Dreaming that someone is trying to kill you: what it can mean

Dreaming that someone is trying to kill you: 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 someone is trying to kill you is not a premonition and does not reveal that anyone wishes you dead. The dream tends to show up during phases when a person feels like a target: of pressure at work, of gossip, of a dispute, of criticism at home or on social media. It also comes from sheer exhaustion, when everything seems to weigh against you at the same time.

It is related to two other dreams, but it is not the same as either of them. In dreaming about being chased, the threat runs after you and often you do not even know what it wants. In dreaming about a murder, the center is the crime, which you may only witness. Here the threat has a direction and an intention: it is you, and it means to kill. That certainty is often what frightens people most when they wake up.

Read also: Dreaming about being shot and Dreaming about being stabbed.

What research observes about this nightmare

For Antti Revonsuo, who proposed the threat simulation hypothesis in 2000, dreaming would be a nightly rehearsal of danger: the brain builds scenes of attack, escape and hiding to train responses. An enemy with a clear intention is the most complete script for that training. Some people run, some hide, some negotiate and some fight back, and each strategy says something about how the person handles pressure while awake.

The theme is common. In the online study of recent nightmares by Michael Schredl and Anja Göritz, published in 2018, the plots they found included being chased, physical aggression, and the death or injury of someone close. Physical threat against yourself or against the people you love is frequent material at night, not a sign of something rare.

Sources: Revonsuo, The reinterpretation of dreams, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2000; Schredl and Göritz, Nightmare Themes, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

Versions of the dream and what usually goes with them

The last scene unsettles many people. In 2014, Schredl and Mathes published a study whose title asks exactly that question: are dreams of killing someone related to waking-life aggression? The fact that the question is studied shows that research takes the theme seriously, but having the dream does not make anyone a violent person. If in the dream you were taken by force, read dreaming about a kidnapping; if you were locked in with no way out, dreaming that you are trapped; if the attacker was an open rival, dreaming about an enemy.

Source: Schredl and Mathes, Are dreams of killing someone related to waking-life aggression?, Dreaming, 2014.

See also: Dreaming about being lost and Dreaming about jumping from a high place.

When the dream calls for support

A single nightmare like this is common. It is worth seeing a health professional when it repeats often, when you start to fear going to sleep, or when the scene relives real violence. Frequent nightmares have effective treatment, such as imagery rehearsal therapy, in which the person rewrites the ending of the dream while awake. See how to have fewer nightmares.

It also deserves attention when the feeling of being a target continues after you wake up: constant suspicion that people wish you harm, difficulty leaving the house, sleep getting worse and worse. In that case, talk to a doctor or psychologist. If the threat is real, contact the police or emergency services (911 in the US); people facing domestic violence can also turn to a domestic violence hotline or local support services. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), available 24 hours a day; outside the US, look for your local crisis line.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on someone who wants to kill you

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In the first chapter of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud quotes the physiologist Stricker: when someone dreams of robbers, the robbers are imaginary, but "the fear is real". Freud draws a lesson from this that applies to this nightmare: the emotion of a dream cannot be judged like the rest of the plot. The killer may be made up; the fear you felt speaks of something true in your life.

In Jung's psychology. Jungian psychology calls the shadow the set of traits of one's own personality that a person does not recognize. In Man and His Symbols, it appears as a figure that confronts the dreamer, sometimes in a threatening way. In this key, whoever is trying to kill you may carry an anger, an ambition or a firmness that you do not allow yourself, and the question becomes what this figure wants from you.

In symbols and faith. The Bible tells how King Saul tried to pin David with a spear and how David escaped that same night (1 Samuel 19:10). Tradition attributes many psalms to David, and Psalm 27, one of them, sums up the trust of someone who feels surrounded: "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1, King James Version). Many believers read the dream as a call to prayer and speak of deliverance.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows that the brain rehearses threats and that this theme is frequent. Psychology and faith ask what, or who, makes you feel like a target right now. Neither reading treats the dream as a warning of a crime.

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

This dream in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for someone trying to kill you. The closest are murderer (in life, an unexpected visit; in love, a rival in sight) and assault (in life, success; in love, jealousy). The book, like so many in the folk tradition, reads the threat scene inside out.

Jung was wary of this kind of list. In Man and His Symbols, he reminds us that the meaning of an image depends on the dreamer's life and does not fit in a table of equivalents.

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

How folk tradition reads this dream

In Brazilian folk reading, dreaming that someone wants to kill you is often called a dream of opposites, a sign of long life. Escaping would mean overcoming a difficulty; being attacked by someone you know, a warning of envy nearby; someone trying to poison you, a call to beware of gossip. In evangelical churches, it is common to hear that the dream shows a deliverance. These are traditional beliefs, for reflection, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.