According to experts, dreams about being lost represent feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, inadequacy, and a feeling being ‘out of place’.

Dreams about being lost are quite common. So are dreams about dying, falling, and being chased.

Of course, dream interpretation is subjective at best. However, most experts agree that anxiety and worry are the underlining causes of dreams about being lost. Moreover, they usually have something to do with our present-day situations.

There are many psychological interpretations of lost dreams:

  • You feel insecure in new surroundings or unfamiliar situations.
  • A new situation has arisen and you don’t know what to do.
  • You are stifled in your current situation and you want to escape.
  • You can’t find a solution to your problem, or you need clarity or answers.
  • There is an important decision to make, but you can’t face up to it.
  • You are unprepared for something that is coming, such as a new job or baby.
  • You have always depended on other people and you fear to lose them.
  • You are in a rut and have lost your sense of purpose.

Five Types of Dreams about Being Lost and Their Psychological Interpretations

1. You have lost your way

If you dream you are lost, it is possible that you feel ‘lost’ or out of your depth in a present-day situation. Think about any current situations, they could be at work or at home, with the children etc. Are any of these causing you anxiety or worry? Do you feel overwhelmed with your responsibilities?

For example, you have just started a new job and you are worried you are not good enough. Have you just moved to a new town or city and you feel disorientated and as if you won’t fit in?

Being lost in dreams reminds us to pay attention to the important things in our lives. So have you been ignoring something significant? Or have you been wasting your time and energy on little things that are irrelevant? Stop and analyse the bigger picture to refocus your attention on where you want to go.

2. You can’t find your way home

This is a similar dream of losing your way. You are lost in this dream and you panic because you can’t find your way home. Even more frightening is that the environment you are in is unfamiliar and scary to you. You are too frightened to ask for directions.

All you want to do is be back in your home, but you have no idea where you are or how you got there. This dream is about facing up to making a difficult decision in your life.

You might have two choices; one is a familiar route, the other is a little scary. In your mind, you know you should choose the scary route. Nonetheless, it will be a challenge, but you must make yourself to go for it.

Your subconscious mind is telling you to make a decision. Explore the situation, the facts surrounding the decision and make an informed choice. Have you been offered a promotion away from home and family? Are you thinking about a whole different career change? It is time to weigh up your options, but do make that choice.

3. You have lost someone

Dreams about being lost are also about lost loved ones.

In your dreams, you might be out playing with your children and you look away for a moment and when you look back, your child has vanished. Perhaps it’s not as traumatic as that. Maybe you have lost track of a friend whilst the pair of you are out shopping. It is the severity of how the disappearance of the lost person makes you feel that’s important.

Obviously, a child going missing is going to fill you will all kinds of emotions: panic, extreme anxiety, guilt perhaps for not paying enough attention. Whereas a friend nipping out of your sight for a brief moment might cause a little irritation or concern.

So, depending on how anxious you felt, think about anyone in your current life that you have lost contact with. How important are they to you and your family? Do you want them back in your life, but they have baggage?

Explore the reasons why that person is no longer in your life. What if the reason was petty? It could be time to forgive and forget.

4. Losing a loved one

If you have recently lost a loved one, then it is very natural to dream about losing them. This is your mind trying to come to terms with the loss of someone extremely important to you.

In addition, you might even dream that they are alive one moment and then you can’t find them. Not to mention this is very upsetting, but it is a normal process that allows us to grieve.

If you haven’t lost a loved one recently, but the person you’ve lost in the dream is much loved, it’s possible that they represent some part of you that you’ve lost.

More often than not, losing someone that we love in a dream symbolises the part of them we admired the most that you feel you’ve lost yourself. You value that aspect of their personality highly and aspire to them. Perhaps you feel as if you’ve let them down.

Likewise, it could mean that someone close to you is disappointing you with their lack of effort. You worry that they won’t achieve their dreams because they are not working hard enough.

5. You have lost something important

In real life, we all have things that are important to us. A wedding ring, a photograph of a loved one, even simple things like our keys or wallets.

However, in dreams, these objects take on a more symbolic meaning. The wedding ring is your marriage, your house keys represent your safety, that photo is your family. In order to analyse a dream where you have lost something, it’s important to focus on what you’ve lost and what it represents to you.

The general message in lost object dreams is of feeling overwhelmed or distracted with everyday life. The dream might be advising you to slow down and take stock. Get organised and declutter your life.

