By James Wallace Harris, June 29, 2015 (Updated 5/9/21)
I hope this doesn’t reveal some sort of deep embarrassing Freudian complex, but my whole sleep last night was filled with dinosaur dreams. Ever since I was about five years old I’ve had occasional dreams about dinosaurs. They aren’t real common, but they happen now and then, and they vary in details. Last night’s dreams were somewhat typical. I’ll be with a bunch of other people, at home, school, work, outside in a city location, on a crosswalk, etc., and suddenly a dinosaur or dinosaurs would show up, and everyone panics.
In the dream we all know the way to avoid being eaten is to be lying down, don’t move, and be quiet. But there’s always someone nearby that keeps blabbing or moving around that draws attention to the dinosaurs causing me to fear for my safety and makes me very annoyed at the noisemaker. For some reason, the dinosaurs won’t notice us if we don’t move or make noise. I never get eaten myself, or the people I know, but I’m always afraid some dumbass is going to get me, or us, killed. I’m always annoyed in these dreams that other people are not freezing and shutting up.
The funny thing is I had these dreams all night long. Even after I got up and went to pee, and went back to sleep. Even very early in the morning when I was waking up over and over again, every time wondering if I should get up. Each time I fell back asleep I had another dinosaur dream. It was one scene after another, with different groups of people, in different locations, and in each scene, there was a dinosaur attack. One scene involved my sister, and another my wife Susan, but it was always strangers causing trouble. I don’t think I ever saw a dinosaur eat someone, but I knew they were in the distance, so the panic to hide was strong. These dreams last night weren’t quite nightmares, but they did involve a kind of anxiety.
If dreams are sorting through the day’s events and filing long-term memories, what did I do yesterday to deserve dinosaur dreams last night? And do other people have dinosaur dreams? I hope these dreams don’t indicate some kind of weird psychological disorder.
When I was young, I guess around five, I had my first dinosaur dream. I lived out in the country in South Carolina in an old two-story house. My family didn’t use the second story, but my three-year-old sister and I would go up there to play, but it was creepy. I would dream about those upstairs rooms as if they were evil. That was one of my earliest reoccurring dreams, along with dreams of flying. But it was during this time that I had my first dinosaur dream. I and other people were working in this huge gravel pit, and we were slaves to dinosaurs and had to stand in dinosaur shit as we worked. Later on, when I saw The Flintstones, the pit we worked in reminded me of this show. But this dream was three or four years before The Flintstones appeared in 1960.
I’ve always wondered when I first learned about dinosaurs. My oldest memories of dinosaurs are from these dreams, but how did I learn about dinosaurs to dream about them? I remember as a kid after I started having these dreams, of playing with plastic dinosaurs and learning their names. My little buddies and I liked to collect and trade these plastic dinosaurs, and we seem to know all about them. I don’t remember being taught about dinosaurs in school, or even reading about them. I’ve always assumed knowledge about dinosaurs is imprinted in little boys’ brains, like some kind of ancestral memory.
I’ve written about dinosaur dreams before, back in 2008. I had completely forgotten I had written this, and the dream I described. The dream back then was somewhat different, a more science-fictional version, because people were protected from the dinosaurs by force fields.
Does dreaming about dinosaurs mean anything? At Dream Moods, which has a page explaining animal symbols in dreams, it says this about dinosaurs:
To see a dinosaur in your dream symbolizes an outdated attitude. You may need to discard your old ways of thinking and habits.
To dream that you are being chased by a dinosaur, indicates your fears of no longer being needed or useful. Alternatively, being chased by a dinosaur, may reflect old issues that are still coming back to haunt you.
I wonder if I have a problem with outdated attitudes? But this commentary seems no more scientific than astrology. I am not the only person troubled with dinosaur dreams as reflected in the Yahoo Answers column. It’s odd, but a couple of people who replied copied the statement I quote above, and it’s repeated on other websites. Just shows how bullshit spreads across the internet. At least at the Dream Dictionary, they had something a bit deeper, but still on the woo-woo side. It reassures me that other people have dinosaur dreams, so I ain’t the only crazy one here. In fact, there are many dream interpretation sites that cover dinosaurs in dreams, and many people posting about dreaming of dinosaurs. At Jurassic World, they even have a page collecting dinosaur dreams.
Are dreams even symbolic? I have no idea. It seems my dreams are saying something very big will destroy me if I stand out, and that other people are constantly being destroyed for making themselves known. Hunkering down and being quiet sounds rather cowardly to me in waking life. When I was young and had nightmares I used to kill anything that tried to hurt me. The violence of my dreams was disturbing because it was like the violence of modern video games, but these dreams were decades before such games were invented.
I can’t think of anything I did or experienced yesterday that would trigger dreams about avoiding death, or large issues. I had a nice quiet day of reading books and listening to music, and then last night my friend Anne came over for dinner and we watched Empire Falls, an old HBO mini-series based on the Richard Russo book. Empire Falls is about a man with a repressed past that never speaks his mind. I did identify with Miles Roby, the Ed Harris character because I hold things in to avoid emotional conflicts. Are the dinosaurs of my dreams potential emotional conflicts? At least this theory works with dreams because the way to be safe in the dream is to be quiet and avoid attention. Also, the people who get eaten by dinosaurs are the loud people who won’t shut up.
This is embarrassing because now I am revealing something.
I guess I’ve got to wait for the dinosaurs to show up.
JWH
Update 5/9/21:
I had a dream last night where aliens were attacking people in the same way dinosaurs attack people in the dinosaur dreams. Instead of eating us, they zapped us with some kind of energy gun. I’ve had similar dreams where giants were attacking people, and they killed people by crushing them. In each of these dreams hiding is the key to survival, and those people who stick out are the ones caught by dinosaurs, space aliens, and giants.
I realize now that the role of T-Rex, space alien, and giant are the same in all these dreams. They represent the bad things in life, threats that kill people. And the message of the dream is some people do survive by avoiding these dangers of life. Evidently, my subconscious is telling me to keep a low profile because that’s the best way to avoid getting hurt or killed.
