Dreaming about a colleague you barely think about
Why do I dream about people who do not matter to me?
The purest demonstration of the availability finding in this database.
The reported puzzle is always the same: why them. Dreamers describe someone they have no feelings about appearing more than people they love, and are troubled by it.
The answer is exposure. Dream characters follow how often somebody is encountered rather than how much they matter, and that is one of the more robust findings in content analysis.
A colleague is the cleanest possible test: high frequency, low significance. If dreams cast by meaning, they would almost never appear. They appear constantly.
The friend entry describes the same finding from the other side, where somebody deeply loved and rarely seen barely turns up.
Where this reads well
Removes a real and common worry, and it is checkable against a week of anybody's own journal.
Where it is harder
None, once explained. Before explanation dreamers report genuine guilt about it.
Worth asking yourself
Who have I actually seen this week? Who appears most in my journal? Does that match who matters?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
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