50 hidden meanings behind the most common dreams

Your dreams can say a lot about you and even your health. But dream interpretation can be tricky. During the day, you’re living a totally normal life, but by night your dreams may be filled with flying, get lost in strange houses, even being chased. Experts say these fantastical dream motifs can reveal a lot about your real life. “Most of us in the field of mental health today take an eclectic, or inclusive, approach to helping clients interpret their dreams, using many techniques rather than just relying on stock symbols,” says Arlene B. Englander LCSW, MBA. “There are certain dreams that tend to be frequently reported, however, and that may often pinpoint certain issues that the client is trying to work through on a subconscious or preconscious level.”

This a common dream for women to have, according to Elisa Robyn PhD, an academic dean and prosperity astrologer. “This is usually about having too much to deal with and feeling that you cannot let go,” she says. This is an especially common dream for women who have both children and ageing parents.

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According to Jungian therapist Cathy Lynn Pagano, this dream means we’re not able to digest what’s going on in our lives. “Teeth begin the digestion process, and when teeth fall out, it means the tools we usually use to understand and integrate things in our lives are no longer available or useful,” she says.

“It’s really about not being able to decide for yourself a clear direction in your life,” says fourth-generation psychic medium Linda Lauren. “You’re looking for an answer in empty rooms.”

“Usually this is about feeling vulnerable and unprepared or not up to a task,” Robyn said. “However, sometimes it can mean a sense of freedom and new beginnings. It depends on what happens in the dream.”

How does the dream make you feel? That may be the key to the dream interpretation here. “The feelings that are elicited may have to do with emotions [you] had then, which are recurring now, and exploring this can be very helpful,” Englander says.

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“You’re running from something you have to face,” Lauren says. “A lot of people dream like that because they feel persecuted by one person or they’re hiding from something they need to reveal. It means we’re fearful of exposing ourselves.”

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Robyn says these dreams often occur when you have to get up early for something like a flight. “It can also mean that we are anxious about an event and worried about how it will turn out, or if we should even attend,” she says.

Pagano says this means you’re about to change course. “Our cars take us to our goals, and when we dream of them breaking down, it means the way we’re trying to achieve our goals needs fixing,” she says. “But first, check and see if your actual car needs fixing!”

Lauren says this can happen when lucid dreaming (where you gain some control over the dream and may become aware you’re dreaming). “Lucid dreaming makes us feel as though we’re not attached to everything on Earth so we feel like we’re falling,” she says. “Basically it’s a dream of moving too quickly, feeling insecure.”