However, I think last night’s dream was inspired by reading chapter 3 of Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. That chapter was scarier than anything Stephen King ever wrote. It’s about how our bodies decay as we age and how we become less capable of taking care of ourselves. This was illustrated with horrifying case studies. Gawande does give an overview of how society has helped the elderly over the years, and what people can do to help themselves, but death is the only escape from this fate. There is no avoiding old age by hiding like I do from the dinosaurs, giants, and space aliens.
Auxiliary Memory 
I especially like the part where you lie down and stay quiet …. I could do this.
I have had several dreams about dinosaurs attacks, but for some reason I always seem to survive them. All of the people in my dinosaur dreams, are strangers. They always seem to have Velociraptors and T-Rex. I haven’t had much interpreting these dreams.
Maybe it means you need to let go of the past and more forward! Like you said new attitude and new way of thinking! May the fore be with you! ❤️
I dreamt last night that 3 T Rex’s invaded our city. First image they were eating people off rollercoaster at the amusement park then I remember being on the EL and the train out running them. I was never a specific target but was terrified non the less. I remember constantly trying to find the best hiding spot. Finally a T. rex pushed over a several story home I lived in?? Possibly a tall condo but my home was not destroyed. Then the T Rex’s moved on toward St Louis. Super wild dream. Like many others not my first Dino 🦖 dream
No dinosaurs in my dream, just endless, apocalyptic night, sometimes monsters, but mostly just dark & desolation.
So Craig, how do you interpret your dreams? It sounds like they are post-apocalyptic dreams. I love post-apocalyptic science fiction, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in such a world, or even dream about it.
Simply answered, I don’t. It would be to me like trying to interpret a bowl of oatmeal and about as useful. I treat them as fictions my brain creates to keep it amused while the body (weak ass that is) catches up on its needed rest
Now as to “living it”, it isn’t all bad, we have at least one armored SUV, a Subruban or Tahoe from what I remember, and a safe building with electric lights and a smoking hot blond. So not all bad. Still it is exciting (which baffles me since I am not the front line grunt type, so going on external rescue missions is generally not my thing, but I am a gamer *shrugs* and the brain likes to play).
So in the end, it is more like watching a movie or playing a game or even living in dreamtime, but no interpretations.
Gak, ethics and honesty.
Okay, while I don’t interpret my dreams, it does unnerve me that no one I know personally has good dreams. I do in my tinfoil hat moments worry that I dream my future, that I am seeing the results of humanity’s current attitudes. I fear the fall of the civilization and technology I need to live (I have an ostomy, so without plastics tech I die) and if anything my dreams are nothing more than that fear being the basis for why my dreams are like they are.
I’m not sure I’d want to live without civilization. If civilization collapsed I wouldn’t commit suicide, but damn, living conditions would be so awful that I’d wished I was dead.
Just to live without air conditioning would be miserable. I’m not sure if I could live without the internet. I could, but I’d hate it. It would be like losing my sight or hearing, because the internet has become like a sixth sense.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever had purely pleasurable and hedonistic dreams, even my sex dreams were full of conflicts and anxiety. I’m amazed by the complexity of my dreams sometimes, or at least the illusion of complexity. I think my unconscious mind is very creative. I hardly ever have nightmares anymore, but when I do, they are philosophical. My scariest dreams are about not being able to wake up, or about God. Since I’m an atheist, it’s rather disturbing sometimes to encounter God in my dreams. Although, I have had some wonderful dreams with God. I once had sex with God – he was a matronly woman, who was very grandmotherly and caring – man, the Freudians are going to go nuts over that one.
Over the years I’ve died in my dreams. If thing just went black and I woke up I didn’t mind dying. But if I died and then continued to exist, it was scary. One of the scariest dreams I ever had was going to heaven. I don’t remember if the fear was of heaven or continued existence after death.
Some of my dreams have been very complex, like a tightly plotted novel. This makes me wonder if my unconscious mind is more powerful than my conscious mind.
Damn you have a varied dreamlife. The last sex dream I had was when I was kid and oddly a virgin, not so much since then unless you count smooching in one which also was the only time I have ever flown in a dream. Not so much a dream with God(s), but I have one rather cosmic dream wherein I did get to see lovely spheres of blue-white maths that explained everything, but mostly it is just the end of the world as we know it and I do not feel fine.
Blue-white maths sound really far out.
Oh, I haven’t even begun to convey the weirdness of my dreams. I read a lot of science fiction, and I have been many kinds of creatures and beings in my dreams, and lived on many worlds.
My sex dreams are becoming more and more rare, and always surprised me when they happen now. Still? Really?
It was ultra-groovy. Just infinite shells of them that faded to a haze in the far distance where things were still in flux and chaos. Plus I could and did zoom in and then it turned out many of the formula were full of symbols that stood for entire other bits of math. All very fractal and beautiful.
Mostly, though I have pretty boring dreams, I mean I am fully involved (none of that 3rd person observer stuff, usually and mostly when I am near waking) when I do remember them and some times I can influence them, but mostly it like life in the now.
Wow! I’ve had being chased by dinosaur dreams since a small child too. I used to have one once a month. It was all about hiding. The Dino was in fact a t-Rex or Godzilla. I watched Godzilla 1985 when I was 5 so maybe that was why? The dreams got better once I started turning around and confronting the monster where it usually turned into an Asian man smoking a cigar. My dream would immediately go to something soothing after confronting it like seeing fireworks or eating candy.
I just remembered I had a dinosaur dream last night. I can’t believe I’m still having them. I think the current one represents the Republican regime.
Way to ruin it with politics
Hello sir I don’t know if your Gonna read this but I always had these dreams of my dad getting killed by a t-Rex I think I started having these dreams at my first house that I lived in when I was in my childhood and know I am 14 a teen I still have these dreams I think it got worst I see my dad getting blown up and torn apart it’s scary I try not to fall asleep but i do and right know I woke up I sleep a lot I try to escape the real world I even tell myself that if I have the same dream again I will kill the t-Rex I did twice but I am scared it’s embarrassing to say this i am always trying to act tough even tho I am not I try to change but I can’t I don’t know how I don’t like asking for help because I feel weak and I am, I cry a lot also when I lived at my first house my parents Always fought a lot all the time everyday every week the whole year it was scary I would always my mom hit my dad and saying I am going to leave I was so scared i was scared to lose my dad and see him hurt !. Help me
I’m not sure I can help you. I have no professional experience. And I never had kids. However, I recommend you print out this comment you sent and show it to each of your parents. That might start a conversation. My parents fought a lot too and maybe my dinosaur dreams were related to that. Looking back I regret I never tried talking to my parents about my problems and fears. It might help if you could learn how.
