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Blood in dreams: what it can mean

  • Body
  • Fear and danger

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The short answer

Blood is a strong, alarming dream image. It often stands for hurt, exhaustion or something vital being lost, and sometimes for family ties. It does not predict injury.

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Three ways to read it

Psychology and research

Research

Blood draws attention in a dream the same way it does awake, so it tends to appear when feelings are intense. A continuity reading asks what is draining you or where you feel wounded: a conflict, overwork, a loss. Blood can also relate to family, as in blood relatives, or to guilt, as in blood on your hands. Violent or distressing dreams tend to rise with stress and after frightening experiences.

Folk tradition

Tradition, not science

Tradition: American popular dream books, around 1900

Dream books around 1900 read blood mainly as a warning, for example of unfriendly people or disappointments. We report this as tradition, not a forecast.

Questions to ask yourself

  1. Whose blood was it, and was anyone hurt?
  2. What in your life is draining your energy right now?
  3. Is there a family matter or a feeling of guilt on your mind?

Related symbols

Sources

Every reading on this page comes from these works. Page references have not all been checked yet; those still waiting are marked.

  1. G. William Domhoff (2001). A New Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams. Dreaming 11(1): 13-33.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: pp. 13-33 (dreams as simulations of personal concerns) (reference not yet checked)

    Dreams as embodied simulations of personal concerns (the continuity view). The backbone of our psychology lens.

  2. Ross Levin, Tore A. Nielsen (2007). Disturbed dreaming, posttraumatic stress disorder, and affect distress: A review and neurocognitive model. Psychological Bulletin 133(3): 482-528.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: pp. 482-528 (distressing dreams and emotional distress) (reference not yet checked)

    Nightmares and distressing dreams in relation to fear processing and emotional distress.

  3. Gustavus Hindman Miller (1901). What's in a Dream (later reissued as Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted).

    public domain

    • Cited at: entry: Blood (reference not yet checked)

    An American popular dream dictionary. Its entries are written as omens ("foretells"); we only report how people once read a symbol, never as a forecast.