Dreaming about
vampires

The vampire of films, with the cape, the castle and the accent, comes mostly from one book, Bram Stoker's Dracula. The older vampire of Eastern European folklore was a dead villager who came back at night to feed on his own family. Both versions are about someone who takes your life from you a little at a time. So dreaming about vampires usually points to someone or something draining you, to an attraction that feels dangerous, or to an old problem that refuses to stay buried.

The bite, and who gave it, is where to start. A stranger at the window, a friend whose teeth find your neck and your own reflection gone from the mirror are very different dreams. And notice whether the fear in the dream came with something else, because many people wake from vampire dreams both frightened and strangely excited.

What dreaming about vampires means

A vampire lives on other people's blood, can't stand daylight, and only enters a house when invited. Each of those rules gives the dream a reading.

Someone who drains you

"Energy vampire" is how people describe a friend, a parent or a colleague who leaves them exhausted after every conversation. If a vampire fed on you in the dream, look for whoever takes more than they give. It might be someone who only calls when they need something, a partner whose moods you manage, or a job that asks for your evenings and weekends. English already has "bleeding you dry" and "bloodsucker" for this, and the dream turns the phrase into a scene.

Desire with danger

Since the Victorian novels, the vampire has been a seducer, and the bite on the neck is as much a kiss as an attack. A vampire dream that felt frightening and exciting at once is often about desire you don't trust. It could be someone you're drawn to who isn't good for you, or a wish to let go of control, felt from a safe distance.

A hunger of your own

Vampires never stop being hungry. If you were the vampire, or envied one, the dream may be about a need you feel uneasy about, for attention, love or reassurance. It doesn't make you a bad person, and it often comes when you've been running on empty and leaning on someone else to fill you up.

Something that won't stay dead

The undead keep climbing out of their graves, and a vampire dream can be about a problem you thought you'd buried, like an ex who keeps getting in touch, an old debt, or a family conflict that comes back every holiday. If the vampire was someone from your past, that's likely what the dream is about.

The folklore rules as clues

Vampires cast no reflection, which fits a dream about losing your sense of who you are. They sleep by day and live at night, like a secret life that can't survive being seen. And they can be stopped with garlic, crosses and sunlight, which are ordinary things, the way a draining relationship can sometimes end with a few ordinary words.

Dreaming about being bitten by a vampire

The bite is the heart of every vampire dream, the moment someone takes something from you (energy, time, money, trust), and it's often a person you let close. A bite you fought is about being used against your will, while one you welcomed is about giving yourself away, and perhaps enjoying it more than you'd admit. Where you were bitten counts too, since the neck is about intimacy and a bite on the wrist or hand is closer to work and money.

Dreaming about becoming a vampire

Turning into a vampire is changing into something you're afraid of becoming. It often comes after you've caught yourself taking from others, leaning too hard on a friend or being cold when you used to be warm. It can also come during an illness or a depression, when you can't quite recognize yourself. And if you fought the change, part of you is still resisting it.

Dreaming about a vampire chasing you

A vampire on your trail is someone you can't shake, a person who keeps finding ways to get to you. It's often about a draining relationship you're trying to leave but can't quite escape, or a craving that follows you. In the stories you're safe once the sun comes up, so ask what daylight would be in your life, the moment you'd finally say it out loud.

Dreaming about killing a vampire

Stakes, garlic, crosses and sunlight are the old weapons, and using one in a dream is cutting off a drain on your life. It often comes when you've decided to end a friendship, quit a job or break a habit that was feeding on you. If you used sunlight, the dream is about exposure, bringing something into the open. But if it kept coming back, the drain is stubborn and you may need help to end it.

Dreaming about a vampire in your house

In the old stories, a vampire can't cross your threshold unless you invite it in. A vampire inside your home is something you let into your life yourself, like a friend you took in, a partner you moved in with too fast, or a habit that started small. If it was still at the window asking to come in, you have time to say no.

Dreaming about kissing a vampire

A kiss from a vampire, or falling for one, is the most romantic version of the dream and often the most honest. It's about loving someone who costs you something, and knowing it, or the thrill of an attraction you'd never choose in daylight. The dream doesn't tell you to act on it, only shows you how strong the pull is.

Dreaming about vampires according to Jung and Freud

A vampire feeds at night, hides from daylight and waits to be invited in, and each of those habits gives the two founders of dream analysis something to work on.

Jung: the shadow that has to be invited in

The shadow, for Jung, is whatever you've pushed out of your own sight, and in dreams it often arrives as a pursuer or an intruder of your own sex.^[1] A vampire lives where daylight doesn't reach and can't come in until it's asked, so on our application of his idea it's a fair picture of something you've let over your threshold without admitting it, like a resentment you keep feeding. If the vampire had a face you knew, ask what that person takes that you'd secretly like to take too.

Freud: a bite that hides a wish

The method is Freud's and the vampire reading is ours. He held that a dream is built partly from the day before, so look first for the series you've been watching or the friend who left you drained last night.^[2] Then comes his central idea, that a dream disguises a wish.^[2] A bite you half welcomed is a good candidate, because an attack is a form in which wanting to be wanted, held or even overpowered can get past the part of you that would object.

Other readings

Antti Revonsuo, a professor of psychology at the University of Turku who argues that dreams rehearse danger, and a colleague went through 592 dream reports from Finnish students. The threats were mostly realistic and personal, aimed at the dreamer or someone close, and not the movie-style menaces that include vampires and aliens.^[3] So when a vampire does turn up, it's fair to ask what ordinary threat it's standing in for.

Questions to ask about your vampire dream

If you've been watching a vampire series, it may simply be that, since dreams take from what you do in the day.^[4] Otherwise, try these.

• Who was the vampire, and did they remind you of someone?
• Did you get bitten, and did you fight it or let it happen?
• Were you afraid, attracted, or both?
• Who or what in your life leaves you feeling drained?
• What did you let into your life that you now regret inviting in?

Oniri asks you about the vampire first, who it was and how the bite felt, because a dream about a draining job and a dream about a forbidden crush can look identical from the outside. If vampire nightmares keep you awake, there are simple ways to have fewer of them.