Kissing dream meaning

Dreaming about
kissing

The complete overview of what science, psychology, and spirituality say about this dream. Drawn from Oniri data and the classic works of dream psychology.

Popularity

81/100

Appears in 1 in 40 dreams

Nightmares

Below average

of dreams about kissing are nightmares

Gender differences

1.8×

more common for women

1 in 371 in 67

Lucid dreams

1.8× the average

15%

of dreams about kissing are lucid

A kiss is one of the few gestures that means something different in every relationship, a greeting between friends in some countries, a promise between partners, a goodbye at an airport. Dreaming about kissing someone usually points to a wish for closeness with that person, or to something in them you'd like more of in your own life. It's about romance less often than people fear, and a kiss with a friend or a boss tends to be about connection or admiration.

Who you kissed and how it felt are what decide it. Kissing your partner is a different dream from kissing a stranger, and both differ from a kiss with someone you'd never consider in waking life. Your feelings on waking matter just as much, because warmth, guilt, embarrassment and a strange longing for someone you haven't thought of in years all lead to different readings.

The dream dictionary

Dreaming about kissing someone usually points to a wish for closeness, or to a quality in that person you'd like more of in your own life. It isn't always about attraction, and a kiss with a friend, a boss or a stranger is more often about connection or admiration than romance.

Emotional profile

The emotions usually associated with dreaming about kissing.

Emotion families

Compared with the average dream

Joy+50%

Love+73%

Peace+12%

Unease+0%

Fear−12%

Anger−14%

Sadness−10%

Emotions that stand out

Lust5.6×Desire4.8×Love3.5×

Related dream symbols

Other symbols that often appear together with kissing in dreams.

ThemesLoveDreaming about love is usually about a feeling you want more of in your life, or a quality you're drawn to in the person you fell for, more than about that person themselves.

PeopleYour exDreaming about your ex usually means something from that relationship is still being worked through, like a feeling, a lesson or a hurt, more than that you want them back.

ThemesSexDreaming about sex is one of the most common dreams there is, and it's often just desire, the body doing what it does during sleep.

ActionsDancingDreaming about dancing usually points to freedom, pleasure or attraction, a part of you that wants to move without being watched or judged.

What dreaming about kissing means

A kiss in a dream is two people closing the distance between them. So most readings are about distance of some kind, how close you are to someone, or how close you'd like to be to what they stand for, and these come up most often.

A wish for closeness

The simplest reading is the one people expect. If you kissed a partner, a crush or someone you're drawn to, the dream may be about wanting more love and intimacy, or about feeling it and being glad. With a partner, a tender kiss can come when things are good. But a desperate one, or one they pulled away from, tends to come when you feel some distance between you.

A quality you admire

Kissing someone you have no interest in romantically is usually about what they're like. A friend who's confident, a colleague who's calm under pressure or a celebrity whose life looks free can turn up in a kiss because the dream is drawing you toward their traits. The useful question is what you'd say first if you had to describe that person, since that's often what you want more of.

Connection or making peace

Some dream kisses are about reconciling. Kissing someone you've argued with, or a relative you've drifted from, can mean you want to make up, or that some part of you already has. A kiss on the cheek or the hand is especially like this (closer to respect and affection than desire).

Dreaming about kissing someone you know

When the person is someone in your daily life, start with the simplest explanation. Our dreams use the people we see most and think about most,^[1] so a kiss with a coworker you spend forty hours a week beside may just mean they're on your mind. If the kiss felt charged, it may be attraction you hadn't named (the dream equivalent of flirting with an idea). And if it felt warm but not romantic, it's more likely about trust or a closeness you value.

Dreaming about kissing a stranger

A kiss from someone you've never met is about something new coming into your life, or a side of yourself you haven't met yet. What was the stranger like, and how did you feel with them? Those two answers say more than the kiss.

Dreaming about kissing someone else while in a relationship

This dream leaves many people feeling guilty, and it's far more common than they'd guess. It isn't cheating and it doesn't predict cheating. It usually points to a need you're short of right now (excitement, attention, novelty or simply being seen), and the other person is just the face the dream gave it. If your partner was the one kissing someone else, that's the cheating dream, which has its own guide.

Dreaming about your ex kissing you

An ex kissing you tends to bring a jolt of old feeling. It doesn't mean you want them back. More often it's about what that relationship gave you (being wanted, a particular kind of fun, the person you were then). Or it's about something unresolved that a new relationship or a reminder has stirred up. If you kissed back happily, ask what you miss. If you pushed them away, the dream may be showing you've moved on further than you knew.

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Dreaming about kissing your crush

Kissing someone you like in waking life is usually the dream doing what it looks like it's doing, rehearsing a wish. It can feel so real that you're awkward around them the next day. Enjoy it, but don't read it as a sign of how they feel, since the dream only knows your side. If the kiss went badly, it's often nerves about rejection more than any message about them.

