Dreaming about clouds
Clouds are the part of a dream sky most likely to behave impossibly, because motion is expensive to generate and dreams do not bother. Clouds that do not move, or that move far too fast, are extremely common.
Also searched as: a cloudy sky, clouds in a dream, dark clouds, walking on clouds
Motion is where it goes wrong. Dreamers report clouds frozen in place, or racing, or changing shape while watched, and rarely question it at the time.
Gathering darkness is the second theme and belongs with the storm material, which weather.js covers.
Being above cloud is a distinct and positive group and sits with the flying reports.
Standing or walking on cloud appears in a small number of reports and is described with a matter-of-factness that dreamers find funny afterwards.
Common associations
- Motion that is wrong, the most useful observation.
- Gathering, in the storm reports.
- Being above them, in the flying ones.
- Solidity that should not be there.
Positive readings
Above-cloud reports share the elation of the flying dreams and are described in the same terms.
Cloud motion is a good reality check and one that requires only a few seconds of looking.
Difficult readings
Little that is specific. Darkening cloud carries the storm material rather than its own.
Psychological perspectives
Continuous motion has to be generated continuously, and dreams generate what is attended to. A cloud that is not being watched has no reason to move, which is a fair description of what dreamers report.
That makes it a useful check, and it is a slightly more subtle one than hands or text because it requires a few seconds rather than a glance.
Walking on cloud is the usual absence of physical modelling: nothing enforces that cloud cannot bear weight.
Cultural and historical
Clouds as the dwelling place or the vehicle of the divine appear in a number of traditions, and the cloud as a concealing presence is specific and recurrent in some religious texts.
The modern reading of clouds as gloom is idiomatic and shallow by comparison.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dreams generate detail and motion only where attention falls.
Well documented: the use of environmental inconsistency as a reality check.
Not established: any meaning for clouds.
Your own context
- Were they moving?
- Did they move at a sensible speed?
- Were you above them?
- Did you watch long enough to tell?
If this recurs
Log with the sky reports. This is a component of a dream sky rather than a subject in itself.
Emotions often reported
- calm
- unease
- wonder
- anticipation
- detachment
- melancholy
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Were they moving at all?
- Was the speed sensible?
- Did I watch them for a few seconds?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
No sources are attached to this page yet. It has not been through editorial review. How we review material
Related records
- SymbolSkyThe sky is the single best reality check in a dream, because it is large, always present, and almost never right. Dreamers who learn to look up report noticing more inconsistencies there than anywhere else.
- SymbolStormStorms are among the more emotionally intense weather reports and behave in dreams the way threats behave: the dreamer is looking for shelter, watching it approach, or already inside it. The approach is reported more often than the impact.
- ActionFlyingFlying is the most positively reported dream experience there is, and the most strongly associated with lucidity. Many people who realise they are dreaming try to fly, and many who fly realise they are dreaming.
- SymbolFogFog is reported less often than rain or storms and is more consistent in what it does: it removes information. The reports are about not being able to see rather than about anything in the fog.
- SymbolClockClocks in dreams are notoriously unreliable, the time changes when you look twice, and that instability is a well-known feature of dreaming rather than a symbol. Where clocks do carry meaning, it is almost always about lateness.
- SymbolMirrorMirrors in dreams are almost never about vanity. Dreamers overwhelmingly report the reflection being wrong (delayed, aged, a stranger, or absent) and it is the wrongness, not the mirror, that carries the meaning.