Dreams about repeating something – what do they mean? (Dream interpretation repetition)
Repetition, to do something over and over again in a dream – what does it mean?
Research shows that many have dreamt that they repeat the same action over and over again. What is this about? (NOTE: Click here if you were searching for the blogpost about recurring dreams)
Dream of repetition as a picture of a feeling of facing an impossible mission or to be “stalled”.
Dreams where you repeat the same action over and over again may simply be a picture of the fact that you in your life are faced with a task/challenge where you feel powerless.
At the same time it can also be a picture that you somehow are stuck in your life, and not really move forward from where you are – either in your development or in your positions. The dream thus indicates that there is an immeasurably need of a new perspective/position, and maybe you can seek the help of another/some you would not normally get involved in your challenges, because you find it difficult to even see a solution to your situation/your problem.
Repeating an inappropriate pattern.
The dream may also be a picture that you once again have brought yourself or are about to bring yourself in an unfortunate situation. Perhaps you might be leaving a girlfriend/partner for exactly the same reason as last time. You have not caught sight of something in yourself that is either “forcing” you into the same unfortunate circumstances or “forcing” you out of a good relationship. This pattern may also apply to your work that you in other words once again flee into a new job, without grabbing the root of the problem.
Also read: Why I no longer interpret dreams for free
Have you had a dream of repeating a specific action? Please share it as a comment below.
Michael
NOTE: Dreams are 100% individual, and when you dream about repeating something, it’s almost certainly about something else for you than it is for your friend, who also dreamt about repeating something. Dream interpretation / dream analysis is sometimes a difficult art, and a particular interpretation of a dream is only correct if you feel “affected” by it. Therefore, it is not certain that the above mentioned interpretations are relevant to you.
Hi Michael, have you come across any ‘inception’ film like dream sabotages i.e. directly pre-defined dreams/manipulations . . . my ex partner (we are both very sensitive) started to talk about a series of dreams of very similar themes/make up that ‘seemed to be’ specifically focused on undermining our relationship. As we are both healers (and hence often access/try and access the origins of ‘things’ directly) then in doing this for these dreams we actually found an entire crew of script writers/directors and scene setting/film crew involved in actually pre-defining in very specific ways certain dreams in attempts to sabotage our relationship (this was years before the film ‘inception’ came out) . . . I’ve written in more detail about this here: https://www.realitywalker.com/matrix-reality-glitches-anomalies/inception-film-infiltrated-managed-staged-dreams-problem/
I have post traumatic stress disorder, and therefore have extremely frequent nightmares, usually pertinent to the traumatic events, but recently I dreamt something.. well, new. I watched a man with no face murder my friends one by one and in an attempt to escape, locked myself in a car. When I turned around, however, the man grabbed me and held me tight. As a fight or flight response (I presume), I cut my own throat. The man just held me, gently, almost lovingly, while I choked on my blood. I swear to God I could taste it. I could feel it spilling down my face and shirt. Then it just stops, and I open my eyes, and I’m back at the beginning — running from this faceless man, getting caught, cutting my throat, over and over again in the same dream. There were times I caught myself in the side mirror of the car, and I could see the scar against my throat where I cut it before, healed up pristinely. It really made me uncomfortable, so here I am.
WOW – what a terrifying and wild dream CC! You are describing how you have post-traumatic stress disorder, and I can’t help but thinking that this faceless man is a direct symbol of whatever it is you have been through that gave you PTSD, and how this is still tormenting you. I hope you are getting some kind of help / seeing a therapist where you live, as those dreams to me definitely demonstrate that your experiences still dwell in your subconscious. And thus effecting your waking life mood, thinking and behaviour. You might also consider how you actually “cut your own throat” in your life at the moment – as a way of coping with what you’ve been through. I.e. not living your life fully. Best and hope that you are improving! – Michael
I had a dream where time repeated, kind of like in Doctor Strange. I was in one place, and I ended up in the same place over and over again.
I’ve had this dream twice now. I keep trying to wake up, I can feel myself rubbing my eyes but I keep passing back out and it repeated until I woke up. The second time I could finally get one eye open, still feeling real like I can feel myself rubbing my face and getting up, I can’t turn the light on except the light that was already lit in my room (in real life but it was on in my dream too) but I felt like I wasn’t alone so in my half sleep I run out my front door and the dream restarts to me trying to wake up, trying to turn on the light, feeling scared, running outside and starting again until my real alarm actually woke me up. I’m not sure if you know anything about that but I cannot find anything to help me understand what it means.
