Top 20 Most Common Dreams and their Meanings

Top 20 Most Common Dreams and their Meanings

Top Dreams

Top 20 Most Common Dreams and their Meanings is an overview of dreams that are common.

Every dream we have is important as it is a way of our subconscious mind and below we have an overview of the top 20 dreams.

Top 20 dreams

  1. Wetting yourself
  2. Trying to run and going no-where
  3. Cheating
  4. Getting lost
  5. Being in an enclosed room
  6. Dirty Hands
  7. Food
  8. Sex
  9. Driving out-of-control vehicle
  10. Pregnancy
  11. Flying
  12. Showing up Late
  13. Hearing Sounds
  14. Being Chased
  15. Meeting a Celebrity in a dream
  16. Dying
  17. Sitting an Exam
  18. Naked
  19. Teeth falling out
  20. Falling down

1. Wetting Yourself

The old proverbial saying that ‘if you wet yourself in your dream, you will also be doing it in real life’. Yes, in some, well a lot of cases this is true, especially when going to bed after consuming an intolerable amount of liquid. If you speak to the people in your friendship group, it is likely that at least one of them has experienced this warm but unwelcoming sensation. Experiencing this might just be your body telling you that you should have gone to the toilet before bed, and are now facing the penalty for your mistakes, but in many cases, there are also links to your psyche in real life.

To be urinating in your dream can suggest that you have experienced a build up in emotion or stress, and whether your situation has dissolved or not, you are now feeling released or, detached from it. On another note, you could be trying to make your mark on society, and beginning to discover self-expression. This is generally linked to your childhood feelings of control and containment, which you now feel free from.

2. Trying to Run, but Going Nowhere

Having a dream where you attempt to run as fast as you can, but are in fact moving at a snail's pace, is possibly one of the most frustrating experiences ever. It feels a lot like running under water. The key to resolving this frustration is to actually stop running if you are able to. This dream implies you are running away from an irrational fear, and with conquering any fear, you need to face it head on. You are running slowly because you are allowing the fear to catch and consume you, whereas if you confront it, there is more chance of resolution.

There is another explanation as to why you could be running so sluggishly. A psychologist, Daniel Erlacher has run experiments on lucid dreamers, with the aim of detecting how rapidly they can conduct tasks whilst in their unconscious state. The result was that tasks are completed at a rate of around 50% slower than when you are dreaming, concluding that your dreams are in fact presented in slow motion.

3. Partner Cheating

So after a very restless sleep, you’ve opened your eyes to gaze at your romantic partner snoozing peacefully beside you, all the while aware of the monstrosities he/she has committed, and now you begin plotting your tactful revenge? Been there, my friend. Whether you decide to see this as proof of their infidelity; or perhaps just a whoopsie in your insecurities, there are some things you should consider first. Dreaming of a partner cheating can just mean you are not feeling good about yourself at the moment. Everyone is insecure about themselves in one shape or form, just don’t let those insecurities get so bad that you start to believe your partner views you differently because of it with no valid justification, you will only be discouraging yourself.

Yes, this might be your brain thinking suspiciously because you’ve picked up on things in real life, but if you really want to know the answer, then speak to them. You might just be feeling like they will abandon you, or that they are unhappy about things in the relationship. Use this warning sign as an opportunity to resolve your issues, rather than being consumed by insecurities and inevitably push your loved one away.

4. Getting Lost

Busy dreaming peacefully about rainbows and unicorns, then suddenly realizing you are all alone in a place you’ve never seen before? Takes you back to the days of toddlerhood where you’d be innocently shopping with a parent, only to turn around and they’d be gone!… Mum? Unfortunately, those days aren’t all behind you. Often people experience being lost in a dream when they feel they don’t fit in properly. These feelings lead to anxieties, which is the cause for pleasant dreams to be interrupted by negative ones.

Dreams of being lost regularly occur when you are pushed into a new environment in your real life, and you are trying to find your way through it without feeling insecure. Often, if things aren’t explained to you properly, or you are unprepared for a task ahead, you really do get the feeling of being lost. The best thing to do is to find self-assurance, and realize where you have talent and potential, then use that to your advantage. Just like the child in the supermarket, there are only a certain amount of places your parent might be, and there are also only a certain amount of ways to reach them. Whether it be making an announcement over the tannoy; or asking a passer by for help, choose your path and stick with it.

