But you’re not. Well, not because if some wacky dreams, anyway. We’ve all been naked in public, chased by a psycho or best mates with Ed Sheeran, who then turns into a giant preying mantis and eats your dog. Wait, just us?

Well, as you probably know, dreams are actually a way of our subconscious communicating to us about our different emotional states. So we asked Psychotherapist Matthew Bowes to help you translate just what those night time adventures mean, so you can work out what exactly your thoughts and feeling are IRL.

1. When you realise you're naked

“Being naked in public often indicates we are feeling vulnerable or afraid of being seen or exposed.  It can also indicate that we are feeling shame. These sorts of dreams can arise when we find ourselves in new or unfamiliar situations like a new social group, relationship or a new job. It's no accident that we seem to have this sort of dream just before we come into our teens or during our teenage years as this is a sensitive and key time for finding our way in social groups.”

2. When you're being chased but you can't move

“Dreams about being pursued and not being able to get away are very common. The psychologist Carl Jung often characterised the thing that is chasing as our 'shadow' - parts or aspects of ourselves that we cannot accept and wish to disown. The fact that we are relentlessly pursued by it indicates the degree to which that part of ourself needs to be confronted and reflected on rather than disowned.”

“Often this dream occurs in relation to a specific event or situation we have recently experienced or a particular person we have encountered. This has drawn out something we feel uncomfortable with. A bit like waking up from a drunken night and thinking 'Oh God, I can't believe I did that”. The way to deal with it, it is turn and face the pursuer. It may not be as horrendous as we think.”

3. When your teeth fall out

“Teeth are often associated with 'having bite' like when we say 'she's got teeth' we mean 'she's confident', a force to be reckoned with. Following this line, if we dream our teeth are falling out, it may mean we are losing our confidence in a particular situation.  Similarly, losing teeth is associated with becoming older. By extension, dreaming that we are losing our teeth could imply we feel as if we are losing our power, our vitality.”

4. When you are late for something important

“This dream is typically accompanied by feelings of anxiety. Often there is something in life which is pressing on us - starting a new career, moving to a new place, giving up a vice like alcohol or cigarettes.  The sense of being late is our anxiety that we losing time and we never may reach that important goal we have set for ourselves - or more often, that we are trying to put it out of our minds and that our unconscious is reminding us is important and needs attending to.”

5. When you wake up just before you die 

“Dreams about death often indicate something is in the process of transformation, they are not premonitions of something that might occur in real life. Dreaming that we were about to die and suddenly waking up could indicate that we are afraid of a sudden change that might be on the horizon. As we grow and mature sometimes letting go of our old selves can be a little like a death - and sometimes even if it's in our best interests we don't want to go there because the unknown is frightening.”

6. When you fall and before you hit the ground you wake up

“In deep sleep, falling can have deep symbolic meaning. Sometimes falling from a great height might indicate something has happened to us that has knocked us off our heightened perhaps grandiose platform where perhaps previously we have looked down on people. It might be a fall from grace – like we’ve lost our way somehow. If you fall and before you hit the ground before you wake up, it would suggest that you haven't quite come to terms with our fall and getting grounded - we have saved ourselves from a tough experience (of coming down from our high castle).”

7. When you are friends with a celebrity

“Dreaming about being friends with a celebrity often indicates we are encountering an aspect of ourselves which contains hidden talents or things that we admire or desire but haven't fully recognised as our own.  It is important to note who the celebrity is as this may give us a clue as to what it is that we are recognising in ourselves. If it's a celebrity we don't like or we think is a bit naff in waking life, we may be encountering an aspect of ourselves we feel uncomfortable with.”

8. When you dream about Aliens

“Dreaming about aliens indicates that you are encountering something in your life or possibly in your internal world which is alien to you. It may be that you have moved or are going to move to a new job, or a different country - or simply that you've had an experience where you have surprised yourself with an talent that you didn't know you had.”

9. When you are getting married to the wrong person

“Getting married is about making a commitment to another person. Dreaming about getting married to the wrong person might indicate that you are on the verge of making a commitment to something (a new job for example) which you intuitively know may not be right for you.”

10. When you dream that you are queen of all cats but then you realise you're allergic and you're overthrown by Ross from Friends. So you marry a life-size Pikachu toy to spite him

So you're dreaming that you're 'queen of cats' - in other words a bit sassy/sexy and crucially 'special' - you think you're something great. But you're allergic - in other words this image doesn't quite fit, you're uncomfortable with it, it's irritating to you and/or to others around you.  It gets 'overthrown by Ross from Friends' - the affable, friendly, slightly pathetic (in the true sense of the word) character from the series. This is a self image that would perhaps be more appropriate and make you more amendable to your 'friends' - more goofy, friendly, loveable. But your queen of cats self doesn't like the idea of that at all so marries a child's toy (Pikachu) to spite it. In other words, you regress and become childish and spiteful at the thought of letting go of your arrogant sexy sassy image rather than being the more goofy you, getting on with your 'friends'.

Matthew Bowes is a psychotherapist who can be found at www.matthewbowespsychotherapy.co.uk and on email at info@matthewbowes.co.uk.

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