Dreaming about
clowns

Clowns were invented to make people laugh, yet a good share of the adults who dream about them wake up frightened. That split is the whole story of the clown in dreams. Dreaming about clowns usually points to something false behind a friendly face, a fear of being laughed at, or a side of you that's tired of behaving.

Which one fits depends on the clown. A cheerful clown at a birthday party, a sad one alone in an empty tent and one standing under a streetlight at midnight are three different dreams. How you felt (amused, embarrassed, hunted) and whether you were the clown yourself say the rest.

What dreaming about clowns means

A clown hides a real face under a painted one and gets away with things nobody else could. Those two facts are behind nearly every clown dream.

Something fake behind a smile

You read people through their faces, and a clown's face is painted to show one feeling all the time. So many people find clowns unsettling for that reason, and a clown in a dream often stands for someone whose friendliness you don't quite believe. It might be a colleague who's charming in meetings and cutting behind your back. Or a new partner who seems too good to be true, or a deal with a smiling salesperson. Ask who in your life wears a smile that doesn't reach their eyes.

Being laughed at

Clowns exist to be laughed at, and a dream clown can carry your fear of looking ridiculous. These dreams come before presentations, first dates and new jobs, but also after a moment of real embarrassment you keep replaying. If you were the clown, or if a clown was mocking you, the dream is probably about how you think others see you right now.

The one who's allowed to break the rules

Court jesters could say things to a king that would have cost anyone else their head. The clown is licensed foolishness, which makes it a good picture for the part of you that wants to drop the act and stop being sensible. If the clown in your dream was funny and free, you may simply need more play in your life.

Dreaming about clowns chasing or attacking you

A clown that chases or attacks you is a horror-film nightmare, and the reasons it frightens you are worth separating. One theory holds that threat dreams rehearse danger,^[1] and a clown makes a good rehearsal partner because you can't read its intentions. But in most of these dreams, what's chasing you is a person or situation that seemed harmless and turned out not to be. Did the clown look like anyone? And if being chased is a regular theme in your nights, the clown may just be this week's costume for it.

Dreaming about an evil clown

The evil clown owes a lot to popular culture. Stephen King's novel It (1986) gave the world Pennywise, and the American serial killer John Wayne Gacy performed at parties as "Pogo the Clown", which is part of why the image stuck. In 2016, reports of creepy clowns lurking near woods and schools spread across the US and Britain. In a dream, an evil clown usually points to betrayal, or to fear wearing a cheerful mask. And sometimes it's simply the film you watched last week.

Dreaming about a sad clown

The clown who cries under his makeup is an old figure. In the opera Pagliacci (1892) a clown performs comedy while his heart is breaking, and the comedian who's funny on stage and lonely off it is the same character. Dreaming about a sad clown often points to the gap between how you look and how you feel. Have you been the cheerful one at work or with friends while something hurts? The dream may be asking you to let someone see it.

Dreaming about being a clown

Finding yourself in a red nose and oversized shoes is usually about how you think you're coming across. If you were mortified, the dream reflects a fear of being seen as foolish, perhaps after a mistake or a moment of overconfidence. If you were enjoying it, it may point to a role you play (the class clown, the one who keeps everyone's spirits up) and whether you still want to play it. A mask or costume dream works in a similar way.

Dreaming about a clown laughing at you

A clown laughing in your face turns the usual order around, since now the fool is mocking you. It usually comes when you feel foolish about something, or suspect you've been taken in. It can also point to a habit of not taking yourself seriously enough, where you laugh things off before anyone else can.

Dreaming about a happy clown

A clown that makes you laugh, at a circus or a birthday party, tends to take you back to childhood and to simpler pleasures. It's one of the gentler clown dreams, but it isn't empty. It can show that you're ready to lighten up after a heavy stretch, or that you miss the person who used to make you laugh.

Dreaming about clowns according to Jung and Freud

Jung had a figure that clowns belong to, and Freud's idea of disguise suits a painted face.

Jung: the clown as trickster

Clowns belong to one of Jung's archetypes, the trickster, the fool and shape-shifter who turns things upside down.^[2] In a dream, a trickster clown can bring out what you've been too serious, or too polite, to let out. Read through his idea of the shadow (everything you keep out of sight), the clown mocking you can also be the part of you that's tired of being sensible, caught on its way out (our application).

Freud: a painted face over the one underneath

Freud's idea was that a dream shows a disguised wish, with a visible layer hiding a hidden one, which suits a face painted over a face.^[3] Applied to a clown dream (he didn't write about clowns), the painted smile is the part you remember and the question is what it covers: a person, a feeling, a wish. His method starts from the day before, and a film, a news story or a children's party is easy day residue for an evil clown. It also asks for your own associations with clowns before any symbol.

Other readings

Artemidorus, who wrote in Greek in the 2nd century, spent years collecting dreams, and what came after them, from the diviners of markets and festivals. He wrote that mimes and jesters in a dream mean deceit.^[4] It's the suspicion behind the page's first reading, a performer whose cheerfulness you can't check, and it was held long before the horror films.

Questions to ask about your clown dream

A clown can be a joke, a threat or a mirror. To find out which yours was, start here.

• Was the clown funny, sad or frightening?
• Did the clown look or act like anyone you know?
• Were you the clown, the audience, or the one being chased?
• Where in your life does someone smile while you feel uneasy?
• When did you last let yourself be silly?

Oniri asks what the clown did and how it left you feeling before reading the dream. Clown nightmares respond to the same tricks for fewer nightmares as any other bad dream, but if they come back week after week and ruin your sleep, bring them up with a doctor.