Dreaming about having been here before
The sense of having dreamt something before, or of a waking moment matching a dream, is extremely common and is explained without anything unusual. The mechanism is well described and it is worth knowing.
Also searched as: deja vu in a dream, i have dreamt this before, a familiar place i have never been, precognitive dream
Two experiences get run together. Feeling inside a dream that you have been there before, which is a generated familiarity like every other conviction dreams supply. And feeling awake that a moment matches a dream you had.
The second is the one people find compelling and it is the one with the clearer explanation.
Dreams are recalled poorly and vaguely, waking events are specific, and a vague memory matched against a specific event will find correspondences. The dreams that do not match are never counted.
Dreamers frequently report the dream memory becoming more detailed after the matching event, which is the direction memory reconstruction actually runs.
Common associations
- Generated familiarity, inside the dream.
- A vague memory matched to a specific event, outside it.
- Misses that are never counted.
- Reconstruction after the fact.
Positive readings
The experience itself is striking and is worth having recorded. What makes it useful rather than only interesting is dating the record.
A dated dream journal is the only way to test this, and it is a test anybody can run on themselves.
Difficult readings
Where somebody builds decisions on it, the mechanism matters. The feeling is real and it is not evidence.
Where a matching dream involves harm to somebody, the distress can be considerable and is entirely unearned.
Psychological perspectives
Dreams generate the feeling of knowing independently of anything known, which this database describes across many entries: knowing an unfamiliar house is yours, knowing a stranger is your brother. Familiarity is the same mechanism.
For the waking version, the account is memory reconstruction plus selection. A poorly encoded, vague dream is a loose template, waking life supplies an enormous number of events, and a match is close to guaranteed over a lifetime.
The reported sharpening of the dream memory after the event is characteristic of reconstruction rather than of recall.
Cultural and historical
Dreams that foretell are a serious category in a great many traditions and are among the most widely known dream narratives in religious literature.
The database records those as beliefs held and states the evidential position plainly, which is that no predictive capability has been demonstrated and the mechanism above accounts for the experience.
Both statements are made, and neither is used to dismiss the other.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dreams generate feelings of familiarity and knowing independently of content.
Well described: memory reconstruction and selection effects, which account for the waking matches.
Not established: any precognitive capability.
Your own context
- Had you written the dream down before the event?
- How detailed was the memory before, and after?
- How many dreams have not matched anything?
- Was it familiarity inside the dream, or a match outside it?
If this recurs
If this happens to you, the test is simple and worth doing: write dreams down with a date, before anything matches. It is the only way to find out, and almost nobody does it.
Emotions often reported
- wonder
- confusion
- unease
- fascination
- alarm
- curiosity
Specific having been here before dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Did I write it down first?
- How much detail did I have before?
- How many dreams matched nothing?
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
- ActionThe same dream againRecurring dreams are common, they are more often unpleasant than pleasant, and the useful thing about them is not their content but the fact that you have a repeated measure of something.
- ActionForgetting the dreamAlmost nobody does not dream. Recall varies enormously and is affected by things you can change, which makes this the most actionable entry in the database for anybody who thinks they have nothing to record.
- PlaceCityCities in dreams are usually composites: a place assembled from several real ones, which the dreamer nonetheless names confidently as somewhere specific. That combination of accurate detail and impossible layout is the most reported feature.
- PlaceHouseHouses are the most common setting in dream reports, which is the first thing worth knowing: a house in a dream is usually where the dream is, not what the dream is about. The details that vary, whose house it is and what state it is in, carry more than the house does.
- ActionBeing chasedBeing chased is the most reported dream theme in most surveys. What matters is almost never the pursuer. It is that the dreamer is going away from something, and what happens if they stop.
- ActionBeing unable to speak or moveBeing unable to move or make a sound is extremely common, and it sits on the boundary between an ordinary dream and sleep paralysis. Working out which one you had is the single most useful thing this page can help with.