What it means to dream about plates or dishes (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 plates or dishes does not predict a fight at home, a loss of money or betrayal. Most of the time, the scene recycles domestic routine: the family meal, the full sink after Sunday lunch, the dishes inherited from grandma kept in the cupboard. What changes the tone of the dream is what happens to them.

Plates that fall and break usually come along with frights, haste or the feeling that something fragile slipped out of control. Dirty dishes piling up tend to go with tiredness and overdue chores. A plate full of food, in turn, appears a lot in people who went to bed hungry or have been thinking about eating better.

Read also: Dreaming about food and Dreaming about a party.

Why dishes end up in the dream

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming, reviewed by Michael Schredl in 2003, shows that dream content follows what fills the days: activities, people and worries. Someone who spends hours in the kitchen, works in a restaurant or just organized a party has plenty of material to dream about plates, cutlery and sinks.

Sounds also get into the dream. In William Dement and Edward Wolpert's 1958 experiments, stimuli applied during sleep, such as water sprayed on the skin or a sound, were sometimes woven into the dreamed story. A glass falling somewhere in the house, a door slamming or the alarm clock can turn, for a few seconds, into the crash of breaking dishes.

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 food drew more attention than the dishes, see also dreaming about food.

See also: Dreaming about nails and Dreaming about perfume.

If the dream keeps coming back: when to seek help

Dreaming about broken dishes now and then is common and points to no problem. If the sound of shattering glass starts waking you in the middle of the night several times a week, or if your sleep becomes light and tiring, it is worth talking to a health professional. There are effective ways to reduce frequent nightmares.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In the first chapter of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud gathers accounts of stimuli that invade the dream. In one of them, someone sees a maid carrying dozens of stacked plates down the hallway, warns that everything is going to fall, and the dishes do slip and shatter; the crash was the alarm clock ringing. Freud also cites a researcher who, on a diet and hungry, saw a plate and a hand with a fork as he fell asleep, and then dreamed of a lavish table. The scene recalls the Freudian idea of the dream as wish fulfillment.

In Jung's psychology. In the Jungian key, the dream tends to compensate for what conscious life exaggerates or leaves aside. A sink of dishes that never ends can be read as the portrait of a routine that weighs more than one admits during the day, and not as a message about the future.

In the Dictionary of Symbols. Chevalier and Gheerbrant recall that the Holy Grail of medieval legends often appears as a simple concave dish carried by a maiden. In the stories of the knights of the Round Table, it gave each one the dish of meat he preferred, with a meaning close to that of the cornucopia: nourishment, abundance and the gift of life.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows where the dishes come from: from routine and even from the noises of the house. Tradition asks what that plate represents to you, whether plenty, sharing or weight. Both questions fit together.

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

What dream dictionaries record

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan gives the plate a reading that is anything but domestic: in life, bad behavior; in love, betrayal. It is a good example of how these popular dictionaries assign a fixed meaning to each object, without asking whether the plate was full, empty, clean or in pieces.

Freud called this procedure the decoding method: each image is swapped for another according to a ready-made key, as in a code. He found the method insufficient, because it ignores who dreamed and what they were going through. For someone who spent the afternoon washing the dishes from a party, the plate in the dream probably says more about the afternoon than about love.

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

Folk beliefs about this dream

In folk reading, a full plate is usually associated with plenty and a well-laid table; a broken plate, with family disagreements or a phase coming to an end; dirty dishes, with pending matters that call for attention; and new dishes, with changes at home or visitors arriving. Some searches also bring up the offering plate, which in several traditions has a religious meaning of its own and should be read within each house of faith. These are cultural readings, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.