5. Being in an Enclosing Room

Uh-oh, not this again. The harrowing feeling of the walls closing in, but where is my escape hatch? Your escape hatch is becoming mentally strong in real life. Frantic thoughts have the potential to completely overwhelm us. In our actual lives, we still have the ability to see the bigger picture and outside the box constraining us, but when dreaming, this becomes our reality and it feels very present, as though this is the only world we live in.

Dreams such as this represent how we are coping in our general lives. When the walls start to close in, we feel as though the ability to cope anymore is gone, and we instead frantically and irrationally search for a way out. In some respect, this is similar to being lost in your dream, because resolution will come when you find direction. Other things which will help improve the mind, is exercising and maintaining physical health; writing in a journal at the end of every day, and talking to people.

6. Dirty Hands

Sticky hands? Rolling around in the mud? ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand?’. In reality, having dirty, sticky, and grubby hands is just a plain nuisance, but in your dream world this could actually signify some positive changes for you. Firstly consider the properties of the dirt covering your hands, is it from mud, dust, or even blood? If your hands are muddy, it could mean you are weighed down by something, usually relevant to your romantic relationship. If you hands are covered in blood, it denotes that you have a huge buildup of anger towards something or someone. Luckily for you, dirty hands signify positive change after a time of struggle. Therefore, if your hands are currently stained with mud, it generally means you can work really hard and push through your struggle, and a positive change should come of it.

7. Mouldy Food

Ever come back from a vacation and thought to yourself how nice it’ll be to grab a quick slice of toast before you sleep off the jet lag, only to discover there is an alien shaped like a bread roll sitting in the bread bin? *psycho theme music*. I’m sorry, but whether you are dreaming or awake, this is not good news.

Dreaming of moldy food is closely related to illnesses, possibly your own, and possibly others around you. If you have spent time in a hospital or around someone you know to have an illness, this could be an obvious reason why mold has found its way into your unconscious state. Unfortunately, it could also appear because you aren’t taking good enough care of your body, and this is a warning sign that you need to make some changes. Lastly, your mind has an ability to pick up on things in your subconscious about other people’s behavior.

If you’ve recently spoken to someone you know, that person may have been expressing behavior which your active mind hasn’t taken note of, but your subconscious has, and is now implementing its concern into your dream world.

8. Sex

Who, what, where, how, why?

For some people, this subject can seem fairly taboo and uncomfortable to bring up in conversation. Therefore, these people are able to come here to the internet and learn about what dreaming of sex really means. The answer is that sex dreams aren’t even related to sex half the time, they are usually related to desires or fantasies about what you idolize and want to become. On another note, if you consider yourself to be more sexually expressive than most, then there is more chance of it creeping up in your dreams, as they often reflect on our experiences that day.

Dreaming sexually about someone you know, whether it be a friend, teacher, boss, or relative, denotes that you are boxing up your ideas on romanticism to a specific emotional response. For example, your boss represents authority, and you possess less power than them, so you could feel powerless to the person you have invested your emotions in. On the other hand, dreaming sexually about someone you despise could mean you aren’t currently interested in feeling romantic about anyone.

9. Driving an out of Control Vehicle

It doesn’t matter how or why you got in that car, but the fact is you are in it, the brakes aren’t working, the ground is slippery, the steering wheel is broken, and there’s a cliff edge ahead… Luckily for you, this is just a dream. Chaotic experiences while dreaming could be exciting or scary, but they most often signify chaos in your actual life.

If you were driving drunk, this could mean you are running away from something, and the chaos is your brain struggling to forget about it.

If somebody else is behind the wheel, usually they are a person who has made you feel uncomfortable at a certain time, and for whatever reason reminds you of the chaos you are experiencing in your actual life. If no one is behind the wheel, it means you don’t feel as though you can get help from anyone, as there is no one to rely on. This may be true to a certain level, but there are always people waiting to help, and always kind advice if you seek it from the right places.

