What does it mean to dream about being in prison (dream interpretation / analysis – prison)
Dreaming that you are in prison is often a sign that somehow, somewhere in your life, you are trapped, or limited in doing what you want to do, or being who you are. Either through your own actions or thinking (inner interpretation), or through someone (a real person or your surroundings) preventing you from this (outer interpretation).
When you are the one locking yourself up in prison, you need to be searching for how your own limiting beliefs, thoughts about yourself or others, or your actual behaviour, currently are preventing you from e.g. being who you really are. This might be thoughts like; a person like me doesn’t wear clothes like that, or doesn’t attend yoga classes – or whatever it might be that you really want to – but prevent yourself from doing, just because it doesn’t match the idea you have of who you are supposed to be.
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When trying to understand your dreams it is important to know that your dreams are… your dreams. As such, you are the best person to figure out the true meaning of your dreams.
However, it is important to learn how to generally approach your dreams. Dream dictionaries like this one are only a supplement, and if you want to fully utilize the potential of your dreams, you should start at a different place.
My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” gives you a great foundation for understanding (and recalling) your dreams.
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OR – is it someone – or something – outside yourself, that right now hinders your personal development, or in other ways prevents you from being who you are, and doing what you really want? It could be your job, a friend, or even your partner locking you up in prison. But before you fall into the trap of quickly (i.e. a bit too fast) blaming your surroundings, then be honest to yourself; could it be your own limiting beliefs that prevents you from breaking out of prison, and being yourself, also in the presence of others?
In many relationships in turns out, that projection is very active. This could be blaming the other for your own faults, or assigning highly attractive traits or skills that you yourself have to the other, without realising that these traits or skills are your own. So in this relation you might see your partner, friend or maybe colleague as enormeously creative, humorous etc. – while these are all your own traits, traits that you currently don’t live or fully use.
Also examine the dream very closely; how do you feel in the dream, or what exactly are you doing in the dream? If you sit inside a prison playing guitar (or painting, or being a geek about something), feeling enormeosly sad, this might be an illustration of how a very important musical (/creative), or “geeky” side of yourself is currently trapped inside you, typically because you don’t let this side come out. The dream would tell that you need to let this side out of prison, or you will forever feel that somehow you are not fully being who you are.
This type of dreams typically occur in periods where we feel sad, but not knowing why. Consciously we might be saying to ourselves that we have “everything”, but in spite of this, we are inexplicably sad. If for one or the other reason we keep important sides of ourselves hidden, we will almost guaranteed walk around feeling sad.
If you dream that some one else is in prison, and that you are the prison ward, this might be illustrating how you right now are preventing this (real) person from being who he or she is (outer interpretation), or that whatever this person represents within you (i.e. a side of yoursef) is currently “imprisoned” (inner interpretation).
Dream dictionaries are a very helpful tool when interpreting dreams. However, generally learning how to approach your dreams, will give you a better foundation for understanding them. My online course “Unlock your DREAMlife” teaches you how to much better utilize – recall and understand – your dreams.
Also read: Why I no longer interpret dreams for free
Michael Rohde Olsen
Return to the index of dream themes and symbols:
Dream interpretation A-Z ↵
P.s. – Dream interpretation / dream analysis is not always an easy thing, and when you dream of being imprisoned, this almost by guarantee means something else for you than it means for someone else who also dreams of being imprisoned. A given interpretation of a dream is only correct insofar that the person who had the dream feels truly struck by that interpretation.
I saw myself in a jail cell cleaning everything, the ceiling the walls the floors the bars everything. When I was done it was so good it made me start cleaning other cells. Thank you
i had a dream i was sent to prison for 40 years, for killing somebody accidentally in a car crash which also meant an extra 10 years was put on my sentence from other crimes committed, in my dream i was in a cell surrounded by hundreds more, but, the people next to me i knew (they were only in for a couple years), in my cell i was allowed nothing but myself and a bed ( i had managed to sneak in my ipad), someone i have not been friends with in awhile was in my dream visiting me, while this was happening the prison was filling up with water and the guards weren’t saving anyone, i did not escape though, i was one of the few girls there and i was still young in my dream, everybody else was 30+ and male, what does this mean?
Hi, how are you, I dream insert coming out of my head(a hole on top of my head), was busy removing it, big inset n small one inside my head, busy removing them.
Big hole in my head, am stressed now, please help
My prison dream last night was , I was in a prison cell wit 2 friendly prisoners , one fella was like almost 8 ft tall , we were laughing , next thing I was asking them and a prison officer { he was but wasn’t a prison officer} how long is my prison sentence, I asked that 3 or 4 times as I didn’t know how long I was serving , but I could scence 4 months , then out of nowhere , all 3 of us were in a house , { we escaped} but I didn’t see that part in the dream , then we were out and walking around , but then we freely walked back into the prison without any problems or punishment, { I have to mention that I’m from Ireland and there are open prisons here aka minimum security prisons} ……… anyway, when we got back into the prison cell , one of the 2 prisoners began to stab me , but I wasn’t scared and I just said something like
” man please leave me alone ”
It was a really strange dream , it’s not the first prison dream I’ve had , I’ve had many upon many of them but this one really stood out to me ,
I noticed a person here writing questions about their dream meaning had a very similar story to mine , I tried to reply to him but wouldn’t allow me ,
I really need to know the meaning of this , I want to just point out that I’m not a bully victim as written in my post
I had a dream cought with weed and I said I use it for health purpuse etc , later escaped through some alleys and school playgrouds .
