Dreaming about fainting: what this dream usually points to

Dreaming that you fainted: what it usually points to

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 that you fainted is not a warning of illness or death. The scene tends to appear when a person is at their limit: carrying too much work, caring for someone who is sick, sleeping too little, holding back a strong emotion. Fainting, in a dream, is stopping without having chosen to stop. That is why the dream often speaks of exhaustion and of a wish, sometimes unadmitted, to be looked after.

It is also common to dream that you faint and wake up right afterward, with your heart racing. It is similar to the fright of dreaming that you are falling, but here what fails is not the ground: it is your own body.

Read also: Dreaming about illness and Dreaming about a hospital.

Why fainting shows up in the dream

There is no specific study on fainting dreams. Surveys of typical themes, such as the online study by Jennifer Mathes, Michael Schredl and Anja Göritz on how often these themes appear in people's most recent dreams, show that research keeps track of the scenes that recur among many people. And the continuity hypothesis, tested by Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, helps explain where this one comes from: dreams return to what occupies waking life.

Fainting is a scene many people have seen up close: the classmate who collapsed under the sun at a school graduation, the elderly woman who felt faint at a packed Mass, the blood donor who turned pale after the needle. Soap operas help too, with their dramatic fainting spells at the moment of the big reveal. Anyone who has had an anxiety attack knows another way in: the feeling that you are about to faint, with dizziness, shortness of breath and cold hands, even when no fainting happens. To recognize these signs, see how to spot signs of anxiety in the body.

Sources: Mathes, Schredl and Göritz, Frequency of typical dream themes in most recent dreams, Dreaming, 2014; Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

Fainting scenes in dreams and what usually goes with them

If, in the dream, your voice failed too, read dreaming that you cannot scream. If you woke up unable to move, the phenomenon may be something else: sleep paralysis.

See also: Dreaming about cleaning the house and Dreaming about a nosebleed.

Fainting according to Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud was interested in the feeling, so common in dreams, that the body will not obey: trying to walk and being stuck to the ground, raising a hand and having no strength. For him, this inhibition of movement represents a conflict of will, a wish that runs into a "no". The body that collapses in a fainting dream can be read along these lines: one part wants to keep going, another wants to stop.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung describes consciousness as a recent achievement of human nature, still fragile and easily shaken. He recalls that many peoples feared the "loss of soul", the feeling of being absent from oneself. In a Jungian key, fainting in a dream can speak of that blackout: a phase in which a person feels they are dropping off the air.

In symbols and faith. The Bible uses the image of fainting to speak of emotion and weariness. When Jacob is told that Joseph is alive, "Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not" (Genesis 45:26). Isaiah promises that God "giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength" (Isaiah 40:29).

Bringing both readings together. Science shows where the scene comes from; psychology and faith ask what is weighing on you so much that, in the dream, the body shuts down. Often the answer calls for rest, not interpretation.

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

When the fainting is real

The dream does not predict fainting. But real fainting, while awake, always deserves a medical evaluation, even when the person recovers quickly. Many episodes are benign and have known triggers, such as heat, standing for a long time, fasting, lack of fluids (see signs of dehydration), severe pain, the sight of blood or needles and getting up too fast. Others call for investigation, especially when the fainting happens during exercise, with no warning at all, with chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations or an injury from the fall.

If someone faints near you, lay the person on their back, raise their legs if possible, loosen tight clothing and keep onlookers away. If they do not come to within about a minute, are not breathing normally or have a seizure, call your local emergency services (911 in the US) and follow the instructions of the dispatcher. If they vomit, turn them on their side. Do not give them anything to eat or drink until they are fully awake. After fainting, the person should see a doctor, especially if it is the first time or if it happens again. And if fainting dreams have turned into repeated nightmares that keep you from sleeping, see how to have fewer nightmares.

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

Fainting in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has an entry for fainting: illness, in life, and crisis, in love. The reading sounds like a warning, but it is tradition, written for everyone at once, and not a diagnosis.

Freud called this way of reading "decoding". His own method goes in another direction: instead of translating the fainting into a single word, ask where it happened, who saw it and what you felt when you came to.

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

What folk belief associates with fainting

In Brazilian folk reading, fainting in a dream is usually linked to exhaustion, to a surprise that will shake you or to a phase in which you will need help. Seeing someone faint would be a sign that this person needs attention; being caught as you fall, a sign that there are people you can count on. These are interpretations from tradition, which change from region to region, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.