Hi Craig, I had a long time girlfriend dreams about dinosaur almost every night. Being chased by dinosaur and try to eat her up. Every night she refused to sleep early due to the dream. She became so tense when I tried to touch her. Our relationship become sour. Is there a solution or suggestion to prevent dinosaur dreams?
When I was young I heard something that worked. I was told to always confront your attacker in dreams. That’s hard to do, but if you think about it enough while your awake you’ll do it in your dreams.
Uhhh. Lots of good sex or drugs? Then again it didn’t stop mine from having them either, but at least it wasn’t the reason we are not together. Honestly, you might want to take James’ suggestion. Sorry, but I never really had to deal with such a situation. Also if the dreams are causing that kind of friction you might want to suggest seeking professional help, could be some sort of pysch issue and I am less than qualified to deal with those.
Thanks Craig and James.
hi ,
I am so glad i found this post. I have recurring dinosaur dreams, similar to yours. I dont get eaten up but there is always someone who does. I normally have vivid dreams and I tend to analyse them and make sense, but the dinosuars just dont make sense. Neither do the explanations of an outmoded thought process which I read up on the internet. The problem now is that I am getting these dinosaur dreams more often than usual and they are getting more and more vivid. I feel scared and sometimes continue to think about them during the day, almost fearing an attack sometimes
Is there anything happening during the day that could explain the dinosaur dreams? I tend to think dreams are your brain filing things away symbolically.
By the way, this page is getting 10-15 hits a day, so a fair number of people are having dinosaur dreams. I wonder if it will go up after Jurassic Park comes out?
I had a dream where I had escaped from Jurassic Park (or an island fall of dinosaurs like it) and when I had returned home, all the dinosaurs started taking over the rest of the world. Somehow this lead to Velociraptors nesting in some aluminium scraps in my Garage. At first they were hidden away, but they started to attack a group of my family and friends that were hiding at my home. I tried to rescue some of my family whom the Velociraptors were viciously attacking and as we were fleeing, I was caught by a Velociraptor and then a whole lot of them started ripping me to shreds and eating me. They killed me. Suddenly I was on a couch in a strange room. This strange room was apparently in my house. Anyhow, I was relieved as I was with my family and alive. We were watching the news as the world had recovered from the dinosaur thing, but there were many casualties. My mum and brother were crying. I then started to realize that the events that I had dreamed had actually happened. This is about the time that my father informed me that I had died. I took my shirt off to reveal scratches and deep scars were born all over my stomach and chest from the attack. Somehow, though I wasn’t bleeding from these marks nor was there any evidence to suggest I had bled from these marks. Terrified I asked my dad how I was talking ton him and he said he was dead too. Throughout my dream my brother was talking to me as though I were alive until I asked him why he could see me and he said that he couldn’t. That he had just gone crazy with all the grief and was hearing voices. Crying I fled my home when on reflection I realized I had to be dreaming.
I know that is a lot to process but I’ve had dinosaur dreams before, but lately my nightmares have not only been frightening, but depressing as well. It could just be that I was watching Jurassic Park 3 the night I had the dream.
Can you analyse this?
I know I’ve tried and I can’t.
Nothing seems obvious, but I don’t know you. You should talk with friends and family, and they might see connections.
I have died many times in my dreams. I have been in heaven, hell, on other planets, and even been alien beings on other worlds. I once dreamed I had sex with God, who was a matronly woman who was a lot of fun. I’m not sure dreams are supposed to make sense. But sometimes they fit with something that’s happened to you. Do you feel anything else is eating you in life? Sometimes you can connect them to a trigger. I’m not sure if we need to know about our dreams, and I’m generally happier when I don’t remember my dreams and get a good night’s sleep.
OMG!! I JUAT HAD A JURRASIC PARK LIKE DREAM LAST NIGHT..JUST HOW YOU DESCRIBES ALSO..NO ONE GETS HURT OR KILLED..JUST SCATTERED RUNNING SCARED..AND I ALSO HAVE AWOKEN UP SEVERAL TIMES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND RETURNED TO THE DINOSAUR DREAM. SOME STUFF HAVE COME UP RECENTLY FROM THE PAST…WHAT A COINCIDENCE.LOVE IT 🙂
I can’t believe how many people dream dinosaur dreams. And for months now I get 10-30 hits a day on that article, so someone is always researching that idea on Google.
OH ..AND LOVE YOUR BLOG BTW 🙂
Wow. Glad I’m not alone! I’ve had dinosaur dreams every now and then but last night was SO VIVID. I was in a school and suddenly we all had to hide in this room but a velociraptor (spelling might be off) broke through the wall so we all scattered and then it was like time skipped ahead to where people were joining together to try to tame them, throwing them cows and stuff, we made giant dinosaur look a like trucks to take materials and food to people who were hiding and stuff.. Craziness! I’ve had crazy dreams for about a week now. Every night and they’re so different….
I have the same recurring dinosaur attack dream as well. I’m hanging out with faulty and friends and people I dint know then all of a sudden, this weird looking t-rex dinosaur starts attacking. I get everyone in a safe place in the mountains while the dinosaur rips through the city reading people, children, and people with diseases. Then all of a sudden, he heads toward the mountains we are in. He’s practically on top of us when I wake up.
I have this dream from time to time. I will occasionally have other dreams of dinosaurs that aren’t harmful but helpful. But I just had the dinosaur attack dream again last night. Looking for answers.
Evidently a lot of people have these dinosaur dreams. This page gets 20-30 hits a day. That’s not much in the big scheme of things, but it means at least that many people look up dinosaur dreams every day.
I have had basically that same dreams as yours! From when I was very young to, well…last night. Same thing, myself and a group of people.were being chased, the only way to get away from them was to lye down and hide, bit other people just wouldn’t shut up and the dinosaur would come right up to me. I don’t really remember anything after that. I’m not constantly having these dreams just every now and then. I do not understand why.