10. Pregnancy

Is this a new bump or was that always there? You may fret, you may be excited, but it’s happened now and there’s nothing you can do about it. Dreaming of being pregnant, especially if you are a male can be a bit of an odd experience. I’m sure the most commonly asked question on a female’s lips after a dream like this will be, ‘does this mean I’m actually pregnant?’. Now, before you scurry off to buy yourself a test, first understand what a dream of being pregnant actually represents.

Towards the end of pregnancy, the main word being thrown around is ‘expectancy’. If you are ‘expecting’ anything to come soon in real life, this could be a reason why your brain is incorporating pregnancy into your dream. On another note, pregnancy is also about caring and protecting, this is also related if you are just gaining or letting go of a possession you feel sentimental over.

11. Flying

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Wait for just a second, is that me? How did I get all the way up here? Whilst most dreams represent some form of anxiety, burden, or reference to tough feelings you are yet to uncover, dreaming of flying is actually rather positive. Being that high up in the air represents the heights you feel you can reach in your career, relationship, social life, and whatever else lightens your days. You may have already reached this height, or you may currently feel ambitious, and positive enough about yourself to succeed.

When you are airborne like this, you will most likely feel an overwhelming sense of thoughtless awareness through you. This feeling, in particular, will carry over into the morning when you arouse, and you will most likely feel more prepared for the day. In your dreams, you would have been able to see great expansive amounts of land, which has relevance to your awakened ability to clearly examine the bigger picture of your life in the present and generally feel more assertive.

12. Showing up Late

Absolute nightmare, that horrendous feeling of jolting yourself awake because you believe you’re running late for something extremely important, then, of course, you can’t get back to sleep as you’re too riled up for rest! This mainly happens when you have an important occasion coming up which you feel disorganized or unprepared for. It happens to many people before big job interviews, exams, or presentations. Another reason people dream of being late is due to their own lack of personal self-belief in their career, making them feel unworthy for their position.

If you have to be multitasking a lot of different aspects of your life, you may also be more prone to dreaming of being late. Often if we have a split focus on many things such as our career, relationship, children, parents, social life, personal projects and whatever else, we are overcome with an anxiety of failing, and therefore need to keep active and working. This mischievously tricks us into thinking that we are late when in reality we have oodles of time.

13. Hearing Sounds

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but our dreams consist of many different visual images splashed across our periphery. In the dream world, our mind will never make us hear actual sounds. You may believe that you were in conversation with someone, and even be left with an understanding of what that conversation was about, but you would never have actually heard them speak.

Something which most people would remember experiencing is Involuntary Sound Spill (ISS), which is when noises from the outside world find a way to creep into your dreams. ISS can be heard in all kinds of dream, and can often be crossed over to appear as something different to what the outside sound actually is. A common form of ISS is when there is music playing in the outside world and you are dreaming of being at a party.

14. Being Chased

This is not just an innocent game of ‘kiss-chase’ in the playground anymore, this is a life or death situation. Worst of all when your legs seem to go weak, and you’re running but going nowhere, and there’s a sinner with a negative intent on your heels. It seems fairly self-explanatory: many experience this dream when they themselves are emotionally running away from something in real life. But often people have trouble deciphering what it is they are actually trying to get away from.

As aforementioned, dreams consist of more than just the action that is taking place. If you were dreaming of being chased, who were you being chased by? What was the location of the chase? Was the chaser holding a weapon? If this were a puzzle, these little elements are actually hints, helping you to understand more about your psyche. Isolate each of the elements you have noticed, write down your feelings and connection to them individually, and you will start to understand what you are emotionally running away from.

15. Meeting a Celebrity in a dream

In your waking life, touching an untouchable seems like a myth, or only for those select few lucky enough to be in the exact right place at the exact right time. For the rest of us unlucky folk, the alternative is to settle with meeting our idols during sleep time. In this dream you may have bumped into them in the street, gone for coffee, been on a date, or even slept with them!