Hi Morgan,
this seems to be a terrifying experience! To me it sounds like sleep paralysis (see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis). I.e. something that too many is quite normal, especially in the phase where you are waking up (in your mind, i.e. slowly becoming conscious), but your body is still paralysed (as our bodies are when we are in REM-sleep). A suggestion could be (as also explained in most litterature on sleep paralysis) to examine, whether you are currently (just a bit) stressed out, or otherwise experiencing internal or external pressure (or both), as this seems to increase the number of sleep paralysis experiences. Best regards – Michael
Hi I dreamt of my teacher (who I may have fancied at the time) repeatedly cllimbing on some rocks in my garden, using the rocks to get onto the roof of my shed and then jumping back down. He repeated the cycle over and over and I watched this happen from my kitchen window while completing my homework. Eventually he stopped and he looked at me while standing on the shed. Then he jumped off and ran inside. He knelt by the table I was working at and I kissed him. He pulled away for a split second, then he kissed me back. Please know he had no relation to me whatsoever in real life and he was very married, unaware of whatever it was I felt for him at the time.
Very interesting dream Loyd! As always with dreams they need to be related to your current waking life (your life situation/circumstances, thoughts you are having at the moment). So why might you be dreaming about your former teacher at this point in life? Any thing happening in your life right now (when you had the dream) that might resemble the experiences you had back then? Or it could also be about a certain side of yourself (symbolized by your teacher) that is currently trying to get in contact with you, i.e. a side that needs to be used / played out in real life. Best – Michael
I lucid dream about 5 nights out of the week. I very very rarely have nightmares because when I do, I’m able to recognize it and I can just change or at times completely eliminate whatever is distressing in my dream. Tonight, however, my dream started off simple enough. I was cast in a tv show I’ve been binge watching (nothing scary crazy about the show, just a regular sitcom) and I act out my scene, and then after meet the rest of the cast that wasn’t in the scene. I’m lucid so I’m thinking this is cool so I keep going. Then the dream starts all over again, only this time the material and the atmosphere is darker and more serious. Didnt like how it was going to I started to change it. I relived the dream within the dream a total of 4 times, each time with it getting darker and darker in subject material and with each dream turning into flashes of me being put in different situations (sexual situations with cast members, members being mean to me, standing in a dark room, and situation that were once me just acting from a script that were turning into dream real life situations) and “waking up in my bed” but I was still dreaming until I finally was able to fully wake myself up in real life. What is the interpretation of me almost having a reoccurring dream four times within the same dream?
Hi Devin – what a very interesting dream and experience! These are some of the questions I would be asking myself with a dream experience like this; is my life “darkening” somehow, how is my mood – is there something inside me (/outside me) that is stressing me, or somehow influencing me negatively? What is is, that I need to pay attention to in my (inner/outer) life, that I am trying to avoid? Best regards – Michael
So, I just woke up from a really weird and pretty scary dream a little while ago and I was hoping to get some help on what it might mean.
I don’t remember much of the beginning because it seems irrelevant or not as important as the rest of the dream, but I digress.
I was going on a, what I can only explain as, “Titanic type cruise” with a bunch of my family members. (I think someone actually called it that in my dream.) Everyone was really excited about it. We got onto the ship and everything was going great. I was meeting people, making friends, etc. But, eventually it seemed to be taking a long time to get to our destination. (I don’t know where this destination was supposed to be, as in my dream it was never established.) People started to complain about it. We started running out of food and water, all of the essentials for life. Then people started getting sick. It was mostly an airborne sickness, as if someone coughed or sneezed around you, you had a high chance of getting sick. But also, if someone touched you with their germs then you’d probably get sick too. (I remember one part of the dream where this girl touched me and got her mucus all over me and I was terrified that I was going to become sick and die.) After a while of people getting sick (and some dying) whoever was in charge decided to detain us in the lowest part of the ship, and we were chained onto toilets. Now when I say chained onto toilets I don’t mean that we were chained to the bottom of the toilet. We were chained sitting on top of the toilet as if we were using it. After a while of us being chained up the ship wrecked. A bit after the ship wrecked everyone would black out. When we came to we were all chained back on the toilets and the ship was sailing again as if nothing had happened. This happened quite a few times and it started to become really scary. Finally, the ship wrecked really badly the last time. Some people were able to break free and make a run for it.
I’m not sure why but this time where the ship wrecked we were in a harbor and there were a bunch of other ships around. Some people made a break for other ships, like I did, but eventually got caught. “Guards” from our original ship were sent out to capture and take back, or just kill, people who got caught escaping. I made it to another ship but couldn’t find a “room” because I didn’t have money to pay for the room. Eventually I got caught and taken back to the original ship.
But, this time, since a lot of people died, (I think anyway) I was on the ship by myself. Like there were no more of my family members around. I was just in the halls of the ship. But someone was chasing me, a guard, but he was actually my dad. He kept chasing me and I’d run and jump off the edge of the ship into the water. But right before I hit the water I would say something like “why are you chasing me?” And he’d reply something like “you don’t have the ____ to give me.” I don’t know what the _____ is because I can’t remember and I’m sure that it was something stupid, like “toy” or something irrelevant to the rest of the dream. However, as I’d hit the water to escape I’d black out again. When I came to I was back running down the halls as before, to jump off the edge again and black out and end back up running to jump again.
