6 Interpretations For Your Scary Dreams About Being Chased

Dreams are an exquisite mystery. Even more mysterious is the fact that people all around the world seem to have similar dream themes—from spiders to being naked in public to, of course, being chased.

Dream interpretation allows us to decode the messages of our dreams, so we're able to integrate those lessons into our waking lives. If you've been dreaming about being chased, here's what it could be telling you, according to therapist and dream expert Leslie Ellis, Ph.D.

"Being chased is literally the most common dream theme," Ellis tells mbg, "so it clearly must represent something quite universal." She goes on to say that dreaming is, in part, an expression of our embodied state, or "a reflection of the state of our nervous system."

"In that respect," she says, "being chased is an image for the 'flight' part of the fight-or-flight response—our body's initial reaction to threat." So, generally speaking, "it's fair to say the dreamer is activated and feeling threatened in some way," she notes. Long story short: You're probably stressing!

Specifics always matter in dreams, and there are plenty of variations on the classic chase dream. What's chasing you? Or are you the chaser? These details are important.

"In the pandemic dreams I've been seeing," Ellis notes, "the chaser is more often something sinister and invisible—like a virus! So yes, it is important to pay attention to just what or who is doing the chasing, as this will help to understand the nature of what feels threatening." Here, she breaks down what a few variations of this dream could be trying to tell you:

If you're running away from someone you don't know, Ellis says this can mean you feel threatened but don't truly know or understand the source of the threat. This could even be a reflection of anxiety in your waking life, which can often arise for seemingly no reason.

If you're dreaming of a person you know well chasing you, Ellis explains, then you can ask yourself, What are the most notable characteristics of this person? Are they particularly angry or domineering? Do they have a troubled nature or some form of mental illness? Are they, in your experience, simply insufferable? "These might be traits that scare you in your own self," she notes, "because in dreams, as in waking life, we tend to project our own disavowed traits onto others."

Another common chase dream is to dream of being chased by an animal. In that case, "It might be a fear relating to the natural world," Ellis says. "Or you could consider the specific nature of that animal and what about it scares you." A bear, for example, might indicate you feel a problem is too big for you, or it's overpowering you, she explains.

There can be instances when you dream of being chased by something nonthreatening, whether an animal or person. If you are being chased by a deer, for example, "This is hardly a threatening animal," Ellis says. "So it might be that the dream is saying you are fleeing from something that is not truly scary—or maybe you are running from your own fearful nature, from the deerlike flightiness in you."

If you keep having this dream, Ellis says your dreams are trying very hard to get your attention—and it's even more important to pay attention to them. "In general, recurrent dreams are indications that something is unresolved or stuck, and they are also associated with more distress in general."

And lastly, should you be the one who's actually doing the chasing in this dream (which Ellis notes is far less common), it's "useful to inquire into the nature of what you are chasing," she says, as well as asking yourself if chasing and not getting what you want is a familiar feeling. This dream indicates you might feel something is out of reach.

Ellis notes that those interpretations are just that: interpretations. Only the dreamer can be sure an interpretation rings true, she says. But once you do figure out the message behind the chase dream you've been having, you can start to work to integrate the lessons so you eventually stop having it.

"To stop having these dreams, and to learn something from them, simply turn and face what is chasing you," Ellis explains. If you are able to lucid dream, you can of course do this right within the dream, but for most people, it can be an exercise you do while awake.

"Imagine yourself back in your dream, and sink into the dreamscape using as many senses as possible," she says. "This will deepen the experiential state. Then stop running, calm down, and face your chaser. This will tend to stop them in their tracks."

From there, you can ask what they want from you. "Usually, when you do this, the frightening aspects of the chaser fall away," she says, adding, "I can't predict what the dream image will do or say because that depends so much on the individual dreamer—but I can tell you that this action always shifts the dream. It is never the same after this."

If you're feeling any sort of anxiety or tension in your real life, don't be surprised if it shows up in your dreams as a fast-paced chase scene. When we can interpret the messages of our chase dreams and flip the narrative ourselves, we can get to the bottom of them—and hopefully, prevent the bad ones from bothering us anymore.