Dreaming about kissing someone of the same sex

A same-sex kiss in a dream says nothing fixed about your orientation, and plenty of straight people have these dreams. It's usually about closeness, admiration or a quality you see in that person, the same as any kiss with a friend. If it does connect with feelings you've been thinking about, the dream is one more thing to listen to, not a verdict.

Dreaming about kissing according to Jung and Freud

A kiss is the one dream scene where the other person comes as close as they can, and each man has a way of asking who that person is.

Jung: the stranger who kisses you

In Jung's idea of the anima and animus, a figure of the other sex in a dream often stands for a hidden part of the dreamer.^[2] A kiss closes the distance to that figure, so the stranger who kisses you may be a side of yourself you've kept at arm's length, such as softness, boldness or play. That's his idea applied to a kiss, and he'd want your own associations to the stranger first.

Freud: whose mouth, and which day

For Freud a dream grants a wish in disguise, and the dreamer's own associations come before any symbol.^[3] Applied to a kiss, the wish may be plain desire, but the disguise often sits in who did the kissing, since the coworker may be standing in for someone else. A kiss is also easy to stitch from the day before, from a look, a song, a line in a film, and then no wish is needed at all.

The biblical and spiritual meaning of kissing in dreams

Old stories give a kiss two very different jobs, reconciling people and betraying them.

Kisses in the Bible

When Jacob comes home after years of fearing his brother Esau, Esau runs to meet him, embraces him and kisses him, and they both weep.^[4] The most famous kiss in the Bible isn't a loving one, though. Judas greets Jesus with a kiss to show the soldiers who to arrest, and Jesus asks him, "betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?"^[5] If a kiss in your dream felt false or cold, it may be about someone whose warmth you don't quite trust, and if it felt like coming home, the first story is the nearer one.

Kisses in fairy tales

The kiss that breaks a spell is rarer in the old stories than films have made it seem. In the Grimms' version of the frog prince, the princess throws the frog against the wall. Snow White, in their telling, wakes when the servants carrying her coffin stumble and the piece of apple falls from her throat, a useful reminder that a dream kiss doesn't have to be the moment everything changes.

Questions to ask about your kissing dream

The person and the feeling are what you need to remember from a kiss dream, so start there. Then go through these.

Who did you kiss, and what do they mean to you?
Who started it, and did either of you pull away?
How did you feel during the kiss, and after waking?
What quality would you use to describe that person?
Where in your life do you want more closeness right now?

Oniri reads a kiss in the context you give it, the person and the feeling included, which is why it starts with questions like these.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean when you dream of kissing someone?

It usually means you want to be closer to that person, or that you admire something in them and want more of it in yourself. With a partner or a crush it can simply be affection or desire. With a friend, a coworker or someone you'd never date, it's more often about a connection or a quality than about romance.

Does dreaming about kissing someone mean I like them?

Not necessarily. Dreams borrow the people you see often, so a kiss with a coworker can just mean you spend a lot of time together. If you woke up thinking about them all day, though, the dream may have put a name on something you already felt.

Is it cheating to dream about kissing someone else?

No. A dream isn't something you do, and dreams of kissing someone else are very common in happy relationships. They're usually about a need, novelty, attention or excitement, more than the other person. The post on dreams about a partner cheating covers the flip side.

What is the spiritual meaning of kissing a stranger in a dream?

Many spiritual readings treat a stranger's kiss as meeting a part of yourself you don't know yet, which is close to how Jung read figures of the other sex in dreams. Whatever tradition you follow, it's a dream about connection and something new, not a sign of a particular person coming.

Quick Analysis

Your dream seems to reflect feelings of fear, paranoia, and trust issues, particularly around friends and social situations. Running around the restaurant could symbolise an attempt to escape or avoid situations where you feel threatened or uncomfortable. The presence of your family and boyfriend may point to how much their support and protection matter to you.

The moment you confronted the girl who took your money and found common ground in the same bands suggests a desire for resolution, and a hope that conflict can give way to understanding.

Questions

In the dream you were constantly moving, running through the restaurant, never quite settling anywhere. When you woke up, did that restlessness feel familiar to anything happening in your life right now?

Yeah, I’ve been job-hunting for two months and it feels like I can never switch off or relax.

93/1000

You confronted the girl who took your money, and yet you discovered you liked the same bands. Is there someone you’re in conflict with who you also feel an unexpected closeness to?

My older sister. We argue about everything, but she’s also the only one who really gets me.

91/1000

Your family and your boyfriend appeared as protectors in the dream. Right now, do you feel able to lean on them, or is their support something you find yourself missing?

Mostly yes, though I haven’t actually told them how stressed I’ve been lately.

78/1000