Dreaming about boots: meaning, variations and what science says

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 boots does not predict a trip, authority or romantic disappointment. The boot is the footwear of firmness: it protects the foot in rain, cold and heavy work and also completes outfits that draw attention. The dream usually goes with moments when you prepare to face something, change roles in life or worry about the image you project.

New boots tend to come with expectation of a beginning; old or torn boots, with tiredness or a feeling of being poorly prepared. The color and style usually come from what you wore or saw in recent days.

Read also: Dreaming about shoes and Dreaming about sandals.

Why the boot enters the dream

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming shows that what we do and what worries us reappears at night. The boot usually arrives by very concrete paths: buying a pair for winter, the work uniform with safety boots, a weekend horseback ride, a child's rain boots, the dress chosen for an event.

Surveys of typical dreams, such as that of Tore Nielsen and colleagues with Canadian students, show that arriving late and being badly dressed or inappropriate in front of others are among the most reported themes. The boot that will not go on the foot, the lace that will not tie or the swapped pair are well-known versions of these dreams of delay and exposure.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Nielsen et al., The Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students, Dreaming, 2003.

Scenes that show up most in this dream

If in the dream the footwear was different, or you lost the pair, it is also worth reading dreaming about shoes.

If the dream keeps coming back: when to seek help

Dreaming about boots rarely brings strong distress. If, however, dreams of delay and of being unable to dress repeat to the point that you wake anxious several times a week, it is worth talking to a health professional. See how to have fewer nightmares.

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

What dream books say

In O Livro dos Sonhos (a Brazilian dream book), L. P. Baçan translates the boot as nervousness, in life, and indifference, in love. It is an example of the method Freud called "decoding": each image gains a fixed meaning, taken from a code, without considering the dreamer.

Freud found this method insufficient. For someone who works in boots every day, it may be just an echo of the workday; for someone who just bought their first leather pair, a sign of achievement. The meaning depends on what the person associates with it.

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

Dreaming about boots according to Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud showed that the dream makes use of banal impressions from the day before. In the dream of the botanical monograph, a book seen in passing in a shop window became the center of the scene, while the subject that really occupied him was a hard conversation with a colleague. A boot seen in a store can play the same role: a trivial detail that opens the way to another worry.

In Jung's psychology. For Jungian psychology, clothes and uniforms in dreams are usually read through the idea of the persona, the social mask with which we present ourselves. In that key, the safety boot, the riding boot or the elegant heeled boot speak of the role the person is taking on or trying to take on.

In the Dictionary of Symbols. Chevalier and Gheerbrant read footwear as a symbol of social assertion and authority. For the ancients, it was a sign of freedom: in Rome, slaves went barefoot. The authors record a Russian custom: on the wedding night, the bride took off her husband's shoes, and one of the boots held a whip and the other money. Among the Samoyeds, the groom asked his betrothed to make fur boots by hand. And there are the seven-league boots of tales, which give the wearer mastery of space.

In the traditions of faith. The Bible uses footwear as a sign of agreement, as in Ruth 4:7, in which taking off the sandal seals a deal, and the father of the prodigal son orders shoes put on the son who returns (Luke 15).

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

Popular readings about dreaming of boots

In popular reading, new boots appear as a sign of new paths and opportunities; old or torn boots, as difficulties on the journey; black boots, as authority and protection; and leather boots, as firmness in projects. These are cultural interpretations, which can serve to reflect on the moment, and not predictions. See dream meanings according to science and culture.