What Does It Mean When You Dream About Someone?

If you've ever had a dream about someone unexpected, such as an ex, co-worker, or crush, you might wonder why they might appear in your dreams. While dreams are often centered on daytime thoughts and concerns, they can also reflect unconscious thoughts or feelings about others. In other cases, dreams symbolically represent something else entirely.

Understanding what dreaming about another person means can provide insight into things you may be thinking or worrying about, potentially without even realizing it. Read on to start to decode your dreams and what they might say about you.

Dreaming About Someone Can Reveal Unconscious Feelings

The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud played a significant role in connecting dream interpretation to the field of psychology. Freud suggested that dreams are one way to access the unconscious mind, which he described as a vast reservoir of thoughts, feelings, and desires hidden from conscious awareness.

Even though the contents of the unconscious are not directly accessible, Freud still believed that these thoughts, memories, and desires could still have an influence on behavior. Freud also believed the unconscious could be explored through processes such as dream analysis, free association, hypnosis, Freudian slips, and psychoanalysis.

Freud believed that bringing unconscious information to light could help alleviate psychological distress. If dreaming about someone has left you upset, distressed, or just plain baffled, exploring your dream's meaning may help you make sense of what it might mean.

Breaking Down Your Dreams of Someone Else

According to Jesse Lyon, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Lyon Counseling in Casselberry, Florida, before we can understand what it means to dream about someone, it is essential to first understand that dreams communicate information on two different levels. These levels are known as the manifest content and the latent content.

Manifest Content of Dreams

The manifest content of a dream refers to the actual events and images that take place within the dream. This is the imagery and storyline that you remember upon waking. If you dream about someone, the manifest content would be the details about that individual, their appearance, the events that take place, and the interactions you have within the dream.

"Manifest content is very literal and will communicate with you directly about a problem you have or situation you experienced," Lyon explains. "For example, you might dream about getting into an argument with your romantic partner because you are currently experiencing conflict in your relationship; this is pretty straightforward dream processing."

Another example might be having a dream about attending a concert with a close friend you haven’t seen in a long time. The manifest content would be the events, your friend's words and reactions, and the other sensory and perceptual elements you experience as a dreamer.

Latent Content of Dreams

The latent content of a dream, Lyon notes, is much more personal and emotional. This involves the subconscious meaning of the dream, or what dream interpreters would say is the hidden meaning behind your dream. In the previous example of arguing with a partner, Lyon explains, it might mean that the person is struggling with feeling unworthy of their partner’s love.

Dreaming about a friend you haven't seen in years might symbolically represent a subconscious yearning for reconnection or a desire to find closure for unresolved feelings. Or it might indicate a broader desire for more social connection and companionship in general.

If You Dream About Romance and Relationships

What does it mean if you dream about your crush or about dating someone? Dreaming about a crush might be about the obvious meaning—you are interested in being with them romantically. However, Lyon notes, that isn't necessarily the whole story.

Because dreams have manifest (or literal) content and latent (or more symbolic) meanings, it is essential to consider both. The manifest content of your dreams might reveal deeper, subconscious meanings that are worth exploring, particularly if you have a romantic dream about someone who isn’t necessarily a potential romantic partner (such as one of a friend or boss).

"Romantic involvement is all about connection," Lyon explains. "So, if you are on a date, or even having sex with someone you would not expect, that person symbolizes an area of your life that you need to connect with more deeply."

What Dreaming About Someone Can Tell Us

Dreams can provide insights into our subconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and fears. They can also offer a perspective that can help deepen your relationships in ways that support connection and mental well-being.

Lyon notes it is important to remember that all the roles we play in life act as characters that live inside our minds. The characters we play (such as parent, partner, friend, or colleague) make up the complete picture of who we are as individuals.

"By learning to understand and accept all of the different characters that live inside of us, we become more complete as a person and can then love others with greater empathy and understanding," Lyon says.

Dream Interpretation Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

It is important to remember that dream interpretation is highly personal. The specific meaning of someone appearing in a dream depends on factors that are unique to you. Examining your dreams and trying to understand their meanings, both literal and symbolic, can give you greater insights into your own thoughts, emotions, and relationships.

"That's the power of dreams!" Lyon says. "To help us grow and understand ourselves in ways that we could never do while awake and, from these insights, find peace within ourselves and carry that peace to others."