Generally, dreaming of a celebrity denotes to you being insecure or dissatisfied with yourself. The celebrity is a mark of someone you idolize, and the qualities they posses you wish to have yourself. If you have dreamt of Donald Trump or Carol Vorderman, two people who are associated with intelligence, you perhaps are feeling insecure about your own; if you dreamt of Ariana Grande or Channing Tatum, you may feel self-conscious about your appearance.

16. Dying

There is a myth, similar to wetting the bed, that if you die in your dream you will also die in real life. This is not true, so if you have ever had a dream about dying, please spread the word to diffuse the propaganda. Death signifies the end of something, and therefore if you are coming to the end of your career, relationship, schooling, project, or travels, this may be why you are dreaming this.

Many of the population have an acute anxiety based around the concept of death, or to be more exact, the fear of the unknown which proceeds after dying. If you are a person with this acute anxiety, and also experience the death of another in real life (even if the person dying is a character in a film), then this could be another reason why you see yourself dying. Dreams are a reflection of the day's events, tied into personal emotions you are presently experiencing, and therefore are sometimes over dramatized and cause more concern than is actually needed.

17. Sitting an Exam

Why did I revise on Elizabeth I when the exam is about Richard II? Wrong era, wrong gender, different hair styles, plus I’m doing a degree in graphic design! Exams are the symbol of anxiety, they encapsulate stress, restlessness, and sudden nervous outbreaks. The reason you a dreaming of sitting an exam is generally tied to your anxieties suddenly surfacing in real life.

Often this dream will occur when you are having to test yourself, or when others are testing you. Dreaming of sitting an exam appears most if you are going through a time of turmoil, and you find it challenging, but also aware that there is a light at the end of it. This can raise some anxiety, but also conclude to you becoming a better person by the end of it, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

18. Naked in Public

Sometimes humorous; sometimes empowering; sometimes mortifying. To call this display ‘freeing’ is a verb, both in the literal and emotional sense. If you dreamt of being nude in public and were embarrassed about it, then this resembles you having nowhere to escape to. In your real life, you may be stuck in a trap which you can’t get out of, and feel the need for an immediate change of course. Acting on this may resolve your problems, but be wary not to act too brashly.

If you were naked in a public place and strutting around happily, this denotes that you are in a tackling situation but feel confident you will resolve it easily. This can also mean you are just feeling positive about yourself, and while others may be hiding in these circumstances, you feel you have something others can look at and admire.

19. Teeth Falling Out

Envisioning of your teeth falling out is not a dream you are likely to forget. Often people dream of having absolutely no teeth left, and others dream of their teeth being cracked or chipped. It is even likely that you were grinding your teeth while sleeping. Possibly the most understood and recognized concept in the dream world is that your teeth falling out denotes to you having problems with money.

Seemingly unconnected, having problems with money and your teeth falling out actually have a lot of ties, which make it reasonable for us to connect the two psychologically. Our teeth hold value to us, and up until recently, people decided sell their teeth in order to make money. We all experience losing our baby teeth, it is a growing experience which happens at a more vulnerable stage in our lives when we rely on someone else for guidance. When we lose our baby teeth, often they are replaced by money which the ‘tooth fairy’ gives us, and dreaming of money can be a reoccurrence of wanting the gains of losing our teeth once more.

20. Falling down

If you’ve never heard a person utter harsh phrases about the horrendous jolty sensation that occurs when falling in a dream, then you have sincerely been living under a rock. This is the most common dream experienced by humans, and on average, will occur around 5 times in your life. The theory behind falling in your dreams is that you are in a period of crisis, and feeling a sense of personal demise. This can be related to your career, relationships, health, and personal well-being.

Another theory has developed, arguing that falling during your dream can be a result of drinking too much caffeine before bed, having a high intake of sugar throughout the day, or by mental illness and grievance.

To try and remain positive when your body is forcing negative energy through you can be tough, but it can also be detrimental to your mental health. Pushing things out of your mind and bottling feelings up is known to be unhealthy, so to advance your mental wellbeing it is suggested that you allow yourself time for sadness, but always invest in activities that influence your positivity to emerge.

By Flo Saul
Jun 9, 2017