Zombies are characters that have been introduced to us relatively recently, due to popular tv series such as ''The Walking Dead'' and other movies about zombie apocalypses. When a concept like this becomes familiar to us, we tend to start dreaming about it. Today we will explain what dreaming about zombies means.
Dream dictionary: What does it mean to dream about zombies?
Dreams are images that our subconscious mind collects from real-life and then transforms into surrealist nocturnal experiences. As bizarre are dreams may seem, they always carry a hidden message: they express our real needs and wants through a virtual channel.
So as soon as zombies secured their spot in our culture and we got more used to having them around, we started dreaming about them. A systematic repetition of an image in our brains will cause our subconscious to project the same image when we sleep, hence our zombie dreams.
The living dead have been mentioned since ancient times: our forefathers implanted the fear of the 'reawakened' through legends of people returning from the dead, and not only in spirit form but also in the flesh. In the past years, zombies and their apocalyptic significance have found a niche market within the cinema industry.
This is why dreaming about zombies is not something unusual; it's a recurring nightmare. With a few exceptions, nightmares tend to recreate states of anxiety and instability, emotional imbalance, personal crises, problems, and concerns. When it comes to zombies, they represent a popular scary image that expresses fear, uncertainty, and difficulty.
Dreaming about zombies: different types of zombie dreams
As terrifying as nightmares are, dreaming about zombies can be more productive than you thought if you know how to draw the right conclusions. To do this, we must understand the context.
Dreaming about a zombie attack
When you dream about zombies it's usually because in real-life you may feel lost and troubled, issues which prompt the brain to create nightmares. A zombie attack indicates a real threat or reoccurring problems. Perhaps this is your brain's way of telling you that you need to face your issues instead of running away from them. If you wake up crying and drenched in sweat, then you need to keep your cool and think of reaching a productive conclusion.
Dreaming about turning into a zombie
This nightmare could be even more horrifying than dreaming about death, and when it happens, it tends to represent a warning sign. You have been through a series of problems that have defeated you, and now you're feeling lost, without any strength or resources to get back on your feet. This is just a state of mind, and you can use it to regain some of your energy and overcome your difficulties. This dream could also represent the onset of a medical condition.
Dreaming about being bitten by a zombie
Just like when you dream of being bitten by an animal, or shot, dreaming of getting bitten by a zombie (which sometimes feels real in our sleep) represents the feeling of a threat. Perhaps you are dealing with conflict in your workplace, or a third person is threatening your relationship, or maybe you had a fight with a friend, or you're dealing with economic problems. Getting bitten by a zombie is nothing more than a symbol of danger that you must overcome.
Dreaming about killing zombies
When you have this type of dream, it's because your brain is trying to let you know that a difficult period of your life is finishing, that all your efforts have paid off and you will be successful. Zombies, in this case, represent the threat that you eliminate when you kill them. It makes you feel victorious and powerful.
Dreaming about a friend turning into a zombie
When the person turning into a zombie is your significant other or a close friend, it generally means that you and that person are going through a rough patch: the dream forces you to improve your communication and solve your problems before it's too late. The strong image that your brain already has of zombies manifests itself spontaneously, and we associate it with the face of someone we already know, usually someone that we have fallen out with.
Dreaming about a zombie apocalypse
Dreaming about the end of the world is a reflexion of change and instability, especially when it comes in the gruesome form of an apocalypse. Fear of the living dead suggests that this change is a negative one. For some reason, you have an incredibly high dose of negativity and anxiety clogging your state of mind, and your brain processes them as frightening dreams: take is as a warning that you must overcome your difficulties.
Dreaming about a dead person turning into a zombie
It is quite frequent to dream about family members that have already passed, and sometimes they can come to us in the shape of a zombie. Although unpleasant, it is merely a distorted version of our feelings of loss: you miss that person. The fact that they are represented as living dead in your dream could mean anxiety or could warn you about unfinished business related to that person.
Dreaming about zombies (but you're not present)
Sometimes, zombies appear in our sleep but we are not present in the dream, we simply sense a group of living dead that are moving about or attacking each other. This means that you are experiencing instability in your inner circle, perhaps something at work or at home is not functioning properly. This is your brain's way of telling you to take control.
Conclusion
Dreams have the power to distort reality to the point of creating an alternate dimension, where we unknowingly experience things that are not real. This is why something as far-fetched as starring in an episode of ''The Living Dead' seems plausible to our brains.
That last episode that we watched before we went to bed became embedded in our subconscious, and as soon as we fell asleep, the terrifying images resurfaced as a way of expressing our needs, fears and the threats we face in our day to day life.
Dreaming about zombies is nothing more than that: an expression of everyday problems, the things you worry about, or that mess you got yourself into and don't know how to get out of. Anxiety thus takes the shape of zombies as a way of warning you: it's time you stop running from your responsibilities and face your problems.