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

The short answer

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 cricket does not announce money, a visit or bad news, and the color of the insect does not change that. The cricket is small, noisy and hard to find when it sings: in the dream, it usually goes with small worries that will not leave your head, a postponed conversation, a bill to pay, a task left for later. Often it is just the echo of a real noise, coming from the yard or the open window.

Read also: Dreaming about an ant and Dreaming about a butterfly.

When the night's noise becomes a dream

In 1958, William Dement and Edward Wolpert tested in the laboratory what happens when an outside stimulus reaches a sleeper, such as a sound or drops of water on the skin. In part of the cases, the stimulus was incorporated into the dream, transformed into something else. Someone who sleeps with the window open on a summer night, hearing crickets in the bush, has every chance of dreaming about one inside the house.

The continuity between waking life and dreaming completes the explanation. A cricket that came into the living room last week, the green katydid perched on the wall, the Pinocchio cartoon watched with the children: what passed through the day returns at night, sometimes mixed with worries that have nothing to do with insects. The repetitive sound of the cricket also matches thoughts that loop before sleep.

Sources: Dement and Wolpert, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958; Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

Science and belief: Freud, Jung and faith traditions

In Freud's psychoanalysis. The first chapter of The Interpretation of Dreams gathers accounts of noises that enter the dream and change form, such as the alarm clock that becomes a bell. The chirp outside the window is a perfect candidate. Freud also proposed dividing the dream into parts and asking what each recalls: the sound, the color, the place where the cricket was, who was with you.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, animals represent instinctive nature. In the key of the compensatory function, which seeks to restore the psychological balance, a tiny creature that will not stop singing can be read as something small that consciousness insists on ignoring and that the dream puts in the foreground.

In the Dictionary of Symbols. Chevalier and Gheerbrant tell that, for the Chinese, the cricket, which lays eggs in the earth, lives there as a larva and then comes out to transform, was the triple symbol of life, death and resurrection. Its presence in the house was seen as a promise of happiness, also in more than one Mediterranean civilization. The Chinese even raised singing crickets in small golden cages. The grasshopper, a close relative, symbolized in ancient China numerous descendants.

Putting the two readings together. Science explains the sound that crosses sleep; tradition sees in the house cricket a sign of good luck. Noticing whether the chirp brought peace or irritation helps choose between the two.

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

Scenes that show up most in this dream

If the dream brought several small creatures at once, also see dreaming about insects.

If the dream keeps coming back: when to seek help

Dreaming about a cricket is almost never a cause for concern. If you dream about insects often, wake with disgust or strong distress and this begins to disturb your sleep, it is worth talking to a health professional. Intense fears of insects and repeated nightmares have effective approaches. See how to have fewer nightmares.

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

What dream dictionaries record

Popular dream books usually give the cricket short and opposite readings, from luck to warning, depending on the color or the place. Freud called this way of reading decoding: each image is translated by a fixed code, as when a dream book swaps letter for trouble and funeral for engagement. For him, the method failed because it forgot the dreamer.

In the case of the cricket, the difference is large: for someone who grew up in the countryside, the chirp recalls calm nights on the porch; for someone who lives in an apartment, a hidden cricket may mean a whole night without sleep. The same image, two very different memories.

Source: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

Popular beliefs about this dream

In Brazil, many people say a cricket inside the house brings luck or money, and that its chirp announces a visit or news. The black cricket is sometimes read as a warning of gossip, and the green one mixes with the "esperança" (hope), the green katydid whose Portuguese name, which also means hope, anchors a popular belief in good tidings. There is also Jiminy Cricket, from Pinocchio, who made the creature the voice of conscience. These are cultural readings, not predictions. See dream meanings according to science and culture.