If this doesn’t sound like you, then focus on the actual object that you lost. It is possible that the object symbolises a lost opportunity. This could be a relationship, a job, a house, an heirloom, or even part of yourself. Ask yourself what you actually lost and what significance it has for you in real life.

Another interpretation of a lost object dream is that you are avoiding something important. This could be a decision or having to tell someone a truth you know will hurt them.

What can you learn from dreams about being lost?

The first thing to ask yourself if you are having these kinds of dreams is ‘Where in your life do you feel lost or aimless?’ Identify the areas that are causing you anxiety or stress and you’re halfway to solving them.

For example, re-occurring dreams about a lost wedding ring are symbolic of marriage problems. However, maybe you don’t want to ask the question because you’re afraid of the answer. At some point, you’re going to have to make the decision to face up to what is going on in your marriage.

Dreams about being lost can frighten and scare you. But by analysing and identifying the cause of them you can re-examine your life and sort out any problems. Resolve these problems and your dreams about being lost should start to fade.

References:

  1. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com

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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. Raul P Biwang Jr

    Hi im raul biwang jr. I tilling something about of my dream. In my dream I’m lost the road, home and my became g/f. I’m reading in dreams about being lost represent feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, inadequacy, and a feeling being ‘out of place. All of this true to my present life. I feel to much sad. I don’t know. I ask the question sir? What to do and what I’m first start doing to my life?

  2. Chinwendu

    I am a graduate but I keep seeing myself in elementary school at times in high school.What exactly does it mean

  3. Lois

    What does it mean for some one to give you a new born baby.

  4. Aishat

    I dreamt that I lost my way home and later I saw my daughter come to pick me home. What does that mean

  5. Frances Lightfoot

    I have a reacuring dream about being lost. I can’t seem to find myself out of an airport or mall etc.

  6. Steve_2

    Janey, none of the five reasons apply to me. I’m retired, still in love with my first wife of 51 years. We’re financially secure, in reasonably good health, and all our children and grandchildren are doing well in jobs and school. I sleep well night after night. Except sometimes I have this vivid dream of being in a strange yet familiar place and don’t know how to get where I’m going. The dreams seems to go on and on. I kind of enjoy them, except sometimes there’s a sense of frustration at being … lost. It’s the only recurring dream I have, and it’s infrequent, maybe once a month. Otherwise, I’m boringly normal. Never been in therapy, have no fetishes or hangups, am center-right politically, with emphasis on center. Am guessing there’s something in my life that’s sparking these “lost” dreams but can’t put my finger on what.

  7. Ms. Freddie Mae Christel

    I keep dreaming of being lost and can’t find my way home or can’t find where I parked my car. And always I dream of being lost in the very same town.

  8. Peggie

    I have been dreaming that I’m at strange place and have lost my way home it 4years now what is the meaning?

  9. Jo

    I am always dreaming where I am travelling in forest where I can’t find where the way back. There’s always options but climbing in a more complex directions which led me to lost my mind which way i will take, when I tried which I chosen it’s alwayas a wrong way.
    Thanks for leaving an an interpretation.

  10. Neera

    In my dream I go to a place taking a very simple route and start back on the same route . Half way through i lose my way and reach somewhere. The route becomes really complicated. I don’t reach back and get very tired of walking. I wake up then. So don’t reach back.

  11. Carrie

    I keep having recurring dream of being lost and can’t find my way home, sometimes I see final at streets, but none of them lead e home.

  12. Barry Allen

    i had this dream where i was at school and missed the bus so i decidEd to ask my friends for help. they got me lost even more and i never saw my mom in that dream ever again. what does it mean?

  13. Danielle

    I keep dreaming a recurring dream of being lost. I am either trying to find a new work area or a recreation area or home. Whatever destination I am attempting to reach my path is either filled with obstacles or becomes dangerous or completely absurd. I awake feeling afraid, frustrated and tired. This dream keeps happening since my divorce over 18 years ago.

  14. Charles McGranaghan

    My recurring ‘lost’ dream places me on a road that leads to a wilderness from which I cannot escape. Reading your gift of information has given me a hint about a decision that I must make now. Thanks for being there.

  15. roger miller

    I get lost driving about usually in a Yorkshire town with hundreds of little roads, and things get worse When I have to take someone somewhere before they tell me how to get home ,Oh and its getting dark and running out of petrol .I never do get home.

  16. Karen

    I’m in a town I donot know looking for a place I’m suppose to go, I never find it and wind up In the industrial part, afraid and looking for the way to my car

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