Dreaming about
water

Water shows up in dreams in many forms, from a glass on the table to the sea or a flood coming down the street. In nearly all of them it's about how you feel. Dreaming about water usually reflects your emotions, and the state of the water is the state of your mood. Calm, clear water points to a settled mind, but rough, muddy or rising water points to feelings you can't see through or can't hold back.

The other half of the reading is what you were doing with the water. Drinking it, swimming in it and being swept away by it are three very different dreams, even if the lake looks the same in all of them. Your life counts too, since a hard week, a new relationship or a holiday by the sea all leave a mark on the water you dream about.

What dreaming about water means

Water fills whatever holds it, hides what's underneath it and can carry you off, and dreams lean on all three habits. Most water dreams fall into one of four readings.

Your emotions, pictured

English already talks about feelings as if they were water, so we're flooded with relief, swept off our feet, drowning in work, or bottling things up until they spill over. In a dream, then, look at the surface first. A pond that's perfectly still tends to come when you've found some peace, and water that's hot or boiling usually shows anger close to the surface.

What's under the surface

You can't see far into deep water, and that's what makes it unsettling. Deep or dark water in a dream is often about the part of your mind you don't look into during the day, the memories and feelings you've left alone. This is the reading Jung made famous (more on him below). It fits best when you were peering down into the water, or diving in to find something.

Washing and starting over

Water is also how we get clean, and plenty of water dreams are about exactly that. A shower, a bath or a swim in clear water after a hard stretch often comes when you're ready to put something behind you (a breakup, a guilty feeling, a job you've left). Religions use water for the same thing, from baptism to washing before prayer, so the image is an old one.

Out of your depth

The last reading comes straight from the way we talk about stress. Being out of your depth, in over your head or just keeping your head above water all describe a life that's asking more than you can give. If the water in your dream was too deep to stand in, or kept rising, think about where you're struggling to keep up.

Dreaming about a water park

A water park is the most searched water dream, which makes more sense once you think about what a water park is. It's water made safe and fun, so a dream set there is usually about play, letting go, and enjoying your feelings for once. It often turns up after a holiday or while you're craving one, because our dreams pick up what we've been doing and wanting.^[1]

Water slides add speed to the picture, and a slide you loved is about trusting the ride (a new relationship, say, or a project that's moving fast). But a slide that was too steep, too dark or never seemed to end is a situation that started out as fun and now feels out of your hands.

Dreaming about a flood

A flood is the water dream that most often feels like a nightmare. It's a feeling or a problem that has burst its banks, more than you can hold and coming in faster than you can deal with it. Look at where the water came from. A river that rose slowly is pressure that has been building for a while, and a wall of water out of nowhere is a shock (bad news, a loss, a sudden change).

Where you were during the flood matters as much as the water. Flood water inside your home is usually about family or private life. Watching it rise from a roof or a hill means you've kept yourself safe so far, but you may feel cut off from the people still down there. And if you were pulling others out of the water, the dream may be about how much you carry for everyone else.

Dreaming about muddy or dirty water

Muddy water hides what's in it and how deep it goes, and that's the usual reading. It points to confused feelings, a situation that isn't clear, or a decision you can't think straight about. Dirty water can also be about something that feels unhealthy, like a relationship, a workplace or a habit you know isn't good for you.

Dreaming about clear water

Clear water is the good news of water dreams. You can see right to the bottom, which tends to mean you're seeing a situation clearly or feel at peace with it. And if you were swimming in it, or it was clean enough to drink, the dream often comes as a hard time starts to settle.

Dreaming about drinking water

Drinking water in a dream is often about need, and sometimes it's simply thirst, since a dry mouth at night can slip into a dream. If you weren't thirsty, ask what you've been missing lately. Is it rest, or affection? Is it someone's attention, or just a change of scene? Drinking dirty water is about taking in something that's bad for you, such as gossip, a draining friendship, or stress you've swallowed without a word.