I have a question . Have you been eating heavy fooods before you went to sleep ?
I had a dream where I was in a prison eating happily with the prisoners with my prison wear but we were discussing that am not a prisoner why should I be here but then i was telling them that after the meal that am leaving then i saw myself trying to figure out what to tell the prison warder what I came in there to do
i had a dream that my son was sentence to prison for 31 years. what does it mean?
I have dream of being in prison that the point seeing things are affecting my sleeping patterns im seeing people in my s s leep I don’t if you call parnoid or something
I had a dream I got caught with some pills and I got 12 months for it what does that mean? Before I woke up the police never came back to get me to take me to the jail house?what do that mean
I had a dream where i was doing life in prison, then sold another man in there for talking bad about deaceased family members , sold him to other inmates to do as they please with him , still remember i sold him for a shank and some weed and soups, very vivid
I had a dream that I was being sentenced for 50+ years and I was crying so hard about it and decided to jump off of the rail to the second floor and from a second persons view I seen myself on the floor screaming in pain at what looked like I broke my arm because I was holding it
i just had a dream that i helped solve a crime and then was sentenced to prison for 20 years but i was innocent. i dreamed that my mom hadn’t come to see me and i struggled immensely trying to dial her number on the phone. i made one friend while i was there. i don’t know what this dream means, or if it means anything.
Dear Leila,
I am sorry to inform you that I currently don’t help out here, as I am focusing fully on the completion of my next book. You can try asking this one major question with regards to the dream; how might this dream in any way be relevant for my waking life? I can offer to help you in a private session (with payment), please see more here. Best regards – Michael
I’m glad I’m not the only one with jail dreams. I had the most vivid dream last night I was being put to prison for 25 years and was distraught at the fact my 5 year old would be left in a world without me and having to tell him mummy was going away. It was so real and really has unsettled me this morning 🙁
I had a dream last night I was supposed to check in to prison and I was late. They cuffed me and were just walking me through the prison. I’ve had this dream so many times. It was more a nightmare than a dream. They wouldn’t let me use the bathroom and i had to go so bad. I wet myself a little, and woke up. What is going on?
i had a dream last night about being in prison it was not a bad dream it was co ed and myself along with both of my brothers was there and we were able to work and be out and about until bed time what does that mean
Incarceration and eliminate threat in my life.
Hello, so I’m into girls, and my girlfriend named Kristal, is currently in jail in real life, but I had a dream that she died in jail and I saw her there laying on the jail floor with her jail uniform on and everything, I have been trying to search it up to see what it means but I can’t find it, someone please help me.
i had two dreams, but different cases one was when i was in this place and was throwing stuff around and got caught and was getting sent to prison and the other one was when i was stealing something and i got caught and had to tell everyone i was getting jail time for stealing idk why but it was odd and it made me scared
I dreamt of being in kind of an odd prison. I don’t know what crime I committed. But the prison seemed like more of a day camp you couldn’t leave. The staff and other prisoners were pretty friendly. There were moments where I was trying to make the best of it by finding a place to read in the nursery which had bright uplifting colors. However, the reality that I couldn’t leave and didn’t know how long I would be there would occasionally set in and I would tear up.(being careful not to fully cry and show weakness. Stuffing it deep down inside.) But I was extremely sad. And the dream seemed to center around work. The prisoners were mixing these big pink cement blocks. But there weren’t enough settings for me to do my work. Another prisoner told me we had to make ten of them. So I went to a guard (who looked more like a counselor) and told her there wasn’t an available area for me to set the concrete. I asked if maybe I could have another job or something. She said there were other “service” jobs I could get, but I would have to pretend I had mental issues like ptsd or something. We started talking to the person I needed to see about this, but I forgot I was supposed to pretend and I gave it away that nothing was wrong with me. Then the dream ended.
I had a dream that I was sent to prison with my best friend. I remember feeling scared, worried and upset in my dream. The lady in the prison said how it was a haunted prison and we were in a quiet a big room with other people who were quite old. Anyway further on in the dream my sister and her boyfriend came to pick us up and me and my best friend basically escaped. We went to my nan’s who was alive in the dream but she didn’t really speak, I think I just gave her a hug and said I loved her, my mum was also at my nan’s to. I know that I was in prison for a short time but I hated it so much there which is why we escaped. We went back because we didn’t want them to realise that we weren’t in our room in the prison to have to stay there even longer. We didn’t know why we were there.