Dreaming about a snake in bed: what this intimate scene means

A snake in bed: the straight 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 snake in bed does not prove infidelity, does not announce illness and is not a sign that someone has done something against you. The scene usually shows up when something is disturbing your most intimate space: your relationship, your home, your rest, your very sense of safety.

There is also a very physical reason. The bed is where the dream happens, and a tangled sheet, a blanket that slips off or a leg that has gone numb can find their way into the story. The general meaning of snakes in dreams is covered in dreaming about snakes.

Read also: Dreaming about a coral snake and Dreaming about a bed.

What brings the snake into the bed

The continuity hypothesis of Schredl and Hofmann (2003) says that dreams follow waking life. A news story about a snake found inside a house, a real scare in the backyard or worry about your relationship can turn into this scene. In the countryside, snakes sometimes get into houses looking for shelter or for rats.

The body takes part too. In 1958, William Dement and Edward Wolpert sprayed water on people sleeping in the lab and saw that, some of the time, the water entered the dream as rain or a leak. In the same way, a cold sheet touching your leg or a blanket pressing on your body can take the shape of a snake. And for people who have sleep paralysis, the feeling of a presence and of weight on the body often comes with images like this.

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

Versions of the snake in bed dream

If the dream raised doubts about your partner, see dreaming about being cheated on; if what stood out was the sheet, read dreaming about bed sheets.

See also: Dreaming about a camel and Dreaming about a giant snake.

When it is worth seeking help

A single dream about a snake in bed requires no action. See a health professional if the nightmare repeats several times a week, if you become afraid of going to bed, if you often wake up unable to move or if you scream and thrash during the night. These situations can be treated and deserve an evaluation. See how to have fewer nightmares and the difference between a nightmare and night terrors.

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

Psychoanalysis, myths and faith before the snake in the bedroom

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In the first chapter of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud gathers cases in which the body and the bedroom make their way into the dream. In one of them, a man whose nightshirt collar was buttoned too tight dreamed he was being hanged. Freud accepted these stimuli as a starting point, but said that the story built around them comes from the sleeper's memories and wishes.

In Jung's psychology. Jung proposed reading dreams also on the subjective level: each figure can stand for a part of the dreamer, and not only for a person or a threat from outside. In this key, the snake in bed may be something of yours that has come too close to be ignored. Man and His Symbols notes that the serpent, in dreams, often speaks of instinctive forces.

In symbols and faith. A Dictionary of Symbols records the serpent as a guardian in many cultures. In ancient Rome, paintings on household shrines showed serpents as protectors of the home. In Greek myth, Hercules, still a baby, strangled in his cradle the two serpents that Hera sent against him. In the Bible, Psalm 91 promises that the faithful will tread on the lion and the serpent.

Bringing both readings together. The two readings meet in a simple question: what has been taking away your peace in the place where you should be resting?

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

Bed and snake in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, does not combine snake and bed in a single entry. Separately, the snake is linked to problems in life and dissatisfaction in love; the bed, to good health in life and desire in love. Adding the two entries together is not in the book: it is the reader's own exercise, and the result depends on how much weight each one gets.

Jung was wary of lists like this. For him, the same symbol changes meaning according to the person, the moment and the associations it awakens, and so it does not fit in a table.

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

Folk beliefs about a snake in bed

In Brazilian folk reading, a snake in bed is usually tied to falseness inside the home, jealousy or someone close who does not deserve your trust. Some say a snake under the sheet is a secret about to come out. A black snake in bed would be a strong worry; a small snake, a passing annoyance; several snakes, too many people meddling in the couple's life. Some also read the scene as envy or a "trabalho feito" (a spell supposedly cast against someone); it is a belief that circulates in the popular imagination, and it is best treated as a belief, without taking the dream as proof of anything. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.