Dream of a Ghost: Meaning, Symbolism and Sleep Paralysis

← Back to Dream dictionary

A presence that goes unnamed

A ghost in a dream can take many forms: a white silhouette, a familiar face, a voice, a noise in the house, or simply a presence you sense without seeing it. Some dreams unfold in the childhood home or in an unfamiliar house that feels haunted.

Two experiences often blur together. The first is an ordinary dream, with its own storyline. The second is sleep paralysis, in which you wake up unable to move and feel or see someone in the room. Both are common and harmless, even though they can be very frightening.

Ghosts in traditions

Stories of returning spirits appear in every culture: the ghosts of Greek tragedy, the yūrei of Japanese tales, the revenants of European folklore, the spirits of ancestors. In Europe, the ghost is often a soul that cannot find rest because of an injustice, a secret or a missing funeral rite.

The French word for nightmare, "cauchemar", contains "mare", a Germanic term for a spirit that oppressed the sleeper. Johann Heinrich Füssli's famous painting The Nightmare (1781) shows a sleeping woman with an incubus sitting on her chest. In Newfoundland people spoke of the "Old Hag", a witch who sat on the chests of sleepers. The folklorist David Hufford showed in his book The Terror That Comes in the Night (1982) that these accounts describe a very similar experience from one country to another: sleep paralysis.

Belief in ghosts belongs to each person's traditions. Science has never established that they exist, but it does explain well why some experiences feel like an encounter.

What science says about sleep

During REM sleep (the phase of the most vivid dreams), the body is almost paralysed: this is normal, and it prevents us from "acting out" our dreams. In sleep paralysis, you wake while this paralysis persists for a few seconds to a few minutes. Hallucinations often accompany it: a sense of a presence, a figure, a weight on the chest, sounds. According to a 2011 review by Brian Sharpless and Jacques Barber covering 35 studies, about 8% of the general population experiences it at least once, and up to 28% of students.

Several factors increase how often it happens, according to studies: lack of sleep, irregular schedules, stress, sleeping on your back. There is no dangerous mechanism: the episode stops on its own. If these episodes are frequent, a doctor can discuss them with you, in particular to check for other sleep disorders.

Psychological readings of the dreamed ghost

Freud, in The Uncanny (1919), saw the ghost as one of the figures of the strange: a familiar figure that becomes frightening. The Jungian reading often links the ghost to the Shadow, those parts of ourselves we have refused to see, or to the past that has not been integrated. The ghost would be what keeps returning because it has not been heard.

Put more simply: a dreamed ghost can represent a burdensome memory, a past relationship, grief, guilt, an old fear or a family secret. Contemporary psychology reminds us that we dream about what occupies us, and that dreams readily borrow imagery from films and stories.

Depending on the dream's context

In the dream	Possible reading
A familiar ghost (a loved one who has died)	Grief, memory, a bond that continues (see Deceased people)
An unknown ghost	A memory or a vague worry
You are being chased by a ghost	Something you are running away from; see Being pursued
You speak to the ghost	A dialogue with the past, a possible reconciliation
The house is haunted	A past that weighs on the home; see House
You sense a presence on waking, unable to move	Very probably sleep paralysis, which is harmless
You are yourself a ghost	A feeling of invisibility, of not being seen, or of standing apart from your own life

Some possible readings

• An unresolved past: a memory that keeps "coming back".
• Grief, or an absence that is still present.
• The Shadow: what we avoid looking at within ourselves.
• The imagery of a film or story that slips into the night.
• A sleep phenomenon (paralysis, hallucination on waking).

A few basic sleep tips: regular bedtimes, a cool and dark bedroom, few screens in the evening, and avoiding heavy late meals. They guarantee nothing, but they help some people. See Dreams and sleep.

Warning and support

A dreamed ghost is neither a sign of a coming event nor proof of illness. If you see or hear things while awake and outside of falling asleep or waking up, if you are constantly afraid, or if the episodes disrupt your sleep, consult a doctor. If grief or trauma is involved, a psychologist can support you. In distress, 3114 (the national suicide prevention line in France) answers day and night; in an emergency, call 15 or 112 (the emergency number across the European Union). For nightmares, read Nightmares and night terrors.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Dream dictionary.