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Flying dreams: what research says
Flying dreams are typical dreams that roughly half of people remember having at least once: 48 percent of Canadian students and 64 percent of German students reported one1,2. In any given night they are rare, under 2 percent of dreams in one long diary4. They are mostly pleasant and closely tied to lucid dreaming. Research gives them no fixed meaning and finds nothing predictive in them.
How common are flying dreams?
The figure depends a great deal on the question asked, which is why reports vary so widely. Asked whether they have ever dreamed of flying or soaring through the air, about half of students say yes. Asked about the last few months, far fewer do. Counted dream by dream, flying is a small fraction. The table sets the main studies side by side.
| Study | Who was asked | Question | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nielsen et al. 2003{1} | 1,181 Canadian first-year students | Ever dreamed of flying or soaring | About 48% |
| Schredl et al. 2004{2} | 444 people in Germany | Ever dreamed of flying or soaring | About 64% |
| Schredl & Piel 2007{3} | 5,941 adults, four representative German samples | Flying dream in the last few months | 7.5% |
| Schredl 2011{4} | One dreamer's diary of 6,701 dreams | Share of dreams with unaided flying | 1.72% (115 dreams) |
Michael Schredl and Elisabeth Piel also compared their survey with older German data and found that the share of people reporting flying dreams rose between 1956 and 2000. They suggest the rise might reflect how much more people travel by air, which would fit the continuity hypothesis: dreams draw on what waking life contains3. It is a suggestion, and the authors frame it as one.
What actually happens in a flying dream?
The most detailed look at the content comes from one long dream series. Of 6,701 dreams recorded by a single person, 115 included flying without a plane or other aid. They varied a great deal in the position of the body while flying, in what set the flight off, in the way of flying, and in whether other people flew too or saw the dreamer in the air4. Dreams of ordinary flying, in an aircraft, were linked to the dreamer's real flights, while non-lucid dreams of flying unaided were not4. Schredl adds that the emotional side of flying dreams and its link to waking mood still needs large diary studies4.
Freud already noted in 1913 that flying dreams are "for the most part characterised by delight" and that no general statement can be made about what they mean: they "signify something different in each case"7. His own idea was that they replay the movement games of childhood, the adult swinging the child through the air, with the holding hands left out7. That is an interpretation from his practice, not a finding anyone has tested. It sits next to falling, its unpleasant twin, which has its own page on falling dreams.
Why are flying dreams linked to lucid dreaming?
People have long said that flying and lucid dreaming go together, and the data back the link, though not in the direction often assumed. Deirdre Barrett studied 1,910 dreams from 191 people and found that those who reported lucid dreams, or related experiences such as false awakenings, were more likely to report flying dreams. When flying and lucidity happened in the same dream, lucidity came first and the flight followed; flying did not trigger the realisation that it was a dream5. In Schredl's diary, too, being lucid changed the character of the flying dreams4.
Among people who already have lucid dreams, flying is a favourite plan. In an online survey of 684 people, 571 of whom (83.5 percent) were lucid dreamers, respondents said they tended to be active in lucid dreams and to set out to do particular things, with flying the first example the authors give, ahead of talking with dream characters and having sex. They did not always manage: plans were often cut short by waking up or by obstacles in the dream6. The average lucid dream lasted about 14 minutes6. If you want to try this deliberately, the guide to lucid dreaming covers the methods with the best evidence.
What can you do with a flying dream?
Write it down soon after waking, because the details fade quickly and they are where the interest lies. How did the flight start? Could you steer, or did you drift? Did it end in a fall, or did you land? Were you alone? In theDreamly's terms the Jungian reading looks at the image of rising above, and the cognitive reading asks where in your waking life you have recently felt free, or wished you could get above a situation. Kept over months in a dream journal, flying dreams often turn out to cluster in particular periods, and that pattern says more than any single dream.
Dream dictionaries usually tie flying to success, freedom or ambition. Those readings are what many people hear, but the research gives no fixed meaning and nothing about the future; even Freud refused a general rule7. How far any dream can be read, and by which methods, is the subject of the page on dream interpretation.
Common questions
What does it mean when you dream about flying?
There is no fixed meaning in the research. Flying is a typical dream that about half of students remember having at least once, and it is usually pleasant1,2. It is more common in people who have lucid dreams5. The useful question is what the flight felt like and what was going on in your waking life at the time.
How common are flying dreams?
It depends on how you count. About 48 percent of Canadian and 64 percent of German students said they had ever dreamed of flying1,2. In representative German samples of 5,941 adults, 7.5 percent reported one in the last few months3. In one long dream diary, 1.72 percent of 6,701 dreams included flying without a plane4.
Are flying dreams a sign of lucid dreaming?
They are linked. In a study of 1,910 dreams, people who had lucid dreams were more likely to report flying dreams, but when both happened together the dreamer usually became lucid first and then flew5. Among lucid dreamers, flying is one of the most popular things to plan, though plans are often interrupted by waking up6.
Why do I sometimes fall while flying in a dream?
Flying and falling often appear together because both are dreams of movement through the air, and losing control of a flight can turn one into the other. Research has not found a single cause. Writing down when the switch happens, and how you felt just before it, gives you more to work with than a dictionary meaning would.
Can you learn to fly in your dreams?
Many people who learn lucid dreaming say flying is one of the first things they try. In a survey of 571 lucid dreamers, flying was the first example of planned lucid actions, yet people often failed to carry out their plans because they woke up or met obstacles in the dream6. Lucid dreaming itself can be practised with techniques that have some research support.
Flying dreams fade fast after waking. theDreamly lets you speak one into your phone before it goes, then shows over the months when the flights come and what tends to surround them.
Download on the App StoreRead next
- Lucid dreaming: the basics
- Dreams of falling: what sleep research says
- What a dream journal is and how to keep one
- Dream interpretation: what psychology actually knows
Sources
- Nielsen TA, Zadra AL, Simard V, Saucier S, Stenstrom P, Smith C, Kuiken D (2003). The typical dreams of Canadian university students. Dreaming, 13(4), 211-235. doi.org/10.1023/B:DREM.0000003144.40929.0b
- Schredl M, Ciric P, Götz S, Wittmann L (2004). Typical dreams: stability and gender differences. The Journal of Psychology, 138(6), 485-494. doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.138.6.485-494
- Schredl M, Piel E (2007). Prevalence of flying dreams. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 105(2), 657-660. doi.org/10.2466/pms.105.2.657-660
- Schredl M (2011). Frequency and nature of flying dreams in a long dream series. International Journal of Dream Research, 4(1), 31-34. doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2011.1.9077
- Barrett D (1991). Flying dreams and lucidity: an empirical study of their relationship. Dreaming, 1(2), 129-134. doi.org/10.1037/h0094325
- Stumbrys T, Erlacher D, Johnson M, Schredl M (2014). The phenomenology of lucid dreaming: an online survey. The American Journal of Psychology, 127(2), 191-204. doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.127.2.0191
- Freud S (1913). The Interpretation of Dreams, trans. A. A. Brill from the third German edition. Macmillan, chapter V, section (d) Typical Dreams. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66048