What it means to dream about crying (and what it does not)

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, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about crying is not a sign of misfortune, of a death in the family or of sadness on its way. Crying is one of the strongest emotions a dream can produce, and it usually shows up when something has built up: grief, a disappointment, exhaustion, longing, or even a relief that has not yet been felt while awake.

A baby or a child crying, in turn, usually comes with a sense of responsibility and urgency. And crying with joy in a dream, which also happens, can go along with phases of reunion or achievement.

Read also: Dreaming about a baby or pregnancy and Dreaming about a funeral or coffin.

Why we cry in our sleep

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming, reviewed by Michael Schredl in 2003, shows that the worries and emotions of the day tend to come back at night. Someone who held back tears in a meeting, in a hospital or at a farewell may see that emotion slip out in a dream, sometimes in a scene that has nothing to do with the real reason.

There is also what comes from outside. In 1958, William Dement and Edward Wolpert showed that stimuli applied during sleep, such as sounds and sprays of water, can be woven into the plot. That is why someone who sleeps near a baby, or hears a cat meowing in the street, sometimes dreams of a child crying that seems to come from far away.

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

The most common versions of this dream

If the crying came from a child, it is worth reading dreaming about a child too.

See also: Dreaming about dancing and Dreaming about a bath or shower.

If the dream keeps coming back: when to seek help

Crying in a dream now and then is normal and can even bring relief. If you often wake up crying, if the dream always returns with the same scene of loss or if the sadness stays strong during the day for weeks, it is worth talking to a health professional. Recurring nightmares have treatment: see how to have fewer nightmares.

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

What dream books say

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan reads it the opposite way from what fear suggests: crying, in life, points to future satisfaction and, in love, to waiting. A tear, in turn, brings peace of mind in life and fear in love.

Man and His Symbols, the book edited by Jung, is skeptical of this kind of table: dreams are entirely individual phenomena, and their symbols cannot be catalogued. Crying may be relief for one person and grief for another, and only the dreamer knows which of the two was in the scene.

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

Science and belief: Freud, Jung and the traditions

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud tells how one of his daughters, a little over three years old, cried bitterly because a boat ride on a lake had been too short. The next morning she announced that she had gone to the lake during the night. For him, it was wish fulfillment in its purest form: the day's crying became, in the dream, the trip that was missing.

In Jung's psychology. Man and His Symbols recalls that ancient peoples wept for their dead, but their beliefs also led them to see death as transformation. The book also cites the Chinese myth of P'an Ku, the giant man of creation: when he wept, his tears gave birth to the Yellow River and the Yangtze. In the Jungian key, through the compensatory function, someone who swallows their tears by day may cry at night.

In symbols and faith. In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant describe the tear as the drop that dies by evaporating after bearing witness, a symbol of pain and intercession; in Greek myth, the tears of the Heliades, daughters of the Sun, turned into amber. In the Bible, John 11 tells that Jesus wept before the tomb of Lazarus, and Revelation 21 promises that God will wipe away every tear.

Bringing both readings together. Science explains the emotion that surfaced; faith offers comfort for it. Asking who, or what, that crying was for already helps a great deal.

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

Folk beliefs about this dream

In Brazilian folk tradition, dreaming that you are crying is usually read the other way around: relief, joy on its way, the end of a hard phase. A baby crying appears as news or something new on the way, and seeing someone cry as a call for help from a person close to you. These are cultural readings, good for reflection, not guarantees of what will happen. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.