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

What this dream usually points to (and what it does not)

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 fog is not a warning of an accident, an illness or a hidden misfortune. The scene tends to show up in phases of indecision or transition: a choice that has not become clear yet, a new job, a move whose end you cannot see. The feeling that goes with it is almost always uncertainty, sometimes calm, rarely panic.

What weighs most is how you reacted: moving slowly through the mist is very different from standing still without knowing where to go.

Read also: Dreaming about the sky or clouds and Dreaming about rain or floods.

Why fog gets into the dream

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming, reviewed by Michael Schredl in 2003, shows that the day's worries and experiences tend to reappear at night. Someone who drove on a mountain road, woke up to a city wrapped in fog or has a head full of doubts has plenty of material for a misty dream.

There is also a curious detail: a good part of our dreams fades a few minutes after waking, and what remains are loose fragments. Sometimes the memory of fog is precisely what was left of a scene that would not let itself be stored whole. To understand that process better, see why we dream.

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

Scenes that show up most in this dream

When the fog turns into a storm in the middle of the dream, it is worth reading dreaming about storms or lightning.

See also: Dreaming about orchids and Dreaming about mud.

When the dream deserves professional attention

A dream about fog, on its own, is no cause for concern. If you start waking up several times in distress, lost in a place with no way out, or if the sense of confusion carries on through the day, talk to a health professional. Frequent nightmares and poor sleep have treatment. See how to have fewer nightmares.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud saw the dream as a disguised text, in which pieces vanish, blend together or change places. Fog is almost an image of that disguise. Instead of looking for a meaning in all that white, his method would be to ask about the details that appear through the mist: the lamp post, the voice, the car, the house.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Marie-Louise von Franz compares the unconscious to a lunar landscape in which everything is "blurred, misty and merged", with no way of knowing where each thing begins or ends. In the Jungian key, a misty dream can point to a content that is still taking shape.

In symbols and faith. In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant read fog as a symbol of the indeterminate: the moment when the old forms have vanished and the new ones have not yet arrived. In Japanese painting, bands of mist (kasumi) mark a passage of time or a marvelous stretch of the story. In Irish texts, a fog precedes important revelations. The authors also note that dreams set in a grayish mist come from deep layers of the unconscious that are asking for clarity. In the Bible, in Exodus 13:21, the people are guided by a pillar of cloud during the day.

Bringing both readings together. Science explains why the fog appears; traditions see it as a passage. In both, it is a temporary state, not a destiny.

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

What dream books say

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan records fog as difficulties in life and trouble in love. It is a reading that takes the uncomfortable side of not seeing anything ahead.

Man and His Symbols, the book edited by Jung, is wary of this kind of table: dreams are individual phenomena, and their symbols cannot be catalogued. For someone who grew up in a mountain town, fog may bring back hot coffee and holidays; for someone who almost crashed the car in a fog bank, something else entirely.

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

Folk beliefs about this dream

In folk reading, fog stands for doubts, secrets or a lack of clarity. White fog is usually read as a sign of peace or spiritual protection, dark fog as a difficult phase, and mist that opens up as a solution drawing near. These are cultural readings, good for reflection, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.