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Cockroach in dreams: what it can mean

  • Animals
  • Fear and danger
  • Places

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The short answer

Cockroaches bring disgust and the sense that something keeps surviving no matter what. Many dreamers connect them with a problem they cannot clean away, or with a space that no longer feels like theirs.

Your dream is not everyone's

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Three ways to read it

Psychology and research

Research

Insects are among the typical dream themes people report, and disgust is one of the emotions researchers code in dream reports. The continuity view reads the feeling as the link to waking life: something persistent, unwanted or hidden in the corners. It can also be literal, since a real infestation or a new home easily shows up at night.

Questions to ask yourself

  1. What problem in your life keeps coming back after you think it is gone?
  2. Where were the cockroaches, and whose space was it?
  3. What would it take to feel clean or settled again?

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. Tore A. Nielsen, Antonio L. Zadra, Valérie Simard, Sébastien Saucier, Philippe Stenstrom, Carlyle Smith, Don Kuiken (2003). The typical dreams of Canadian university students. Dreaming 13(4): 211-235.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: typical dreams questionnaire, results (reference not yet checked)

    Survey of how many people report having had common dream themes (being chased, falling, teeth, flying, exams, nakedness and others) at least once.

  2. Calvin S. Hall, Robert L. Van de Castle (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: coding categories: animals and emotions (reference not yet checked)

    The standard coding system for dream content (characters, social interactions, misfortunes, emotions, settings, objects) and its normative sample.

  3. 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.