Dreaming about driving into water

Driving into water puts two strong dream images together, the car and the lake. The car is how you steer your life and the water is feeling, so leaving the road for a river is often about emotion taking over where you thought you were in control. It comes up when a decision you made with your head starts to feel very personal, or when stress builds quietly until it swallows the plan. If you got out of the car and swam, the dream is as much about your ability to get yourself out as about the trouble.

Dreaming about falling into water

Falling into water is about being caught off guard, dropped into a feeling or a situation you didn't choose. If you sank and couldn't breathe, the dream is closer to drowning, which usually means a feeling or a responsibility has got too heavy. If you came up and swam, it's about finding your feet in something you landed in suddenly. A fall into a swimming pool is gentler than a fall into the sea, because a pool has edges and you know how deep it is.

Dreaming about water leaking from the ceiling

A leak from the ceiling is water getting in where it shouldn't, from above and usually slowly. In a dream that's a worry you thought was sealed off, dripping into everyday life, or a feeling you've kept upstairs and out of sight that has started to come through. Water dripping into your bedroom is often about a relationship. A leak you keep catching in buckets is a problem you handle day to day while the cause stays where it is.

Dreaming about snakes in water

A snake in the water is hard to see until it's close, which is why this dream feels so tense. It puts two hidden things together, buried feelings and a threat you can't make out, and it often points to a fear or a person you sense is there before you can name them. There's more on snakes on their own page, including the snake that chases you.

Dreaming about walking on water

Walking on water is the most confident water dream. You're on top of your feelings, quite literally, and crossing something that should have swallowed you. Many people know the image from the Gospels, where Jesus walks on the sea and Peter manages a few steps before he doubts and starts to sink.^[2] If you started to sink in your dream too, ask what made you look down.

Dreaming about water according to Jung and Freud

Every major school of dream interpretation has something to say about water, and Jung and Freud don't agree.

Jung: water and the unconscious

For Jung, no picture of the unconscious turns up in dreams more often than water.^[3] His essay on the mother archetype puts the sea and still waters on its list of mother symbols, alongside the earth, a spring and a well. Read his way, a dream of a lake or the sea is about what lies under your conscious life and what it's asking of you. But he distrusted fixed dream meanings, so he'd start with what water means to you personally.^[4]

Freud: water and birth

Freud took water dreams in a different direction, toward birth. In The Interpretation of Dreams a birth is shown through water (you fall in, or you climb out), so being pulled out of a lake could be a dream about being born, or about a baby on the way.^[5] He'd also look at the day before, because yesterday's swim or a bath before bed can supply the picture (what he called the day residue).

Other readings

Ernest Hartmann, a Tufts psychiatrist who ran a sleep disorders center and was the first editor of the journal Dreaming, noticed that people who had just been through a trauma very often dreamed of being swept away by a huge wave. The dream didn't replay what happened, whether an attack, the killing of a friend or a narrow escape from a burning house. It pictured the feeling: "I am terrified. I am overwhelmed."^[6]

The spiritual meaning of water in dreams

The Talmud and one hadith each read a stretch of running water in a dream, and neither is a rule for yours.

Rivers in the Talmud

A river in a dream is a sign of peace in the Talmud, rabbinic Judaism's central text, which cites Isaiah's promise to extend peace "like a river". It also counts the river with the images that could turn out well or badly, so the rabbis advise saying the good verse before the bad one can get there first, and a well gets three readings (peace, Torah, or life itself).^[7]

The spring in a hadith

In the Sunni collection Sahih al-Bukhari, which records the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, Umm al-Ala, a woman among his followers, dreams of a flowing spring for a man who has died, and the Prophet says it is his good deeds, still running for him.^[8]

Questions to ask about your water dream

Two people can dream of the same lake and need opposite readings, so check a few details before you decide what yours meant.

• Was the water clear or murky, calm or moving?
• Were you in it, on it, beside it, or drinking it?
• Did it feel welcoming, or did it threaten you?
• Where did the water come from, and was it rising?
• What feeling have you been holding back lately?

Oniri's interpreter asks about details like these first, then reads your water dream with what you told it. If dreams of floods or drowning keep waking you in a panic, these tips for fewer nightmares are a good start, and a doctor can help if they don't ease.