Do you dream about people who've died?

[trustingfrogs]

This isn't a 'woo' thread, more just a way of seeing if others dream of people they've lost?

My mum died suddenly a couple of years ago. She was on her own when it happened - cardiac arrest - but thankfully no signs she had a struggle or knew anything about it.

In the early days I'd dream about her all the time. In my dreams, she was always happy but we could never communicate. She would often give me one of her famous mum hugs though and then I'd wake up feeling sad, missing her.

Last night I had a dream that I've had several times. I dreamt that she hadn't died at all but instead had been sectioned into a secure unit and was not allowed any visitors. In my dream I was ringing round, desperately trying to find someone who'd give me access but no one would let us see her. Not a particularly nice dream and I imagine just my brain's way of continuing to process it all.

Does anyone else have dreams about someone they've lost?

Sadly no. I’ve only had one really vivid dream about DH, he walked out of the shower and asked me if we were having a cuppa! I was shocked , thinking he doesn’t know he’s died, how will I tell him.
However when I had to take antimalarials about 25 years ago I dreamt of every dead relative ever, uncles I’d barely known, a grandmother who died when I was about 10. It was quite common apparently with whichever antimalarial was used at the time.

Only once dreamed about my DM. She was washing up after Xmas dinner. It was lovely to ‘see’ her again.

Yes I do. Sometimes years after they have passed away. But sometimes I also dream of people just before they die.

My dad died when I was 12. I’ve dreamt of him just twice and in both dreams he couldn’t speak. It’s very upsetting and I am woo on almost every occasion but I can’t attach meaning to this as it’s too painful to think on too much.

I’ve dreamt about my mum a few times since she died. My mum would be happy in the dreams but usually I would be upset but not really know why. She’s been gone over 20 years and haven’t dreamt about her in a while. Last one I had was somewhat odd as I’m obviously aging but she’s now a fixed point in time.
I’m sure it’s the brains way of processing grief, but part of me likes to think wherever she may be she’s at peace.

I have only had one vivid dream of my dad and he was saying how he was going to get better and it'd be fine etc

I said "No Daddy you won't get better, you've died and it's time to go" and he very sadly said "oh" and got up from my sofa and left.

I woke up crying. It felt so real but I know it wasn't.

Yes since my dad died I dream about him often. In the weeks after his death, it was as though my brain couldn't process it. Even though I knew he was gone, there was part of me that kept thinking it must be a mistake.

Around that time, I dreamt that I was sitting in his local pub with my sister and my dad suddenly walked in, and came over to us with a beaming smile. I jumped up elated and said "I knew you weren't really dead!" and gave him the tightest hug. It was so vivid. It was upsetting to wake up and feel that loss again.

However, ten years later, he's often in my dreams. Just random dreams (not about him dying or being dead), but just normal dreams (eg I recently dreamt that he came with me and my husband to view a house we were thinking of buying). I'm glad I dream about him, it makes me feel as though I've seen him again, which is lovely.

I still occasionally dream about dead relatives, not entirely about them but they're there. I never know they're dead during the dream, even one who died 35 years ago. It's not upsetting, but eerie in a way.

A very close friend died earlier this year and I've dreamt of him a couple of times. Once or twice I've woken up slightly teary. I think it's just a normal way of our brains processing information and grief. when I have had a dream with him in it I confess it's lovely to be able to speak to him again.

Yes, but I have an active dreamlike anyway. I dream about all sorts.

I dream regularly about my mum. She had dementia for years and died last year. I dream she has come back to life and and she's back in a wheelchair and talking but with nowhere to live and no support. I'm in a panic about who is looking after her.

I dream about my grandma who died over a decade ago from time to time. She's just as she was in my dreams, and it's lovely as I wake up feeling I've spent time with her again.

Yes, I have.

If you’re of the woo persuasion, some people say it’s the dead coming to visit us. Otherwise it’s just the way we tend to process loss.

I dream about my dad fairly regularly. Usually in dreams where he features I’m a teenager/ living in my childhood home again and he’s there with my mum as was normal back then. Nothing in my dreams that relates to the fact he’s dead, no trying to communicate and not being able to for example, it’s just like he never passed away.

Yes, though they are always alive in the dreams, I dream about people who have died but also old school friends and people Ive fallen out of touch with, as well as people I know in the present. I'm a very vivid dreamer and I hate it tbh, the dreams aren't bad per se but it often leaves me very emotional and unsettled when I wake up.

When my mum died, my little cat had also died a few days earlier. In the first dream I had about my mum after her death, I was standing on a quayside watching a huge, beautiful ocean liner setting off. Crowds were cheering, tickertape was flying in the air, it was a gloriously sunny day. On one of the decks high above, next to the rail, my mum was standing, smiling, and waving to me; and with her was my little cat. I waved and waved until the ship was out of sight. Oh bloody hell, I'm tearing up remembering it!

All the time, and vividly too.

Every night. My stepdad, my cousin. My friends mums.

Yes, all the time.

I was with someone when they died. I asked them to come back and visit me. When I dream about them it's comforting to think that's what they're doing.

Yes. They are still dead in the dream but I am still able to interact with them. After my closest friend died by suicide I had a dream that she phoned me and I was so, so delighted to realise that I could still speak to her after she died.

I had several dreams after my Dad died. We were estranged when he died and I have several dreams that kinda served as closure. In one I was he was walking away from me to get off a bus we had both been on. I was begging him to stop and to listen to what I had to say. He stopped just before he got off and turned and looked at me and then I woke up. But him even turning to listen was really significant to me (and something he would have never done in real life). Shortly after I had a dream where I said everything I wanted to to him. He didn't speak in that dream but there was just a sense that he had heard and accepted what I said and it was ok. I haven't dreamt about him since.

It is weird you have posted now because I've just had a nap and a long dream about my ex-husband who has since died. I dream about him quite a lot.

Hardly at all. I have a very boring dream life - I once dreamed that I was going to have a bath, which is typical. Twice since he died I've dreamed about dh, really only as a shadowy presence, I think once in a car. He wasn't doing anything, he was just there. I've never dreamed about my dad since he died.

Of course!

Yes my great aunt I started dreaming about a lot when I got cancer. I would dream her hand was holding out to take me up to heaven with her then we would be together on a cloud eating her home baked lemon cake, drinking tea, her dried flowers all around and a lovely cottage with a rose garden. I think it was my way of dealing with the fear of death from cancer.