Dreaming about
a serial killer

True crime is one of the most popular genres there is, and plenty of people fall asleep to a podcast about a murderer and then meet one in their sleep. Dreaming about a serial killer is frightening, but it's almost never about a real killer and it's not a warning. It usually points to a threat that keeps coming back, a person or situation that does harm over and over, or a general feeling that you aren't safe.

What happened, and who you were, change the reading a great deal. Being hunted is a different dream from hiding, watching or being the killer yourself. And the week you've had (stress at work, a frightening news story, a series you can't stop watching) often explains more than any symbol.

What dreaming about a serial killer means

A serial killer is defined by repetition, harm that comes back again and again. That's what sets these dreams apart from other nightmares.

Something that keeps coming back

The "serial" part is worth taking seriously. If the dream killer had struck before, or kept returning, look for a problem in your life with the same pattern: a person who keeps letting you down, a debt that keeps growing, a habit you keep slipping back into. The dream gives it the scariest face it can find.

Feeling unsafe

Some serial killer dreams are less about one thing and more about a general sense of danger. They often come during stressful stretches, after a break-in nearby, or when you're living somewhere new. In large studies of dream content, the characters who attack dreamers are most often unknown men,^[3] and the serial killer is that figure at its most extreme.

A rehearsal for danger

One theory of dreaming, the threat simulation theory, argues that dreams evolved partly to rehearse dangers so we react faster when we meet them.^[1] On that view a killer in your dream is your brain running a fire drill. Nobody has proved it, though it would explain why these dreams cluster in stressful weeks and how they tend to end with you escaping or waking.

Dreaming about being chased by a serial killer

Chase dreams top every list of typical dreams, and 81.5% of the students in one survey of over a thousand had had one.^[2] A serial killer is simply the most frightening pursuer the mind can cast. As with any chase dream, the question is what you're running from. Did you know where you were going, or only that you had to get away?

Dreaming about being a serial killer

Waking up from a dream where you were the killer can be deeply upsetting, but it isn't a hidden wish or a warning about your character. Dreams put us in roles we'd never choose. Being the killer often points to anger you aren't expressing, or to a wish to be rid of something that keeps coming back, like an obligation, a person or a role you're tired of. See also the page on killing someone.

Dreaming about a serial killer in your house

A killer inside your home means the threat has reached the place that should be safest. That usually points to a problem that has come close, into your family, your relationship or your own head. If you were trying to lock doors that wouldn't lock, look for where your boundaries feel weak right now.

Dreaming about hiding from a serial killer

Hiding in a wardrobe or under a bed while footsteps come closer is the dream of avoidance. You know the danger is there and you're hoping it passes without finding you. Ask what you've been avoiding, a conversation, a bill, a diagnosis, and whether hiding is still working.

Dreaming about a serial killer according to Jung and Freud

Both men's ideas bend toward the pursuer, and a serial killer is the pursuer at full volume.

Jung: the shadow with a knife

Jung called the side of us we'd rather not see the shadow, and dreams like to give it a body, often a stranger who hunts you or breaks in, of the dreamer's own sex.^[5] A killer who stalks a house or a car park is that figure at its most extreme, and on this reading he says nothing about what you'd do. What he holds is what you've disowned, and for most people that is far more ordinary than a murderer: anger swallowed for years, a hard no never said out loud. Dreaming you were the killer is the same figure seen from the inside.

Freud: leftovers of the day

Freud called the leftovers of the day that a dream builds from day residue, and a serial killer dream often has an unusually clear set: the episode you fell asleep to, the news story, the film everyone was talking about.^[6] Later studies found that dreams follow what people spend their days on.^[4] In his account the leftovers are only raw material, with a wish underneath, and a nightmare is the dream hardest to fit to a wish, so the use here is narrow. Ask what the killer would remove if he won, whether the person who keeps letting you down, the habit or the role. A wish to be rid of something that keeps coming back is the one the "serial" reading already points at.

Questions to ask about your serial killer dream

Some questions help separate the dream from the fear it caused.

• Did you see the killer's face, and did they remind you of anyone?
• Were you running, hiding, watching or the killer yourself?
• What did you watch, read or listen to in the evening before?
• What in your life keeps coming back no matter how often you deal with it?

If these nightmares keep coming and wrecking your sleep, our guide to fewer nightmares is a good place to start, and a doctor can help too. Oniri can also help you spot the pattern, by asking what was happening around each one.