It is weird that our dreams are similar. And this essay gets 20-30 hits a day. That’s not many, but it means at least 20-30 people a day are having dinosaur dreams and go to Google to find out why.
Have never had a dinosaur dream until last night, was on a ship underwater and this land based dinosaur attacks from outside the ship breaking the windows (underwater), I was definitely afraid.
I have been studying the Tao of healing and been having difficulty sending chi into a vertebrae in the upper middle area of my back yesterday. The previous night I had a dream about eating bitter fruit.
Now that’s different – being underwater when a dinosaur attacks.
I keep having dinasaur dreams as well, in my dream it’s the same having to be quiet and not move. It’s always velociraptors that are in my dream too and I’m always trying to save my family but theres always someone that’s noisy and then we’re on the run from the raptors again. Somehow there’s always a vacant house somewhere and I’m trying to shut all the curtains and board up the windows so the raptors can’t see us. Glad I’m not the only one who has these dreams.
Wow, that’s so much like my dreams, and others who have commented here. It makes you wonder if brains don’t work alike for some reason.
I had a dream that I was in a small town or community on the coast when a group of heavily armoured dinosaurs, huge with squared limbs and bodies, travelling from further down the coast arrived and were smashing and destroying the buildings that we were living in. We all ran to hide as best we could and I remember trying to calculate were would be the strongest room to withstand the rampaging reptiles. Then they all just passed us by and continued up the coast like an army, smashing everything in their path.
I have put the dream down to my fear of the military etc and their cold blooded indifference towards the ordinary people (colateral damage) when they are on a mission on behalf of powerful governments. A primitive destructive force that threatens us, but I guess it also could be a natural disaster like an earthquake, although in my case that is not a major fear.
It’s amazing how much all these dreams are alike. I think dinosaurs can represent any kind of threat, but for me, I think they represent threats of a certain type. I’m always trying to hid from them. To lay low and go unnoticed. And I hate when other people do stupid things to draw attention.
I read a war comic as a child which was about a brother and sister in Nazi occupied Holland or Switzerland. I had recurring dreams for years that I was in an occupied society which was hostile to individuality, so I had to remain hidden in order to survive. The tall poppy is the first to be harvested for use by the system and those that control it.
Success in the eyes of the “world” is often a sacrifice of the spiritual self. I’m not talking religion, but the primordial awareness that there is more to life than we were raised to believe. We are not slavishly following society’s values by accident. It takes conscious effort to swim upstream and be a creative individual trying to understand the deeper meaning of our life rather than just following orders. The language of dreams, art and religion is the same language. It’s a pity we don’t learn this language so we can understand what we really feel . We always end up with some authoritarian telling us what to think. A shame, we are so much more than we know. We don’t need external authority if we tap into our natural intelligence. We instinctively know how to live in a natural environment. Like animals, humans can organise themselves into a functional society, look at those ancient cultures that have existed for thousands of years and are still in existence. You know, the ones we demonize or overlook as primitive.
Why do civilized people despise the indigenous man, the natural man who loves and appreciates nature and knows how to live simply with art and music. We really need to reassess ALL our values if we are to survive. As for AI, who programs the ‘bot?
I have had one dinosaur dream before, and then one last night.
The first one was in black-and-white (and I usually dream in color). A huge T-Rex was walking past my mother’s house, and we were hiding inside, then for some reason the dinosaur must have sensed we were there, because it tried to look through the window. And I woke up at that point.
Last night the action was still taking place at my mother’s house (for the most part). This time the dream was in color. In this dream dinosaurs were starting to become common,as well as some kind of jurassic crocodile. The dinosaurs were known, but had never ventured into people’s homes. So suddenly last night they decided to start attacking people inside their houses. But in this dream I didn’t hide. I went outside and did whatever I could to prevent them attacking people, including stomping on one j-croc’s head. I also found one dinosaur who wasn’t trying to attack anyone, so I just left it in peace and it left me in peace. The dream gets a little blurry after that, and it involved me going all over to try and help people trapped inside their houses by the dinosaurs. I think I was even in the US at some point – at which time the dream had started to include some kind of zombie theme as well.
I think it’s safe to say I felt a little exhausted when I woke up this morning…
I have had one dinosaur dream before, and then one last night.
The first one was in black-and-white (and I usually dream in color). A huge T-Rex was walking past my mother’s house, and we were hiding inside, then for some reason the dinosaur must have sensed we were there, because it tried to look through the window. And I woke up at that point.
Last night the action was still taking place at my mother’s house (for the most part). This time the dream was in color. In this dream dinosaurs were starting to become common,as well as some kind of jurassic crocodile. The dinosaurs were known, but had never ventured into people’s homes. So suddenly last night they decided to start attacking people inside their houses. But in this dream I didn’t hide. I went outside and did whatever I could to prevent them attacking people, including stomping on one j-croc’s head. I also found one dinosaur who wasn’t trying to attack anyone, so I just left it in peace and it left me in peace. The dream gets a little blurry after that, and it involved me going all over to try and help people trapped inside their houses by the dinosaurs. I think I was even in the US at some point – at which time the dream had started to include some kind of zombie theme as well.
I think it’s safe to say I felt a little exhausted when I woke up this morning…
Hi, I just want to say that I also dream about dinosaurs and have for as long as I can remember and the same scenario occurs in my dreams except before my t-rex appears, there is always someone who complains of a strong smell of mint. I find this dream very annoying and I want real answers as well.
The smell of mint, that’s a new one. Can you connect that to something in real life?
I’ve had like 13,000 people come here to read this essay, so evidently it’s a common dream.
Yesterday night I had this vivid dinosaur dream. It was like a tall hospital building, I saw a huge Dinosaur which was chasing people in the ground floor and it looked like a rear side of the building with fence where it saw me, but the big dinosaur couldn’t fit inside the area and it was sneaking with the head. I was running with some people and tried to help them then I decided, going to the top floor will keep me safe so I called few with me and pressed the elevator button for 17th floor and reached the building. Then I found myself in terrace where I was guiding people how to escape if the dinosaur tries to attack us.
