Dreaming about hands: what this dream usually 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, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about hands does not announce money on the way or a partner's betrayal. The hand is the tool we use to get things done, and the dream usually uses it to talk about action, control and contact. A firm, capable hand usually comes with confidence; a dirty or wounded hand, with guilt or tiredness; a hand that cannot reach, with the feeling of losing something or someone; another person's outstretched hand, with a need for help or for reconciliation.

What the dream does not do is predict a deal, a business arrangement or a fight. It reorganizes what the person has already lived. Even bizarre details, such as extra fingers or hands that change size, are common in dreams and say nothing about the waking body.

Read also: Dreaming about fingernails and Dreaming about a ring.

Why hands show up so often in dreams

According to the continuity hypothesis, formulated by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, the dream gathers up what fills waking life. Few parts of the body are as present in the day as the hands: they type, cook, drive, caress, sign. Someone who works with their hands, like a hairdresser, mechanic, dentist or cook, someone who has just closed a deal with a handshake, or someone who spent the afternoon holding a person's hand in the hospital has the image front and center.

The body helps too. In 1958, Dement and Wolpert recorded in the lab that outside stimuli during sleep can enter the plot. Sleeping on your arm, waking up with a numb hand, a tight ring or a cold hand outside the blanket are sensations the dream translates into a trapped hand, a heavy hand or a hand that will not respond.

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 scenes

If the scene kept coming back to washing your hands, it may be worth reading dreaming about a bath or shower and dreaming about water too, because the three images often go together.

See also: Dreaming about a zombie and Dreaming about a UFO or alien.

When to seek help

Dreaming about hands is common and, in most cases, calls for nothing. If a numb or painful hand carries on during the day, a doctor can evaluate it. And if the dream turns into a frequent nightmare, several times a week, talk to a health professional: frequent nightmares have treatment. See how to have fewer nightmares.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on hands in dreams

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud taught us to look at the dream as leftovers from the day reorganized by a wish. A hand that cannot reach someone else's may be the wish for reconciliation that the person does not admit while awake. He also observed that dreams often swap the whole for the part: instead of showing the whole person, they show only that person's hand.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung insists that every detail of the dream belongs to the dreamer. In his key, the right hand and the left hand can represent the conscious side and the lesser-known side of the person. It is a possible reading, not a rule.

In symbols and faith. In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant show the hand as a sign of power and dominion in several cultures, and recall the Hand of Fatima, the open-hand amulet used for protection in the Islamic and Jewish worlds. In the Bible, the hand appears on almost every page: Psalm 90:17 asks God to establish the work of our hands; in Isaiah 41:13, God says he holds his people by the right hand; in Matthew 27:24, Pilate washes his hands before the crowd to declare that he is not guilty, a gesture that became a saying in Portuguese, just as "to wash your hands of something" did in English.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows that the hand enters the dream through routine and through the body. Symbols ask what you have been doing with yours and whether there is something you would like to wash off or hold on to. The dream does not answer, but the question is already worth asking.

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

In dream books

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan records, in the style popular dream books have kept for generations, one meaning for life and another for love. For the hand, the line usually reads: in life, work and help; in love, a proposal or a commitment, with a dirty or wounded hand becoming a warning of difficulty. It is a recorded belief, not a prediction.

Freud called this method "decoding" and compared it to a code dictionary, in which each image has a fixed meaning. For him, the same dirty hand could speak of guilt, of hard work or of a child playing in the dirt, and only the dreamer's context decides.

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

The folk reading

In Brazilian folk tradition, the right hand is usually read as good news and the left hand as a warning, because of old sayings about luck; an open hand, as generosity; a closed hand, as thrift or pent-up anger; a dirty hand, as a shady deal; a washed hand, as relief from guilt; a handshake, as an agreement on the way; and very white or very beautiful hands, as help from someone. These are cultural readings, good for reflection, not guarantees of what will happen. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.