Dreaming about shrimp: catching, eating or seeing live shrimp

What a shrimp dream 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 about shrimp is no guarantee of money or prosperity, and it is not a warning of loss either. The scene tends to show up tied to desire and to getting together with people: a special lunch, a trip to the coast, a craving for something you have been avoiding. When you are the one catching the shrimp, the dream usually goes with effort and expectation; when the shrimp slip away, with the feeling of a missed chance.

For people who work in fishing or in a kitchen, shrimp are part of the daily routine, and the dream usually talks about work. This article deals with the specific scene of shrimp; dreams about fish and about the sea have articles of their own.

Read also: Dreaming about fish and Dreaming about crabs.

Why shrimp end up on the dream's plate

According to the continuity hypothesis, from Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann (2003), dreams follow the concerns and interests of waking life. Shrimp come in through many doors: the weekend moqueca (a Brazilian seafood stew), the beach kiosk, the shrimp bobó at a family party, a recipe video, the fish market. People who are on a diet, or who avoid shrimp because of an allergy, can dream about them too: what is missing during the day often shows up at night.

Food is a common theme in dreams: the typical dreams questionnaire used by Tore Nielsen and colleagues in 2003, with Canadian university students, includes eating delicious food among the themes it surveyed.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Nielsen and colleagues, Dreaming, 2003.

Shrimp in the net, in the pan and on the table: common scenes

If the scene was a party, see dreaming about a party. If food was at the center, read dreaming about food; if there was a boat and a net, dreaming about a boat.

See also: Dreaming of a hummingbird and Dreaming about a jellyfish.

When a shrimp dream deserves attention

Dreaming about shrimp is almost never a cause for concern. It deserves attention when the dream turns into a recurring nightmare, for example with scenes of choking or feeling sick that make you wake up frightened several times a week. Frequent nightmares have treatment, and a health professional can guide you. See how to have fewer nightmares.

People with a seafood allergy who dream they ate shrimp often wake up anxious. The dream does not cause any reaction at all; but if worry about the allergy has been weighing on you, it is worth talking to the doctor who follows your care.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on shrimp

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud used dreams about food to explain wish fulfillment. In The Interpretation of Dreams, he tells how his daughter Anna, at a year and a half old, went a whole day without eating after an upset stomach and, that night, recited a menu of strawberries, omelet and pudding in her sleep. In another case, a patient dreamed she wanted to give a dinner party and had nothing but a little smoked salmon; in the analysis, a wish she herself had been denying came to light. The shrimp in a dream can carry wishes like these, small or large.

In Jung's psychology. In a Jungian reading, the food in a dream can speak of what nourishes the person on the inside, not only of what is on the plate. In Man and His Symbols, each image is read in light of the dreamer's own life. Shrimp, which come from deep in the water, can stand for something rising from the unconscious that asks to be digested slowly.

In symbols and faith. Leviticus 11 classifies as unclean the water creatures that have neither fins nor scales, a group that includes shrimp; that is why the kosher diet of Judaism does not include shrimp. In most Christian churches this rule does not apply, and the book of Acts tells of Peter's vision in which God declares foods clean (Acts 10). In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant recall that water is, in many traditions, a source of life and renewal, an idea that extends to the creatures that come from it.

Bringing both readings together. Research shows how the moqueca, the diet and the beach trip bring shrimp into a dream. Traditions ask what you desire and whether you are allowing yourself to have it. Both questions fit together.

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

Shrimp in dream books

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan gives shrimp one of the most optimistic readings in the whole book: in life, good profit; in love, success. It is tradition, without proof, and it should not guide any decision about money.

Freud called this way of reading the decoding method: each image becomes a fixed word, as in a dictionary. For him, the meaning lies in the dreamer's own memories. The shrimp of someone who makes a living from fishing and the shrimp of someone who dreamed about a cousin's wedding party do not say the same thing.

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

Shrimp in folk reading and in a Brazilian saying

In Brazil, hardly anyone talks about shrimp without recalling the saying "camarão que dorme a onda leva" (the shrimp that falls asleep gets carried off by the wave), about people who get distracted and lose their turn. In the folk reading of dreams, the saying carries weight: live shrimp escaping are a chance that calls for attention; shrimp caught in large amounts, plenty; pink shrimp, generously served, celebration; raw shrimp, plans that will still ripen. Large shrimp are usually read as gain, and tiny ones as small joys. These are readings from tradition, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.