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Train in dreams: what it can mean

  • Journeys
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The short answer

A train runs on a fixed track toward a set destination. Many dreamers connect it with the direction of their life, and missing one with a fear of losing a chance.

Your dream is not everyone's

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Three ways to read it

Psychology and research

Research

Missing a train is a classic example of the arriving too late theme in surveys of typical dreams. On the continuity view, trains fit waking concerns about schedules, direction and whether we are on the right track. Being on the wrong train, not knowing the stop, or watching it leave are different stories: notice which one you had.

Classic texts

History

Freud suggested that departure on a journey can stand for dying in dreams, and that missing a train can be read as a consoling dream of not having to leave. It is one historical interpretation among many; most people's train dreams are simply about schedules and direction.

Questions to ask yourself

  1. Where was the train going, and did you want to go there?
  2. Do you feel on the right track in your life right now?
  3. Is there a chance you are afraid of missing?

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

    first published 1900

    public domain

    • Cited at: Ch. VI, section E (representation by symbols) (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.