This was the complete dream I remember, but this was the second time I am getting my dinosaur dream. I had a dinosaur dream when I was around 8 years old where I was locked in a room which had glass roof top and windows where I saw these big dinosaurs and flying dinosaurs. I don’t know whether these dreams are supposed to mean anything. Today I was supposed to attend my final round of interview but I requested a reschedule as this dream really spoiled my mind peace.
Does this dream mean something wrong?
Is it something that I should be worried?
Or is it my inner fear about the interview?
Or is it something that I should not bother about?
Janet, I tend to think the dinosaur represents a huge fear. It’s interesting you were helping people. Me and some of the others, have had dreams where we’re annoyed/angry that other people are attracting the dinosaurs towards us. I tend to think that means we’re afraid that other people are getting us into danger. But your dream sounds like you’re helping people escape a big danger.
Hello. I am having the same dream these days… actually it is exactly the way you describe it… the group of people.. the effort to hide… the person next to me that keeps making noises (who I just want to kill myself)… running away and the same again. I also described it to some friends as “not exaclty a nightmare, just a bit stressful”. Weird, right? PS I just had a big change in my working setting: new field , new people, new challenges. I do not know if this might have something to do with my dream. Greetings from Greece 🙂
It is strange that so many of us have this dream configured this way. Makes you wonder if there isn’t some kind of dream meta-language.
My question is whether people were having these type of dreams before Spielberg’s Jurassic Park!? 🙂 I suppose not. If yes, THAT would be extremely strange.
My dinosaur dreams started around 1956-58, when I was 5-7, and before The Flintstones. The idea of dinosaurs have been around for a few hundred years. I’ve always wondered where little boys learn about dinosaurs. When I was growing up its like I was born knowing about dinosaurs.
That is very interesting to know. I would have guessed that my dream was affected by the movies or something since I never had any particular interest in these long-gone creatures. I stopped having these dreams by the way. I will remember them though! Thank you for your prompt responses. 🙂
I keep having a dinosaur appear in dreams about other things. My dreams are nearly always set in dystopian realities with tangible sinister undercurrents (I don’t know what this means). Often, I am half way through one of these odd dreams and suddenly a Tyrannosaur will come lumbering into the scene and start eating people. I go to hide, and the dinosaur will *always* walk directly over but not notice me, even when standing directly next to me. This always signifies the end of the dream; I suppose the protagonists all being dead in a way not consistent with the rest of the storyline prompts me to wake up. This Tyrannosaur is the same in every dream it decides to gatecrash, its arrival seems to be random, and I am relatively unafraid throughout.
I wonder if most people dream of T-Rex as their standard dinosaur? In my dreams, I always worry about the people who make noise who attract the dinosaur. I resent them. I accept that dinosaurs are around. It annoys me that other people don’t know how to deal with them.
Why do you think an inconsistent story wakes you up? Why are you invisible to the dinosaur?
I’m relieved to find this site and discover that so many other people have chased by dinosaur dreams. It’s 3am and I’ve just woken up after dreaming that my sisters and I were trying to reach an aeroplane to escape the dinosaurs, I woke up when I realised the plane had already gone and we were left behind. Sounds silly now I’m awake and writing it down but a few moments ago I was in a cold sweat.
Wonder what outdated thinking patterns I’m holding on to?! Wish there was a better explanation than this.
Jen, why do you think the dream is related to outdated thinking patterns? If dinosaurs represent a threat, and the aeroplane represents an escape, it seems like the easy interpretation is you and your sisters just missed an opportunity to escape a threat. Or y’all are in a situation with no way out.
I’ve just woke up from a dinosaur dream. Me and my family were trying to escape but no matter where we run, hid, drove to etc they could sense our smell and would find us. We would be locking doors narrowly avoiding them but they’d find another way in. All types of dinosaurs too. There was never just one specific dinosaur raptors were the most annoying in the dream. In the dream it seemed to jump scenes from running through secret tunnels to try and escape to watching my sister drive off to hiding and locking doors in my mums house and it continued like that. It happens often.
I woke up but the dream hadn’t finished. I’m glad there’s quite a few that have the same dream.
I have had dinosaur dreams, chasing or not since I was little. I later developed a fascination with dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist, but never pursued that career. It’s always the same dream or a slightly different version of the dream. Last night in the dream, I was in Raleigh, NC and someone let out the live Tyrannosaurus Rex from his cage, which wasn’t much of a cage at all, just an invisible fence and all of us ran into an old abandoned school. This is not the first time I have been in this school in the dream and it does not exist that I am aware of. I do not live very far from Raleigh. There is always some stupid person who will blow our cover and we would have to move to a different part of the school. Usually in every dinosaur dream, the Tyrannosaurus Rex will lock eyes with me and try to hunt me, but I am always with a group of unfamiliar people. There was only one dream that I had growing up, reoccurring, where I was at home with my family and the Tyrannosaurus was in my backyard and we could hear him coming from far away. He would look through the windows, lock eyes with me and attempt to get in. We would shut our blinds so that he couldn’t see us and as long as we were quiet, he wouldn’t try to attack the house. I have had dreams where the raptors were also in the house, but would dissolve into black bones at the front door.
As long as I can remember, I have dreamed heavily of dinosaurs, particularly Tyrannosaurus Rex. I eventually started watching Jurassic Park the next day sometime and the dreams would go away for a while, but would still eventually return within a month or two.
I am glad someone else has also had dreams similar to mine.
Wow, Kellie, your dinosaur dreams have many of the elements of my dinosaur dreams. It makes me wonder if there isn’t some kind of universal dream language!
I have always wondered if people had similar dreams of things and places. I kind of stumbled on this site and I am amazed at how many of us dream similarly or the same. James, I believe we are given dreams for one of two reasons, to figure out what your subconscious already knows and needs you to know in the conscious world and two, to dream of things in the past, present, or future. Dinosaurs are of the past, they intrigue all of us with how large and dominate they were. The destruction they caused in their own time and the way their lives are pieced together in the future. Sometimes they mean what the dream symbols mean, other times, they are there to remind us that they once roamed this earth, even though they are rarely taught about. There have been things found in the early times, when cave men first lived here, that show that they either co-existed with dinosaurs or they dreamed about them. Some recent cave paintings or carvings have been found with men riding dinosaurs.
