Dreaming about a flying cockroach: at your face, big or many

Dreaming about a flying cockroach: the direct answer

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

Dreaming about a flying cockroach is not a sign of envy, illness or an unwanted visit. What defines this dream is the flight: the cockroach that was walking on the floor, predictable, suddenly gets out of control and comes your way. The scene tends to show up when something catches a person by surprise: a small problem that grows fast, a demand that arrives without warning, an annoyance that invades personal space.

The general meaning of the insect in dreams, with the disgust and the folk readings, is in dreaming about cockroaches. Here the focus is on the fright of the flight and the scenes where it appears.

Read also: Dreaming about insects and Dreaming about a beetle.

What research helps explain

The flying cockroach has a very real origin. The American cockroach, the big one known in Brazil as the sewer cockroach, has well-developed wings and can fly short distances, almost always in a clumsy, half-gliding flight. This happens more on hot, muggy nights. The small German cockroach, known in Brazil as "francesinha" and common in kitchens, also has wings but rarely flies. According to the continuity hypothesis, tested by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, anyone who saw a cockroach flying in summer has every reason to meet it again at night.

The body takes part too. In 1958, Dement and Wolpert showed that stimuli applied during sleep, such as a spray of water on the skin, sometimes appear woven into the dream. A strand of hair on your face, the breeze from the fan or the buzz of a mosquito can turn into wings beating close to you.

And why is this dream remembered so well? Raphael Vallat and colleagues observed that people who remember many dreams react more to sounds during sleep and have longer awakenings. Waking up in the middle of the scene and staying awake for a few minutes helps keep it in memory.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Dement and Wolpert, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958; Vallat and colleagues, Increased evoked potentials to arousing auditory stimuli during sleep, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017.

Flying cockroach scenes and what they usually come with

Notice the place. A cockroach flying in the kitchen speaks to the routine of the house; in the bedroom, to rest and intimacy; at work, to something that bothers you there. If other flying creatures shared the scene, see dreaming about flies and dreaming about wasps or hornets.

See also: Dreaming about a white horse and Dreaming about a big fish.

When the fright moves from the dream into life

A dream like this every now and then is common. It deserves attention when it becomes a recurring nightmare, several times a week, with fear of going to sleep. Frequent nightmares have treatment, and the first step is to talk to a health professional. See how to have fewer nightmares.

There are also people who are terrified of cockroaches while awake, to the point of avoiding the kitchen at night or panicking at the sight of one. Intense fears of animals and insects can be treated with a psychologist, with good results. If your body reacts before your mind does, read how to spot signs of anxiety in the body. On the practical side, covers on drains and screens on windows help keep the sewer cockroach outside on hot nights.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The flying cockroach for Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud analyzed a patient's dream in which two beetles were trapped in a box and one of them escaped, flying out the window. Among the immediate causes, he found trivial details from the day before, such as a moth that had fallen into a glass of water. For Freud, the trivial insect opened the way to much more important matters, which only the conversation with the patient revealed.

In Jung's psychology. Jung recounts in Man and His Symbols that he set free association aside in order to stay as close as possible to the image of the dream itself. Applied here: what does this cockroach do differently? It flies, and toward you. The question that remains is what has been coming at you, fast, from where you did not expect it.

In symbols and faith. The Bible does not talk about cockroaches. In Leviticus 11, winged insects that walk on four feet appear among the unclean animals, except for certain locusts, and in Exodus 8 and 10, swarms of flies and locusts are among the plagues of Egypt. For those who read the dream through faith, the scene may bring to mind annoyances that call for cleaning and care for the home and for life.

Bringing both readings together. Science explains the fright; psychology and faith ask what invaded your space. Write down what was happening the day before.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

The flying cockroach in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, does not separate the cockroach that flies from the one that walks. The entry for cockroach, in love, speaks of danger close by. The entry for flying, meant for people who fly in the dream, speaks of social growth, and does not apply to the insect. Combining the two would be inventing a third reading. This is folk tradition, not prediction.

Freud thought folk belief got one thing right, that dreams have meaning, and got the method wrong: swapping each image for another, as in a fixed code, without listening to the person who dreamed.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

What people say about the flying cockroach

In Brazilian folk reading, the flying cockroach is usually read as gossip or envy arriving by surprise, or as a problem that seemed small and suddenly grew wings. Several cockroaches flying would be several people talking about you; the cockroach that heads for your face, an uncomfortable truth coming close; killing it in midair, overcoming the situation. These are readings from tradition, which change from region to region, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.