If You Had a Dream of Someone, Is It Because They Think of You?

Last Updated on March 31, 2020 by Sloane Marie

If you had a dream of someone, is it because they think of you or something else? Each night, you keep having a dream about the same person. To stop these dreams, you have tried working out before bed so that you are too tired to dream. You have tried to think about other things as you fall asleep so that someone, anyone, else will show up in your dreams. Instead, the same person keeps showing up in your dream. Do your dreams of someone mean that they are thinking of you? Are your minds intricately linked in some weird, unusual way?

Enhance your understanding of your dreams by taking this time to learn how to interpret your dreams about relationships.

If You Had a Dream of Someone, Is It Because They Think of You?

Scientists believe that dreams are made by neurons firing in your mind. These neurons are thought to fire at random with memories and images that normally populate your mind. Your right brain is more active while you sleep. Once you wake up, your left brain kicks in and tries to make some type of story line to make sense of your dreams. Because of the way your mind works, you have more images and memories of people that you think about a lot or spend a lot of time around. According to this theory, you keep dreaming about the same person because you think about them a lot and not the other way around.

Many psychologists think that dreams can also show what is going on in your emotions and mind. If you are afraid of an upcoming test, you might have a dream that a monster is chasing you and you are unable to escape. In this case, the dream is just showing that you are afraid of something that you cannot escape from. Likewise, your dream may represent an emotion or memory that you think about a lot. This is especially true if you think about that thing right before bed. If you constantly think about your crush before bed, then you might have dreams about them.

Because of this psychological perspective, many people use their dreams to figure out what is going on in their subconscious mind. The dream may be able to show the types of thoughts or emotions that keep reoccurring in your mental state. Since you interact with people a lot in your regular life, people are a common fixture in your dreams. Your dreams will also tend to include the places, people and thought patterns that you frequently have in reality.

This doesn't entirely answer the question of, “If you had a dream of someone, is it because they think of you?” We're getting there. This idea actually stems from an old superstition. The superstition says that dreaming of someone means that you are thinking of you. In most cases, this is not true. The person appeared because you think about them a lot and not the other way around.

The reason why this superstition still exists is because of coincidences. Think for a moment about the people who commonly appear in your dreams. Often, these are people that you spend a lot of time with like your friends or family members. It only makes sense that your friends and family would be thinking about you sometimes. If you asked them after your dream if they thought of you during the previous day, there is an excellent chance that they would say yes. This does not mean that you dreamed about them because they were thinking about you. It only means that you dreamed about someone you are around a lot, and someone you care about is likely to think about you fairly often.

Testing Your Dreams

You can easily find out if this is true. Pick someone that you do not know and that does not know you. Studies show that you are more likely to dream about someone if you think about them right before falling asleep. Do this for several days or weeks. Sooner or later, you will have a dream with that person. Since you don't know them and they don't know you, it would be impossible for that person to think about you. The only reason you had the dream is because you deliberately put that person in your thoughts.

If you have a dream about someone, it is not because they think of you. It just shows that they are in your thoughts. Perhaps you have a crush on them, so they have an out-sized influence on your psyche. For some reason, that person is on your mind a lot.

In some cases, people appear in your dreams for a more unique reason. Perhaps you are terrified of a boss at your work. He is intimidating and yells at people who are in trouble. Because you are afraid of him, he may represent fear or intimidation in your dreams. He might not even represent himself or work. Your subconscious may just choose him to represent any situation you fear.

Likewise, people can symbolize positive feelings in your dream. If you always feel safe around your mother, you may dream about her when you are stressed out. Your subconscious wanted to feel loved and protected, so it gave you the image of your mother to hold on to.

While the people in your dreams often represent feelings, situations or experiences, they may also be random. Your mind is filled with the memories of everything you have ever done and everyone you have ever met. Because of this, someone that you rarely think about (or never think about) could suddenly appear in your dreams. It is unlikely that this person is thinking of you. In this type of scenario, the person probably just appeared at random.

There are many articles (some of which are on this site) that can help you analyze your dreams. Ultimately, you are probably the person who will be able to choose what your dream means the best. Look at what that person represents in your life and how you feel about them. Have you thought about them recently? Are you around them a lot? You probably did not dream of someone because they are thinking of you. Most likely, something else is going on within your psyche.