What does it mean to dream that you are being chased?

One of the most recurrent dreams is the dream that you are being chased, that someone has started a chase in the dark or in an unsafe place in order to capture you and harm you.

There are many meanings of this dream in particular, being in most of the times synonymous with some type of problem that, although solvable, can cause us a lot of discomfort.

Then We will see what we can interpret from dreaming that they are chasing you, seeing what are the most common meanings and, also, the specific meanings of some things happening during the chase.

• Related article: "The 5 phases of sleep: from slow waves to REM"

What does it mean to dream that I am being chased?

There are all kinds of dreams. Although on many occasions we do not remember what we have dreamed of, we do remember some detail of what we have experienced during the night most of the time. There are dreams that are more pleasant than others, but there are those that greatly disturb our calm at night, nightmares that make us wake up very upset the next day.

Dreaming of being chased is one of the most common nightmares. It is one of those dreams that, as a general rule, cause us great discomfort, a lot of psychological tension and may even make us wake up sweaty as a consequence of suffering and, also, of the physical effort of fleeing from our persecutor. The entity, the anonymous figure or perhaps a well-known person who has taken center stage that night in our dream world has made us tremble with fear.

There are many interpretations that can be made when dreaming that they are chasing you. This depends not only on the emotions we have felt while we were resting, but also on the characteristics of the persecution itself. Sometimes, perhaps few but there are, this dream can be something positive, even pleasant, while in most cases it is synonymous with worries, fears and insecurities.

When we talk about the meanings of dreaming that haunt us, we must understand that not everyone dreams in the same way and, therefore, they do not interpret their dreams equally. The interpretations and meanings that we can extract from our dreams is very varied, depending a lot on the specific content that we have experienced in our rest.

However, we can mention what they are the main meanings of dreaming that haunt us especially taking into account the perspectives of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic approaches. Likewise, it is important to note that the interpretation of our dreams is still something very subjective, free and personal, and that the meanings that can be extracted from them are not insurance.

1. Excessive worry

The main meaning of the dream in which we are persecuted is being excessively worried about someone or something. There is the symbolism that something that is affecting our lives is a cause of much uncertainty, so much so that it has crept into our dreams and does not let us relax or reassure.

• You may be interested in: "History of Psychology: main authors and theories"

2. Need for a personal change

This dream can also signify the need for a major change in our lives. Our pursuer is actually the routine, the boring and tedious monotony that has conquered our day to day and that does not let us advance. Life is progress as long as there are changes, changes that materialize in leaving our comfort zone.

3. Stress and anxiety

Stress and anxiety alter our sleep causing nightmares. These nightmares can take any form, but there is no doubt that the nightmares of the persecution have a lot to do with these two emotions. Chronic stress affects the quality of sleep, not letting us sleep soundly and making us rest worse.

The meaning that can be drawn from this dream is that we need to eliminate the source of anxiety from our lives, because if we do not, we will not be able to rest satisfactorily and we will continue to have this nightmare. In addition, because of not getting a good night's sleep, the next day we will wake up in a bad mood and this will affect all the important areas of our life.

• You may be interested in: "What does it mean to dream of a car accident?"

Meanings according to the type of persecution

Now that we have seen the main meanings of this dream, we have to take a closer look and see what it can mean depending on how the persecution occurs. Dreaming that you are being chased does not have the same meaning if the person chasing you is a complete stranger or, for example, your partner. Nor does it have the same meaning if while running away we end up hurting ourselves or if it happens in the middle of the night. Let's see the main ones:

1. Dreaming of being chased at night

It is quite common for the scene where the persecution takes place to be dark or at night. This dream can be interpreted as a concern for the unknown or for harm, insecurity, and fear that people we have just met may harm us. This is directly related to fear, to suspicion.

2. Dreaming that a relative is chasing us

The thing is quite different when the one who is chasing us is a relative. It may be a father, a brother, a grandfather, an aunt... Whoever he is, dreaming that he is carrying carrying out a persecution towards our person can be interpreted as a sample of feeling of guilt.

It is important to mention that This feeling of guilt, even if we feel it, does not have to be justified. It is common that in the family environment there are reproaches and guilt appears for things that are not so serious in themselves.

Sometimes we take a bad comment or an inappropriate gesture from a family member too seriously, feeling it as a source of real discomfort. That is why it is so important to have open communication with our family members to avoid misinterpretations that can make us feel bad.

3. Dreaming that your boss is chasing us

To dream that our boss is chasing us is a clear indication that we are worried about our work environment. Although it is not a premonitory dream nor does it have to indicate that we are going to lose our job or that our superior is going to scold us, yes that is reason to consider if we are comfortable in our job.

Also it may happen that we feel that the responsibilities that have been entrusted to us are too great, so much so that they have moved to the dream world materializing in the form of a boss who chases us and pursues us to deliver a report that we do not want or wants to put more work on us.

It was what we lacked. Even trying to sleep we can't stop thinking about work. Fortunately, before leaving our job or dreaming about work every day, the solution may be to take a few days off, disconnect from so much report and so much history.

4. Dreaming that your partner is chasing you

If our partner chases us, we may be facing several meanings. Among them we have the one who simply wants to reach us, shows that we need to spend a little more time with him or her, have more intimate moments and enjoy each other's company.

Another of the meanings, in this negative case, is that we want to get away from him or her. We feel that we spend too much time, that it overwhelms us and when it wants to approach us we move away as quickly as possible. What we can extract from this is that it is necessary to talk with the couple, consider the possibility of resorting to couples therapy and establish our space.

5. Dream that we fall

We may dream that, while we are running, we fall into a sinkhole or off a cliff. Because of this, we believe that now the person who was chasing us is sure to achieve and that we have failed in our attempt to avoid being victims of their cruel and unpredictable claws.

We can interpret this scenario as a reflection of our low self-esteem, of believing that we are capable of achieving what we set out to do because we are not skilled enough. Here, what haunts us can be failure, the fear of not achieving what we have set out to do, while the pothole or the precipice are all the obstacles that we believe we will not be able to avoid.

What we can extract from here is the need to work on self-esteem and pessimism. It is necessary to understand that yes, there will be moments in our life that we will fail, but many others in which we will succeed. If we make an effort and maintain a positive vision of things, we will achieve great feats.