What it means to dream about a celebrity (and what it doesn't)

What this dream usually points to (and what it doesn't)

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme.

Dreaming about a celebrity does not mean you will meet that person, get rich or become famous, and a celebrity in love with you in the dream predicts no romance. This dream usually goes along with what you have been watching, hearing and admiring: a binged series, a concert, a news story, a childhood idol.

Often the celebrity lends a face to something of yours: the wish to be recognized, a quality you admire or someone you miss.

Read also: Dreaming about someone and Dreaming about a kiss.

Why celebrities enter dreams

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming shows that what occupies your days tends to return at night. Today, a good part of that material comes from screens: short videos, interviews, football matches, music videos. Someone who spends hours following an artist's life lives with that face almost as much as with a neighbor, and the dream treats that face as familiar.

When the celebrity has already died, another theme comes in. The 2014 work by Wright and colleagues studied dreams of deceased people among the bereaved and observed that these dreams are part of the process of coping with loss. The death of an idol can also stir people, and the dream is one of the places where that sadness shows up.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Wright, Kerr and colleagues, The Impact of Dreams of the Deceased on Bereavement, American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 2014.

The most common versions of this dream

When the celebrity is someone who has already died, it is also worth reading dreaming about a person who has died.

If the dream keeps coming back: when to seek help

Dreaming about a celebrity is almost always light. If dreams about an idol who died come loaded with sadness for a long time, or if the wish to live out that dreamed relationship starts to weigh on your daily life, it is worth talking to a health professional. If the dreams have turned into repeated nightmares, see how to have fewer nightmares.

Source: Morgenthaler et al., Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. The Interpretation of Dreams cites an old case: the scholar Scaliger wrote a poem in praise of the famous men of Verona and dreamed of a certain Brugnolus, who complained of having been forgotten. Scaliger did not remember hearing the name, but his son later discovered that Brugnolus had indeed been famous there as a critic. Freud gathers this account among the examples of dreams that bring memories waking life does not know it keeps. He also described composite figures: the face of a star can come with the gestures of a colleague.

In Jung's psychology. In the Jungian key, the celebrity can be a projection. If it is someone of the same sex, it may bring traits of the shadow, such as an ambition you do not admit to; the book cites the dream of a stout, prosperous man who represented that hidden ambition. If the attraction is romantic, the figure can be read as anima or animus, the inner image of the other sex.

In symbols and faith. In the Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant describe the hero of myths as the child of a god and a human being, who unites forces of heaven and earth without having divine immortality. Today's idols occupy a similar place: admired as almost superhuman, but mortal. In Spiritism, The Spirits' Book, by Allan Kardec, teaches that in sleep the spirit can relate to other spirits, a reading some apply to dreams of deceased celebrities.

Putting the two readings together. Before looking for a message, it helps to ask what most charms you about that celebrity and where that appears in your life.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; Chevalier and Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols; Kardec, The Spirits' Book.

What dream dictionaries record

O Livro dos Sonhos (a Brazilian dream book), by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for "celebrity", but has "artist": in life, a wish for fulfillment; in love, lies. The first part fits well with what science observes, since admiring someone often reveals what you would like to achieve. The second recalls the fantasy side that fame has.

Man and His Symbols, edited by Jung, is wary of such catalogs: it says dreams are individual phenomena and their symbols cannot be cataloged. The same singer can be, for one person, the soundtrack of a first love and, for another, the memory of a family fight.

Sources: Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Popular beliefs about this dream

In popular reading, dreaming about a celebrity is usually associated with a wish for success and recognition. Chatting as a friend is read as a phase of good relationships; dating the celebrity, as neediness or idealization in love; seeing them die, as the end of a cycle or of an illusion. These are cultural readings, good for reflection, and not promises of fame or of a meeting. See dream meanings according to science and culture.