What Recurring Dreams Are Trying to Tell You

Same dream. Again. Third time this month.

You’re back in school taking a test you didn’t study for. Or you’re running from something you can’t quite see. Or you’re in a house with rooms you’ve never noticed before.

Your psyche isn’t broken. It’s persistent.

Recurring dreams are the unconscious knocking on your door. Not politely—more like a neighbor who knows you’re home and isn’t going away. The dream keeps showing up because something needs your attention and you haven’t given it yet.

I see this constantly in sessions. Someone brings a dream they’ve been having for years, sometimes decades. They’re frustrated by it. “Why won’t it stop?” Because you haven’t heard what it’s saying.

The trick isn’t to decode the dream like a puzzle. It’s to sit with it. What’s the dominant emotion? Not the plot—the feeling. Fear? Shame? Urgency? Now ask yourself: where in your waking life do you feel that same thing?

That’s usually where the thread is.

Once you actually engage with what the dream is pointing at—not intellectually, but honestly—something shifts. The dream often changes or stops entirely. Not because you “solved” it, but because the message landed.

Keep a journal by your bed. Write them down. Pay attention. Your psyche has been trying to tell you something. It’s just waiting for you to listen.