Dreaming about cockroaches: what is behind the disgust

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.

A cockroach triggers disgust before fear. Disgust is an emotion with a clear job: keeping distance from things linked to dirt, contamination and disease. No surprise that the insect we most associate with rubbish shows up in dreams loaded with that feeling.

Read also: Dreams about flying: what happens in the brain and Dreaming about death: why it happens and what it does not mean.

Why it appears

Anyone dealing with an infestation at home, living near old sewage lines or spending the day cleaning cupboards is more likely to dream about it, under the same continuity hypothesis that explains most dream content.

Source: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

What dream studies show

Under the continuity hypothesis, dream content follows waking life. People who live in warm places, who saw a cockroach in the kitchen, who are deep cleaning or dealing with an infestation carry that into the night.

Source: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

When the insect appears as a threat, on the body or in large numbers, the dream joins the group of threat dreams, which Revonsuo described as a safe rehearsal of danger and disgust.

Source: Revonsuo, The reinterpretation of dreams, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2000.

Scenes that show up most in this dream

• Lots of cockroaches: often comes with a feeling of overload, of something getting out of control.
• A cockroach flying at you: a classic jump scare that tends to wake people up.
• A cockroach on your body: mixes disgust and loss of control; one of the most uncomfortable reports.
• Killing the cockroach: an ending of relief, common when something is being solved in real life.

The practical reminder

If the theme keeps returning along with real sightings, treat the cause, which is almost always the same: accessible food and moisture. Storing food in sealed containers, not leaving dirty dishes overnight, sealing drains and cracks and keeping the bin closed solves most cases.

See also: Dreaming about cats and Dreaming about dogs.

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud gave a curious example of the dream-book method, which he called decoding: in one such book, a letter translates as trouble and a funeral as an engagement. Once each image had been swapped through the fixed code, the result was simply projected into the future. A cockroach that stands for luck follows the same logic of reversal. Freud found the method insufficient and looked for meaning elsewhere: in what each detail of the dream brought to the dreamer's mind.

In Jung's psychology. In Jolande Jacobi's chapter of Man and His Symbols, a patient named Henry dreams that black, repulsive beetles crawl out of a hole and spread over his drawing board. He himself describes them as “my dark qualities,” close to what Jung called the shadow, the side of the personality we would rather not see. The book notes that in Egypt the golden scarab symbolized the sun; black, the beetles in the dream pointed to the opposite side.

Bringing both views together. Science shows that disgust is a protective emotion and that the scene tracks waking life; the symbolic reading asks what, beyond the insect, you would like to keep at a distance. Henry's dream has a detail that serves both: once only a few beetles are left, he stops chasing them, and they no longer seem so revolting. Notice how your own scene ended, with escape, fright or relief, because the outcome says a lot about the moment.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Dreaming about cockroaches in dream books

Livro do Sonho, a popular Brazilian dream dictionary, links the cockroach to false friends nearby, when you kill it in the dream, and to obstacles on a trip, when you only see it. In Brazilian folk tradition, the cockroach is also tied to envy and a heavy atmosphere. The Brazilian dream book O Livro dos Sonhos, by L. P. Baçan, swims against that current: in life, the cockroach would signal luck at gambling; in love, danger close by.

Freud described dream books as a kind of dictionary that translates each image into another with a fixed meaning. Artemidorus of Daldis, author of the oldest complete Greek dream book that has survived, advised looking at the dreamer's life before interpreting. If you see the dream as a message, both paths suggest the same thing: ask what this image brings to mind in your life right now. See dream meanings according to science and culture.

Source: Livro do Sonho, Brazilian dream dictionary; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Popular readings of dreaming about cockroaches

Popular readings tie the cockroach to money, to dirt or to a problem that keeps coming back. The meanings change from region to region and predict nothing.

See also dream meanings.

Read also: dreaming about rats and mice; dreaming about flies.