Throughout history different psychology perspectives have analyzed whether dreams have meaning in our waking lives. Alfred Adler believed dreams served as clues to solve problems in waking life. It can be difficult to remember your dreams—most people don’t.
If you’re one of the vivid dreamers who are able to jot down symbols to interpret and apply to your waking life and you happen to work in a school, odds are pretty good you’ve had a dream set in or related to school.
Here are some common school-related dream symbols and their interpretations.
Book: Calmness. Moving toward goals at a slow, steady pace. Knowledge, intellect, information, wisdom. Open books mean your mind is open to grasp new ideas with ease. Closed books represent your mysterious allure.
Boss: Represents your own authoritative side, your self-confidence and assertiveness. Issues with control/authority. Take some PTO.
Cafeteria: Lots is "eating you up" inside.
Coworker: Ambition, competitive nature, reflections of waking life (including things you may admire or loathe about your coworker).
Failing a test: Feeling scrutinized in your waking life, fear of failing, low confidence, setting goals too high.
Library: Search for knowledge and a hunger for ideas. You may be seeking a new meaning to life. Study and evaluate before taking any action. If the library is messy, you are being inundated with too much information at once and are struggling to sort it out. If you cannot find the book you seek or it is already lent out, you need enrichment for yourself.
Locker: symbolizes aspects of yourself which you have kept hidden inside. consider what you find in the locker. they represent things you need to learn or acknowledge in the future. to dream you cannot open a locker means you are feeling unsure of where you stand in a situation. you feel you have lost parts of your identity. if you cannot find your locker, you are feeling insecure about your role in a situation. if someone else is using your locker, you feel this person (or someone in your waking life) has gained access to your secret self.
No pants/naked: You fear being found out and exposed. Alternatively, you may be feeling misjudged. Suddenly noticing nudity means you are feeling vulnerable in a situation.
Prom/dance: Signifies the end of one thing and the beginning of something else; the cycles and passage of time. Or it might be prom soon. ;)
Report card: Symbolic of your performance in waking life. You may be questioning your abilities. Consider the grades dream-you has earned.
School bus: You are about to venture on an important life journey for your personal growth.
School: Inadequacy or childhood insecurities yet unresolved. Anxiety about performance or abilities. A spiritual learning experience may emerge. Running away from school means you are being closed-minded or have a new lesson you need to learn.
Score board: Represents how you're doing in life. Additional clues can be found in the numbers on the board.
Student: If you dream you are a student, you need better understanding of something or have some learning to do in order to get ahead in life.
Sudoku: You are facing a mental challenge or complex problem. Consider the numbers you saw—numbers and words in dreams are always important.
Teacher: To see your teacher (past or present) signifies your search for advice, guidance, and knowledge. you are heading down a new path and ready to learn. This may mirror waking life. If your teacher is mean or tough then you are putting too much pressure on yourself.
Yearbook: Represents old friends and old flames you have lost touch with over the years. Reminders of carefree days with fewer worries and responsibilities. Look for messages in the written notes in the yearbook.
If you would like to plumb your unconscious mind for wisdom, consider taking the following steps:
1. Immediately upon waking, write down the most vivid symbols in your dream. Do not try to write down the whole narrative—just what stuck out the most as memorable.
2. Interpret each individual symbol (use a dream dictionary or a website). Then consider the overall narrative you can remember and how each symbol fits into it.
3. Expect the interpretations to be confusing or surprising. Dreams are not always all they seem.
4. Dream interpretation can change culturally. You may want to start with a general site such as dreammoods.com and then branch out to Korean, Middle Eastern, or other cultural interpretations.
5. The more you practice, the more you’ll be able to remember from each dream.
Sleep is the best meditation.
–Dalai Lama
