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Flying in dreams: what it can mean

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The short answer

Flying dreams are often joyful and sometimes shaky. They tend to accompany feelings of freedom, confidence or escape, and they are one of the most common ways people become aware they are dreaming.

Your dream is not everyone's

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Three ways to read it

Psychology and research

Research

Flying is one of the typical dreams many people report, and it is often described as among the most pleasant. A continuity reading connects it with freedom, relief or a sense of rising above a situation, while struggling to stay up or flying too low can mirror effort and self-doubt. Flying dreams are also associated with lucid dreaming, when people realise they are dreaming and start steering the dream.

Classic texts

History

Artemidorus gave flying a long discussion and did not treat it as simply good: flying high and with ease could be favourable, especially for those hoping for freedom or travel, while the same dream could warn others against overreaching. Freud later grouped flying with falling among the typical dreams and linked it to childhood play.

Questions to ask yourself

  1. What did it feel like to fly: free, frightening, effortless, hard work?
  2. What would you like to rise above, or get away from, right now?
  3. Where in your life do you feel more capable than you usually admit?

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. 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.

  3. Artemidorus of Daldis (1644). The Interpretation of Dreams (Oneirocritica), in five books, translated by Robert Wood. London.

    first published 2nd century CE

    public domain

    • Cited at: Book II, on flying (reference not yet checked)

    Greek dream manual from the Roman era. We paraphrase the public-domain Wood translation (1644). Modern translations (White 1975, Harris-McCoy 2012, Hammond 2020) are copyrighted and only cited.

  4. Sigmund Freud (1913). The Interpretation of Dreams, translated by A. A. Brill. New York: Macmillan.

    first published 1900

    public domain

    • Cited at: Ch. V, section D, typical dreams (dreams of flying and falling) (reference not yet checked)

    First English translation, of the third German edition. Public domain; scholars consider it looser than the later Strachey translation, which is copyrighted.