My point I was trying to get to, but the long way around, I am glad I am not the only one who dreams of them. We all dream of them for a reason and we all have an interest in them. I had forgotten to mention that I did not watch the first Jurassic Park before I started having the dreams. They came, just about the same time we had a giant sand pile in the back of the house and I would pretend I would dig up bones. Something I never learned about truly until I was older.
I have had the same dream since I can remember. I began to practice lucid dreaming and came to realize I could protect everyone in my dream by getting them to lay down and stay still. I’m amazed at how the description of your dream matches what I have been mystified by for years!
I have had the same dream since I can remember. I began to practice lucid dreaming and came to realize I could protect everyone in my dream by getting them to lay down and stay still. I’m amazed at how the description of your dream matches what I have been mystified by for years!
Emotional conflict yes.
Dreams are layered in different realms meaning they each convey different things to each person.
Yes they are symbolic. I had a dream this night where I was hunted by a big dinosaur predator. I saw one get eaten. As you say we all know to freeze so I did. As I lay on the ground the dinosaur started sniffing the ground like a vacuum cleaner and I knew I was doomed. I crawled into a tube and was hoping it would save me. The dinosaur found me but couldnt eat me from within. Still I knew it was just a matter of time before it would reach me and engulf me. So I wss on my way to crawl out.
Too me this dream is very obvious. I am trying to hide from precieved big/overwhelming threat. In the real world the threat is likley to be some conflict within myself. Currently I thinl it could be
-unsatisfied sexlife
-perception on work
-house situation.
All those three are at the moment ‘threaths’ and all three I am trying to avoid.
I had the same dream last night. A city with big buildings and our houses.. attacked by a lot of dinosaurs. One even broke the flat we had our stuff in because some stupid woman didn’t shut up. No one was killed, however, I lost my stuff/ something important because the flat fell down.
I have dreams about T-Rex(s) and they change all the time, getting bigger, harder to kill/attack, harder to hide from, along with different locations. But every time I awake, I tend to go right back to where I left off. They’re always chasing and killing the people around me except for the people closest to me. Now that I have finally decided to find a way to interpret them, I keep getting the same thing That you have quoted….. I feel like I have some type of psychological issues/problems hidden deep somewhere but then again I feel like it is normal, a massive fear that I have but cannot point my finger on it….
Can anyone help me out here?
Lol I have the same dream as you a t rex is always in my dream I think mine though is from watching Jurassic park
Just today, early morning I had a dream that I was a beautiful green lizard that was being attacked by a huge dinosaur.
I would try different ways to save my life but this dinosaur was trying to kill me wi9th all it’s might.
I cannot get over this unusual dream.
What can it possibly mean?
My basic assumption is the dinosaurs in our dreams are stand-ins for stresses in our life. Do you feel under attack in your everyday life – it doesn’t have to be a real physical attack.
I think you do.
I’ve been unusually stressed and frustrated due to personal reasons, situations in everyday life.
But I have never seen a dream like this.
I’m not too sure about being attacked really but if that’s what it is then yes.
Jen, stress can make you sick. Stress is an attack on your body, mind, and wellbeing. Is it so hard to imagine that your unconscious mind might symbolize stress as a dinosaur?
I wrote the essay about dinosaur dreams years ago, but in the last year, I get 40-75 hits a day on it. That means at least that number of people are searching Google each day wondering why they dreamed about dinosaurs.
James, thank you so much.
The explanation you’ve given does make sense.
I can relate to it now.
I guess, that helps And that – I need to help myself too.
Thank you 🙂
Just tonight I had a dream where I was getting ready for a fight to the death gladiator style match up with a dinosaur.
I woke up before the fight started, as I tend to do during peak stress moments in dreams.
Your Empire Falls comment about having a repressed past, and not speaking your mind, resonates with me most so maybe that has something to do with the dream.
Thanks for writing your article.
Cheers.
I have had reoccurring dinosaur dreams since I was little. I’ve had random ones too. The reoccurring one always takes place at my childhood home. The house is burned down so hiding from this T-Rex is almost impossible and I always end up exposed. Each time, however, the dream gets to the point where he sees me, I look at it and it’s always wearing a Christmas sweater. I get so distracted by the sweater that I lose my fear of the situation and just stare and it stares back and moves along to the next house.
Last night I had a dream that I just moved into a new house and the lights went out. When I looked outside, there were multiple different types of dinosaurs roaming the neighborhood. Like you said, my children and I are quiet but everyone else in the neighborhood is running around screaming. I finally escaped with my kids, get on an airplane, and a police helicopter collides with us as we’re taking off. Still managed to escape though.
In real life, I have an extreme fear of dinosaurs. I know it’s ridiculous. I’m making a 2,500 mile move at the end of next month and the dinosaur dreams have become more frequent. Possibly a connection? Who knows. But you are not alone with the crazy dinosaur dreams lol
Ashley, I’ve had dreams of being in a house and looking out and seeing dinosaurs or giants. I feel safe in the house as long as the dinosaurs don’t look in.
If you read all the comments, our anxieties expressed as dinosaurs in dreams is very common.
You should put something on in the background thats going to give you dreams not related to dinosaurs when you sleep, thats what I do. Something that cant possibly lead back to the dinosaur dream, like a boomerang show like yogi bear or something idk u pick.
I don’t worry about my dinosaur dreams. They are fascinating and revealing.
I had this weird dream last night that my lg 2 n I gave birth to a lb as well so taking my daughter to nursery n my son turns in to a T-Rex that starts to kill people n try to kill me n my little girl but we escaped in the slowest n smallest Car possibly driving n driving every one painicking the T. rex is still chasing me n my lg n killing anyone who got in the way
So I see an underground station drove into it as much as I possibly could go then I wake up from the dream an hour later bk to sleep stuck in the underground station n the trex has found a way in but this time I’m holding my son n my daughter in my arms
Yours is the most different dinosaur dream I’ve read about so far. I believe dinosaur dreams are about anxieties.
