Dreaming about
ears

Ears are the part of the body we notice least until something goes wrong with them (or until someone flicks one), and the same is true in dreams. People rarely dream about their ears for no reason. When an ear turns up, it's usually bleeding, blocked, missing or full of a voice, and the dream is almost always about listening, whether that's something you need to hear, something you're refusing to hear, or what other people are saying about you.

What happened to the ear, and who was talking, decides the reading. A bleeding ear after an argument is a different dream from a stranger whispering on a crowded train, and your ear can also be dreaming for real. A noise in the room, an earbud left in or an ache coming on can easily slip into the story, so it's worth checking your actual ears before you read anything into the dream.

What dreaming about ears means

English is full of sayings about ears, and dreams use them freely. Lending an ear, being all ears, turning a deaf ear and having your ears burn all show up in one form or another.

Something you need to hear

Being "all ears" means listening with your whole attention. An ear that stood out in your dream, huge, sharp or pricked up like an animal's, is often about paying attention to something. It may be advice you've been half-ignoring or a feeling your body keeps sending. Or it could be a person who has been trying to tell you something for a while.

What people are saying about you

The belief that your ears burn when someone talks about you is old enough that the Roman writer Pliny mentions it. Burning, ringing or itching ears in a dream often point to worry about gossip, a review at work, or a family discussion you weren't part of. But it might be a group chat, which we all suspect of talking about us at some point. Ask who you think is talking, and what you're afraid they're saying.

Not wanting to listen

"Turning a deaf ear" and "in one ear and out the other" are about refusing to hear. If your ears were blocked, covered or gone in the dream, look for a message you've been shutting out. It might be criticism, a warning from a friend, or something your own body has been telling you. Is there a conversation you keep steering away from?

Dreaming about your ear bleeding

More people look up a bleeding ear than any other ear dream, and it's usually about words that hurt. Something you heard (a harsh comment, a row, bad news) did more damage than you showed at the time. If both ears bled, it can be about being surrounded by noise and conflict for too long, at home or at work, until it physically hurts to listen, like living next to someone screaming. And if you were the one shouting in the dream, ask whose ears you might have hurt lately.

Dreaming about losing an ear or having it cut off

Losing an ear is the starkest version of not hearing, and it can feel violent. In the Gospels, one of Jesus's followers cuts off a servant's ear with a sword in the garden on the night of the arrest, and Jesus touches the ear and heals it.^[4] Van Gogh's cut ear is the other famous one, from a winter of crisis in the south of France. In a dream, a missing ear often points to being cut off from information or from a conversation, or to someone silencing you. If it was healed or grew back, the dream may be about being able to listen again after a rift.

Dreaming about something crawling in your ear

Bugs in the ear are a common fear and a common dream. They point to something that has got inside your head and won't leave, like an intrusive thought, a remark that keeps replaying, or a rumor you can't stop thinking about. If you pulled it out, you're dealing with it. But if it went deeper, the thought may be bothering you more than you've admitted, and it's worth asking who put it there.

Dreaming about going deaf

Suddenly losing your hearing in a dream is about being cut off. Maybe nobody is listening to you, or you've stopped being able to listen to them, often in a relationship where the same argument has been had too many times. And if you were deaf and calm about it, the dream may be about needing quiet, a break from noise and other people's demands.

Dreaming about cleaning your ears

Cleaning your ears, or pulling out a lump of wax, is clearing the way to hear properly. It often comes when you're getting ready to listen to something you've avoided, like feedback, a family member's side of the story, or your own instincts. If the wax kept coming, there may be a lot you've blocked out.

Dreaming about someone whispering in your ear

A whisper is the most intimate way to talk, and a voice right in your ear can be loving or menacing. Which was it? If you knew the voice, the dream is often about that person's influence on you, advice you take, or pressure you feel. If you couldn't see who it was, it may be your own inner voice, the one that's easy to drown out during the day. Try to remember the words.

Dreaming about ears according to Jung and Freud

Ears aren't on either man's symbol list, but the voice that speaks into one is a Jungian matter and what you overheard is a Freudian one.

Jung on the voice in your ear

Jung's wise old man shows up in dreams as a doctor, priest, teacher, grandfather or some other authority,^[5] so a whisper of advice from an elder you can't see is that figure speaking, and the dream may be asking whether you'd take the same advice from a living person. A whisper that nags or jeers sounds more like Jung's shadow, whatever in yourself you'd prefer not to own.^[6]

Freud on what you overheard

Freud began with the day before,^[7] and for ears that means remarks: the comment you caught from the next room, the voicemail, the thing said in front of you as if you weren't there. His view of the dream as wish fulfilment gives the ear two likely ones, to hear something you're waiting for (an apology, a yes) or not to hear what you dread, and a blocked ear fits the second.

Other readings

Edgar Cayce, a psychic (1877 to 1945) from the United States who gave readings in a trance, hundreds of them on dreams, held that the body has its say in a dream as much as the mind and the spirit do,^[1] so a Cayce-style reading of an ear dream starts with the body: does your ear really hurt, ring or feel blocked? That's sensible on its own terms, because dreams do take in what's going on around you and in your body while you sleep.^[2] If something feels wrong when you wake, see a doctor rather than trust the dream.

The biblical and spiritual meaning of ears in dreams

The Gospels have two famous ears, one Jesus tells people to use and one he heals (more on that one above).

Ears to hear in the Gospels

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" is a line Jesus repeats after his parables, a call to listen properly to what's being said.^[3] In a spiritual reading, an ear dream can be that same call, an invitation to slow down and pay attention to something you've been hearing without taking in.

Questions to ask about your ear dream

Ears pick up so much while we sleep that it's worth separating the outside world from the dream. These questions help.

• Was there a real noise, pain or blockage when you woke up?
• What happened to the ear: bleeding, blocked, missing, whispered into?
• Who was speaking, and what did they say?
• What have you been avoiding hearing lately?
• Do you worry about what someone is saying about you?

When you share an ear dream with Oniri, include who was talking and what you heard, since a bleeding ear after a fight and a gentle whisper ask very different things of you.