Dreams about flying: what happens in the brain

What this dream usually points to (and what it doesn't)

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme.

Dreaming that you fly is not a sign of freedom earned or a warning about anything. It is one of the most common dream themes in the population, alongside being chased, falling and losing teeth.

Source: Nielsen et al., The Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students, Dreaming, 2003.

Read also: Dreaming about death: why it happens and what it does not mean and Dreaming about dogs: what that dream usually reflects, Dreaming about the sky or clouds.

Why the scene feels so vivid

Studies recording brain activity have identified a region at the back of the brain whose activity tracks the act of dreaming, and vivid dreams engage areas tied to movement and spatial perception.

Source: Siclari et al., The neural correlates of dreaming, Nature Neuroscience, 2017.

During REM sleep the body is almost immobile while the brain stays active. That combination helps explain the weightless feeling.

The link with lucid dreaming

Flying is one of the scenes most cited by people who have lucid dreams, when you realise you are dreaming and can sometimes steer what happens. An EEG study found that lucid dreaming shows an intermediate pattern of brain activity, with features of both REM sleep and wakefulness.

Source: Voss et al., Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming, Sleep, 2009.

See also: Dreams about teeth falling out and Dreams about falling and the jolt as you fall asleep.

Can lucid dreaming be trained?

An Australian study tested three habits combined: reality checks during the day, waking about five hours after falling asleep and, on going back to sleep, mentally repeating the intention to notice you are dreaming, a technique known as MILD. Among participants who applied it as instructed, lucid dreams rose meaningfully within a week.

One caveat: deliberately breaking your night is a bad idea for anyone who already sleeps poorly.

Source: Aspy et al., Reality testing and the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams, Dreaming, 2017.

What dream books say

Freud saw flying dreams as transformed memories of childhood games, when an adult made the child "fly" around the room in their arms; in the dream, the supporting hands disappear and the person floats alone. He himself admitted he had no complete explanation and that the meaning may change from person to person. Livro do Sonho, a popular Brazilian dream dictionary, has a more direct reading: flying would point to an idealistic person who tends to live in a world of fantasy. The Brazilian dream book O Livro dos Sonhos, by L. P. Baçan, is upbeat too: flying would point to social growth in life and to fun in love.

Freud described dream books as a kind of dictionary that translates each image into another with a fixed meaning. Artemidorus of Daldis, author of the oldest complete Greek dream book that has survived, advised looking at the dreamer's life before interpreting. If you see the dream as a message, both paths suggest the same thing: ask what this image brings to mind in your life right now. See dream meanings according to science and culture.

Source: Livro do Sonho, Brazilian dream dictionary; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud weighed an explanation popular in his day: the flying dream would be the mind translating the rise and fall of the lungs as we breathe. He rejected it, noting, as the researcher Strümpell had, that such dreams would then be far more frequent. For Freud, the feeling of floating is part of the memory the dream revives, not its cause, and the pleasure of childhood games in which an adult lifted the child up can turn into anxiety.

In Jung's psychology. Jung counted flying among the typical motifs, alongside falling and being chased, but insisted that no symbol can be separated from the person who dreamed it. In Man and His Symbols, the compensatory function gets a direct example: people with grandiose plans or unrealistic ideas dream that they fly or fall, as if the dream were trying to restore their psychological balance.

In symbols and faith. Chevalier and Gheerbrant observe in A Dictionary of Symbols that in every tradition wings are not given but earned, and that the Taoist Immortals could rise into the air. They also cite Gaston Bachelard, for whom, in dreams, the power to fly lies in the feet, like the wings on the heels of Hermes. In Psalm 55:6, the psalmist sighs: “Oh that I had wings like a dove.” In The Spirits' Book, Allan Kardec describes sleep as a time when the ties between spirit and body loosen; in that view, the feeling of flying takes on a spiritual meaning.

Bringing both views together. Neuroscience explains the lightness through a still body and an active brain; faith and myth speak of the soul and of rising. Notice the detail that changes everything: were you flying with ease, with effort or with the fear of falling?

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; Chevalier and Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Kardec, The Spirits' Book.

What folk tradition links to this dream

In popular reading, flying stands for freedom, overcoming and good news. It is pleasant, harmless symbolism, as long as nobody makes a decision based on it.

See also dream meanings.

Read also: what lucid dreaming is and how it happens; when the flight is on a plane; sunny skies in dreams.