Dream interpretation seems like an art worth pursuing. I’ll try. Here. Now. James: here’s some questions for you. 1. Are these dinosaurs big scary monsters? The point of my question is to distinguish what you associate with the dinos. Are they, for you, an example of monsters or do they seem to represent something from the past? 2. These people that you are lying down with, what do they represent? Do they feel like colleagues and you are all teammates so this has something to do with your reliance on others? Or are they just a crowd of people and the essential fact is that no matter what you do, you aren’t really in control.
The dinosaurs are scary. They are nearly always T-Rex. The people I’m near are usually people I know. Sometimes from work. Sometimes family. But, sometimes they are strangers. I generally think of the dinosaurs as a threat and the people making noise as careless people unconcerned about what happens to other people. I am generally a cautious person that keeps my head down. So maybe the dreams are just a way of being annoyed at people who don’t.
I had a dream that the dinosaurs was huge and that they where coming out of the water chasing everyone. I woke and stayed awake about an hour. Then I dream about the dinosaurs again. I am glad I’m not the only one dreaming about dinosaurs. Kind of weired.
Judy, this essay gets on average about 50 hits a day, sometimes more. I assume that means somewhere in the world about 50 people had a dinosaur dream last night and did a Google search, coming here. Isn’t that weird?
A friend told me vivid hallucinogenic dreams reflect a brain trying to organize disparate information during times of stress. Maybe he was right. I have had dinosaurs in my dreams and they aren’t really pleasant,and those dreams i recollect are mostly well formed and monstrous dinosaurs in a bizzare high tech environment though i still havent got eaten up by them yet.It may be a deep imprint , a primordial and instinct forming memory from our deep Mammalian ancestors to avoid those predatory monsters plus all the works of dino pop culture, i guess them tree shrews were afraid of microraptors etc. No amount of cute Barney cartoons is going to convince me Dinosaurs are just adorable creatures- while most mammals look to me like ‘cuddly toys’ though – even the fearsome sea leopard or the plain messy wild boars, though not goats, sheep and camels.Incidentally dinosaurs most times sport feathers and feather like hoods in my dreams , and are not scaly like crocodiles yet retain a fairly distinct appearance from ordinary birds we see. The roadrunner bird incidentally looks like a lot of dinosaurs in my dreams, only smaller.
Dinosaurs in my dreams are scary, never cute.
had a dream I could hear a voice behind a door. it was the coice of myittles sisters laughter. the door was locked. I unlocked it it and opened the door. suddenly a rapid moving vivid blue colored lizard crawled out chomping its sharp teeth and following me. i thought it was after someone else so i tried to side step it. but it then made moves at me ensuring me I am its target. I grab the head of the lizard and the body with my other hand. it cant bite me or hurt me now but it’s a struggle as the head wags. I know I cant let it go and I dont want to kill the magnificent creature because I dont know if it is good evil or just wild instinct. I figure somewhere in my mind it’s a reptile and is like a snake or lizard even though because of the funny shaped cartilage coming out of its spine I realise ita probably a mystical creature or a dino. I think of the garden of EDEN and fear and it comes to me to feed the chomper it’s own tail. suddenly I feel a surge of high voltage energy in my body shooting up. I find myself back in my bed lying down and I can feel like bugs crawling on me but there is nothing there. but after I feel soooo good. I feel like my body has been tense and it finally relaxes. like a chakra opened up and energy flows. as pretext before the donor came I was hiding a speech tone large stadium. in one section of the bleachers there where highschoolers with cheer equipment like the two inflatable sticks that are banged together at a sports game. and in another section where some family members. tyebfamioy did not approve but the children cheered me on. I felt disappointed that I did not receive positive feedback from family but when I tried to continue with my speech suddenly walls and ceiling formed around me to cut me off from my audience. thata when I heard the voice behind the door and unlocked it.
I have a theory that the dinosaur is a representation of outdated irrational instinctual fears and behavioural patterns that are powerful ancient survival techniques and atopnus from growing to achieve homeostasis. this is connected to the amygdala which prevents the mind from breakthroughs and change and growth and development in favor of homeostasis.
I’ve dreamt a few times of dinosaurs.
One were plesiosaurs (technically not dinosaurs) who turned to stone and fell apart.
Many other times, of which I won’t speak now.
Another was of a T-Rex and I got it trapped in a barn. What later turned out to be the same day of my new landlord who threatened to take our home away but I managed to silence him. He’s still angry.
I once thought of my own words and how sometimes they’re not as kind as I want to be and I saw a T-Rex walking away.
Last week I dreamt of T-Rex (a gigantic one) chasing us down and barely fled him but trapped it in an ice-lake. It was still looking for us. Maybe some unpleasant events will unfold or have (last week our pet died). Same dream also showed a new friendly midget neighbour, so perhaps it equalizes each other. Eventually.
The T-Rex seems like it’s a common metaphor in your dreams.
I love watching horror movie, and about two days ago I watched Jurassic world at night and in my dream I saw a large snake with dinosaur head but it never attacked me only the strangers in my dream, then In my waking life I laughed it 😄😄off thinking I only continued my movie in the dream, yesternight I watched Jurassic world (fallen kingdom) and I dreamt about dinosaur dismantling my body but I felt no pain and I escaped with my half body which from no where changed to my normal self without any injury. Very confusing 🤔🤔
I don’t think I’ve ever been eaten by dinosaurs in my dream. I wonder what that symbolizes.
great that makes sense emotional conflict, lying down orvhide to avoid being eaten yes totally. had my first dinosaur dream last night. pretty stunned, thank u for sharing!
Weird. I recently had a dream with dinosaurs and I was with strangers, we were running through building debris, young T-rexs were everywhere and picking off people here and there.
Lying down and being quiet just made you get eaten quickly as I was moving around a wall corner and a group of raptors seen me at a distance but then smelt people lying still and ate them LOL
Cars could be helpful but it had to be your car, trying to hot wire something would have the damn car alarm kick in. My dream kind of turned into a warlord thing. There were special paths to take when traveling and everything became survival of the common sense and chance.
The major thing about this dream was I could smell each different location and I wad chased by a large Allosaurus and I got into a tight spot and its head was so close, it couldn’t reach me but I smelt it’s nasty breath.
