What It Really Means When You Dream About Flying

Have you ever dreamed one of those dreams where you're flying? The liberating feeling of being actually able to take it to the skies. The wonderful experience of actually feeling in control of the dream. You can handily escape whatever ogres, snakes, or bloodthirsty were-kittens your subconscious is throwing at you (unless they can fly, too, in which case you were probably having a nightmare all along). All in all, it's a great experience that is only marred by the fact that sooner or later, you'll have to wake up and find yourself back in the waking world where you need three cups of coffee just to make regular, everyday gravity stop feeling like a sledgehammer pounding on you. 

Now, many people would love to have such control over their subconscious mind that they could dream about flying whenever they wanted. Unfortunately, the human brain is way too complicated for that sort of stuff. Still, you probably wouldn't mind gaining some information that might help you load the dices just the tiniest bit, next time you dream. 

According to the website Dream Moods, flying dreams are a type of lucid dreaming, which is when you realize that you're in the middle of a dream and take control of the situation. It's usually a positive, happy experience, which is thought to represent all sorts of nice things, ranging from control and freedom to broadening your perspective. Still, the site notes that there could also be a negative meaning, in that flying puts you above others and therefore could mean that you're looking down on them.  

Of course, interpreting dreams like that is not the most scientific of procedures. As such, scientifically-minded people like Psychology Today's Berit Brogaard point out that according to research, human dreams are basically the product of the brain's hippocampus, which controls memories. While you sleep, the hippocampus tinkers with the information it has recently received, in order to make sure everything fits snugly in your long-term memory. Dreams may just be the weirdness that happens during this process. 

No, that doesn't mean that you were actually flying at some point in the past week, and can only remember it when you sleep. Sorry.