Dreaming about waiting for something that never arrives
Why do I spend dreams waiting for something?
A large share of dreams contain waiting and almost none contain the arrival. It is the most common unresolved structure in this database.
Dreamers describe duration without progress, do not know how long they have been there, and the thing waited for does not come.
The reason is structural rather than symbolic. Dreams are considerably better at the state before an event than at the event, which is why the chase does not end in capture, the threat does not end in injury, and the fog does not deliver what is in it. Anticipation is a state, and dreams supply states.
Once you notice it, you find it everywhere in your own records: stations, doctors, queues, phones, parties. It is the same dream in different rooms.
Where this reads well
One of the most portable observations in this database, and it reframes a great many dreams at once.
Where it is harder
Unresolved anticipation is what makes dreams recur, and these are among the most repetitive people report.
Worth asking yourself
What was I waiting for? Did it ever come? How many of my dreams end without resolving?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
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