Other things were colors, there were pieces of bodies left over and birds were picking at bloody red parts and I was passing through on a roof. I noticed green and orange fabric. I envied the birds that could do their thing on open ground.
These special paths had florescent symbols and writing. The T-rexs were green with striped blacks. Raptors were mottled spots and had almost no scent.
I woke up, drank some milk and went back to bed and boom, I returned to that dream where I left off.
I had the same symptoms you told .even today I have dinosaur dream and I suddenly woked up by high heart beat.From my childhood I have dinosaur dream often and I was so afraid of that till now and many weird dreams tooo.
I had a dream last night, a dream I’ve had at least twice before although when I was much younger in very early high school. I’m saying goodbye to my friends from primary school, who I miss dearly to this day and dream of quite often, I’m saying goodbye to one of them and as its time to leave. How should I get home?
I could take public transport but last time in a dream I got run over by a train and once when I called my dad to pick me up he never really got there. I go to the exit but find as I’m walking out and turning left I find myself in a variation of the same place I’d originally started.
Also something worth mentioning is I used to dream a lot in highschool of being at the bus stop but theres bird shit everywhere and for some reason I keep losing my bag or it gets stolen.
I have this part of the dream where I’m saying goodbye to a good friend (11 in memory but who I happened to see at my workplace recently and we’re both early 20’s now) and my bag is stolen by a bunch of crows.
Instinctively I shoot spider webs from my wrist that track the bag and catch it a good distance away in the sky. Eventually I bring it back and for the first time my Bag is safe with me.
We transition some and I find myself on a rooftop where an older boy tells me to go down this hatch. I’ve been here before and got super jumpscared by another older boy pretending to be the ghost of ‘The Boy with the Spatula’. This time around however I’ve got a rather wicked grin on my face and THIS TIME the older boy on the roof Hands Me a Spatula and I’m ready to jump into the dark below.
We change again, this time I’m in the tech building and theres a huge T Rex chasing me. I freeze still hiding and terrified. But I remember being here before. The T rex doesn’t seem to notice me if I don’t move but I get this really weird feeling that I must kill the Trex and no longer be a victim to its fear but I also get this really weird feeling that the Trex is also me. As I come to this realization the Trex charges the building and destroys it. I’m on ground level and hoist myself away with my webs but each time I escape I’m back where I started and the Rex is reset.
2 or 3 times later and I know what must be done. I must consume the beast snd make it a part of me so it no longer runs rampant and causes me to fear myself.
The rex senses me and prepares to charge BUT I MOVE FIRST I get up, face the big magnificent bastard and somehow grab the whole thing and stuff him into my face hole.
I start to change. My body feels hot. Good hot. Strong hot. Hot hot. The breathe of my exhales turn to boiling hot vapor and when I close my eyes opals of color appear a midst the black darkness.
I see the older boys who had once tormented me and made me drink paint. They look like regular dudes now and I made sure they got a taste of their own medicine.
Finally I dream of a montage of different types of Trexes. There are ones with Big Teeth, other ones I forget but there was one that didn’t have eyes but you could tell its sight was true. Instead if eyes imagine molten marble frozen still. This was like the scifi trex that had clean lines and the look of deadly instinct one feels when looking at something like a sword for the first time (not having ever seen a sword before children can still discern it’s bloody purpose) I wasn’t scared of looking at these trexes this time! I mean i still was But I Didn’t Look Away. The montage of trexes then ended with a message saying that the montage was a trailer of sorts for a new (now old) set of YuGiOh cards and that you could register yourself for spots in competition.
A final word from me is that Ive known for a while now that something happened to me between the ages of 11 and twelve! Early high school that really did a number on me. I have felt unwanted and like a useless piece of shit for a long time but feel like the conscious decisions I’m making are having positive change in the right direction and my subconscious is relaying that to me.
So TL;DR Please try to eat your dinosaurs
In other dreams, I’ve learned to always attack whatever threatens me. In some of my dreams, I kill my enemies in the most horrible ways.
I never tried that in my dinosaur dreams. But that’s good advice.
By the way, I haven’t had any dinosaur dreams since I wrote about them here.
I have had dinosaur dreams as of recent…. They are reoccurring and very much how you describe…. Different type of settings… Always a Trex…we all know he is coming and we all know we have to find a place to lay completely still and be quiet… There’s always strangers that don’t seem to take this seriously and I too get frustrated with them! The dreams are very intense and feel very serious… Also, while I’m in the dream- I know it’s a reoccurring one… I am also with my kids in the dreams which only adds to the fear of something happening to them… Especially because of someone else!
It’s like there’s a big dangerous thing out there and everyone knows it- but some just don’t care and are putting everyone else in jeopardy…. Idk… But, it’s very similar to how you describe…. I did not have dreams about dinosaurs when I was younger. No fascination with them or anything.
interesting that so many of yr followers dream of dinosaurs. ive never had any dreams about them that i recollect but their appearance in so many peoples nocturnal adventures puts me in mind of a novel by harry harrison (the title of which escapes me this afternoon;wish i’d hung on to the sucker) that’s set in an old world city not unlike venice,but more like london in which dinosaurs are referred to as ancestral animals. i kind of dig the idea of a pterodactyl somewhere in my family tree. sound familiar?
I’ll see if I can find that Harry Harrison novel.
Are you ever chased in your dreams, Ed? Maybe anything big is the same kind threat in dreamland.
stop the presses! the novel i was trying to recall is THE MALACIA TAPESTRY by brian aldiss. I checked a copy out of the library yesterday;hopefully, i’ll have a more mature assessment sometime between now and the winter solstice.
Cool. I’ve been slowly getting into Aldiss, even read his memoir. But I have read any of his later fiction.
somewhere in beverley hills: j.h.,baby, i just finished malacia tapestry the other night, and i’m thinking FELLINI CASANOVA meets JURASSIC PARK. is brian aldiss still with us? get on the horn to his agent and find out how much he wants to do the screenplay; he’s not interested? hell with it, get harry harrison! i see terry gilliam, or maybe alex cox as director. this could be bigger than BARBIE! anyway, from a literary standpoint, it’s not as interesting as another of aldiss efforts titled BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD (if van dyke parks wrote speculative fiction, it might have been something like that), but worth your time to check out.