I’ve never had a dream like this before. I woke up sweating and freaking out because I don’t really consider myself to have nightmares anymore since I’ve become an adult, or at least become mature enough to not have dreams about scary clowns or ghosts or whatever. But I would definitely consider this as a nightmare because the same thing just kept happening over and over again, and each time it happened I felt an increased level of anxiety and panic and terror. What could this mean?
In my dream I was in the woods where there was a construction that I knew at the time was for getting oil and coal out of the ground and I felt compelled to sabotage them, so I did. I went on doing things like putting bricks and stuff like that in places I knew would mess things up and kept on cutting brake lines and etc. That was until I reached this clearing where I rested and then after awhile I felt this evil presence loom behind me so I turned around and this person emerged out of the woods and seeing that it was just some random guy I let my guard down until he said ‘Don’t let it down in the loop’ and disappeared. After he said that everything seemed to unreal and I began to run away as fast as I could only to be brought back to where I started each time aware of the last and more and more “humans” showed up telling me to give up and let them use me but I didn’t stop. After a while I came to the conclusion that the simulation of loop or whatever I was in could be broken if I overwhelmed the system with my thoughts and that’s what I did and then there was this split moment where everything was frozen and I heard a whisper saying, “you should have never come” and then I woke up.
I had this dream that i was standing outside the fence at my house waiting for someone and this truck would drive down the road and i would get in and we would drive down the road, it was dark, and then i was standing back at the fence again and it would keep repeating the same thing, i knew who the guy was and in real life he actually drives a truck
I have this dream with different situation but same thought. I have my boyfriend and he has an attitude that left me behind if we have an arguments and every time I remember this it makes me cry, because I can remember the pain- that why did he do that? how an he do that? It happened three times during our two years relationship.
My dream is about us, with different situation but same though —- he’s leaving me behind or with another girl. The dream comes from time to time and it wakes me up. I feel that it’s a real situation.
I had a dream where I kept repeating the same day. So in my dream I was at a beach and I was given tasks to do (like a scavenger hunt) and so my first task was to dig up a clue. After that a series of events started to upside and every time I did the wrong action or the day ends with a sunset (so close to the end of the hunt), I would start again in the beginning of the same day. So then I knew what I had to do, so I started taking short cuts. But I awoken with a second parter to what seemed to be a new dream. I had a miscarriage… and they’re were twins. I have the craziest dreams and I’m a livid dreamer but I never really check what they meant. This one felt so surreal though. Like I need to know what’s the next clue.
I keep having this dream where I’m trying to get my mom outa the house cause it’s haunted and I make it out but she doesn’t and when I have the dream again I can’t get her out but some how she gets sucked right back in and I can’t get in to save her and on top of that why is it that most of the time I’m asleep I know I’m dreaming
So I keep having this dream over a period of time and it’s about me loving this person doing some kind of life saving mission then always leaving him or it or her but I just wake up and I feel like I loved the thing and I’m just trying to figure out what it was because In 2015 my dad got shot on my birthday you can search him up akrian evans he was shot on my 9th birthday and my VERY CLOSE grandmother died on a dance night for school any way I have been having these dreams after they died I love this thing don’t know what it is or why I love it before it goes I tell it I love you cross your heart that we will see each other again and something else just can’t remember after I wake up but it makes me cry😨😱😱😱😪🤧🤧🤧😭😭😭😭😢😩😫
Whenever I do have a nightmare, something terrible happens. After the terrible thing happens it starts over and happens again. And again, and again. Then I’ll wake up go back to bed and it’ll happen again.
I keep having a recurring dream that my boyfriend either cheats, or leaves me for his ex girlfriend or someone else. But it is always in a new setting. Same action new settings. I cannot understand why? But it’s happened everyday the past 2 weeks now. I used to get it a year or two ago and it just popped back up. Please help me understand why?
i’ve had many reoccurring dreams before, and some, very unpleasant. These dreams usually involve fear, due to a presence of someone or something. The following, are two of the many dreams that have reocurred
I had a dream where i was being chased by “darkness”, the more i ran, the slower i got, as if there were a force slowing me down. I was running with my family, not alone. It was an endless marathon trying to escape. Weird thing is, it was in my neighborhood, where the running took place.
Another dream that i literally just woke up from, was me driving with my partner in the passanger seat. I drove past a lady (for which ive dreamt before) and i make a comment to my partner that i know this woman and she is very creepy and scary. As we pass her up, she turns to our car and i am no longer able to accelerate at a fast speed for a period of time until we were far from her. It was a loop, as we continued to pass her for a couple of times. We then somehow end up in a place consisting of stairs leading to a freeway. We have to catch the horns of a goat because if we dont it will keep repeating and repeating. In this dream, instead of me being alone and going through endless cycle, i was with my partner. He then caught the horn and we made our way towards the stairs and i woke up.
I dont know why im having these dreams. Do i need to stop watching scary movies? the lady in the second dream might have been from a scary movie, i cant really recall. Im a religious person, i pray at night and i don’t understand why i sometimes wake up scared with my heart racing.