Loading...

What are elevator dreams about?

Elevators are really small rooms that ascend and descend. There is an element of powerlessness in elevators. One simply presses a button and waits for the elevator to work. This symbol is identified by words like elevator.

Elevators in dreams is a relatively uncommon dream symbol, occuring in about 1.0% of dreams. That's about 1 out of every 100 dreams.

What are the major highlights of elevator dreams?

Elevators is an interconnected dream symbol. Having elevators in a dream changes the dream more than most other dream symbols.

Elevator dreams are friendly

Dreams of elevators have greater increase of friendly interactions within the dream than most other dream symbols. While not all dreams of elevators will be friendly and they can also contain aggressive interactions, dreams of elevators are more likely to have friendly interactions than most other dream symbols. Other symbols that are like this include rage, keys, stairs and ladders, walking, courts, general senses, obeying, nieces, accomplices, and villages.

How does the dream symbol of elevators affect the different aspects of a dream?

Explore different elements related to dreams of elevators

Who is in elevators dreams?

Overall, dreams with elevators are aren't really related to characters in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are more related to different roles, more related to distant people, and more related to close people than dreams in general. They are less related to animals, less related to family, and less related to romantic partners.

Animals

less than usual

Insects

the same as usual

Different roles

more than usual

Fantastic beings

the same as usual

Distant people

more than usual

Close people

more than usual

Family

less than usual

Romantic partners

less than usual
Show Detail

What are the emotions in elevators dreams?

Overall, dreams with elevators are aren't really related to emotions in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are more related to confusion and more related to fun than dreams in general. They are less related to happiness and less related to love.

Happiness

less than usual

Sadness

the same as usual

Grief and sorrow

the same as usual

Embarrassment

the same as usual

Confusion

more than usual

Fear

the same as usual

Pain

the same as usual

Hatred

the same as usual

Fun

more than usual

Love

less than usual
Show Detail

Who is in elevators dreams?

Overall, dreams with elevators are much more related to places in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are more related to work, much more related to human places, and more related to magical places than dreams in general. They are less related to home.

Home

less than usual

Work

more than usual

Human places

much more than usual

Transportation

the same as usual

Natural places

the same as usual

Magical places

more than usual
Show Detail

What happens in elevators dreams?

Overall, dreams with elevators are aren't really related to events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are more related to friendly interactions than dreams in general.

Aggressive interactions

the same as usual

Friendly interactions

more than usual

Sex

the same as usual

Disasters

the same as usual
Show Detail

How do elevators in dreams related to other dream phenomenon?

Overall, dreams with elevators are aren't really related to dream events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are more related to lucid dreams and much more related to recurring dreams than dreams in general. They are less related to sleeping and less related to waking life.

Lucid dreams

more than usual

Nightmares

the same as usual

Recurring dreams

much more than usual

Recurring nightmares

the same as usual

Sleep paralysis

the same as usual

Sleeping

less than usual

Waking life

less than usual
Show Detail

How do elevators in dreams related the senses?

Overall, dreams with elevators are aren't really related to senses in dreams. Specifically, dreams of elevators are less related to hearing.

Hearing

less than usual

Smelling

the same as usual

Taste

the same as usual

Vision

the same as usual

Touch

the same as usual
Show Detail

How can you make sense of elevators in dreams?

Elevator dreams are relatively uncommon. Among other things elevator dreams are positively interconnected and friendly.

Do you think this is true for your dream of elevators? How might your dream of elevators be different?

All dreams have meaning

You can gain insight from thinking about any dream, no matter how strange. Only you, as the dreamer, have final say on what your dream may or may not mean. Each dream is unique.

Look for the differences

The DreamWell dictionary provides information on how each dream symbol appears in dreams in general. Finding how experience elevators in dreams can be a key to understanding its meaning.

Return to the feelings

Our emotions in dreams can help us understand its meaning. Pay attention to how you felt in the dream. Pay attention to how you feel about elevators in dreams. See how you feel about elevators now, in your waking life.

What are possible meanings for dreams of elevators?

The main way elevators are used as symbolism is through their function of going up and down. That movement can describe the ups and downs of life and anything that ascends or descends, rises or falls: blood pressure, fortune, opinion, reputation, desire, age. The movement is a physical representation.

Going up is associated with a rise in status, similar to the idea of “climbing the ladder,” on your way up, successful. The people with you in the elevator could represent the parts of yourself primarily responsible for your success: your work ethic, ambition, skill, intelligence. Or they could represent people in your life who are rising with you. See: Ascending, Climbing

Rising up is associated with personal development. The floors passed as you rise are stages of personal development—as a professional or student, as a parent, as a leader.

It can symbolize elevated mood, thought, or feeling, or rise in skill, ability, or knowledge.

It can symbolize aging or maturing.

Upper floors and the roof of a building can represent the head of the body. So rising in an elevator can visually represent raising your intellect or going up into your thoughts. See: Attics

Going down in an elevator can visually represent descending into your emotions, or movement into the depths of your being, especially if you end up in a basement. Those depths might include forgotten or avoided memories, receded aspects of yourself, or your heritage or family roots. See: Basements

It can symbolize depression or sinking hope. See: Depression

Going down in an elevator can mean loss of status or decline in health. This dream theme is particularly common in people who have peaked mentally or physically and are starting a slow decline, shown in the movement of the elevator slowly descending.

Descending in an elevator can mean that your status, thoughts, feelings, opinions, or expectations are lowered. See: Descending

Descending suddenly and crashing can symbolize feelings related to a sudden loss or trauma. It captures the sensation of a weightless stomach, that sick feeling you get when something goes horribly wrong or is really shocking.

While descent can symbolize misfortune or setback, it can also mean grounded or down to earth. Use your feelings to tell the difference.

Up-and-down movement can represent changes in mood. Fast movements in an elevator can symbolize mood swings. It can symbolize the rush of taking a drug, or the crash that happens as you “come down.”

Dreams that feature elevators going to different floors of a building and the doors opening on various scenes can be like a survey of what various parts of you think about something. Down in the basement is where you might see your emotions. In the middle, you might see your gut feelings or instincts. And in the upper floors you might see your thoughts.

The same imagery of stopping at floors in an elevator can symbolize times of your life, and the specific floor is an age of your life. Floor nine is age nine, and so forth. See: Numbers

Another possibility is that the symbolism of the floors visited in a dream elevator are more important for the numbers used. For example, ten is how many cousins you have, or the number of days till an important event, or the number of people you are competing against. Dreaming about avoiding floor five can symbolize avoiding thinking about how early you have to wake up—5 a.m.

If the elevator won’t open, it might symbolize an opportunity that won’t open for you, or you are unable to access a particular area of yourself. For example, if you ride an elevator to a basement and the doors won’t open, it might mean that you are closed off to your emotions or instincts.

An elevator that doesn’t arrive at your floor can symbolize an opportunity that doesn’t materialize, or an event canceled.

An elevator door closing as someone tries to get on can symbolize cutting off a person, or ending a situation or relationship. For example, you decide to fire a contractor who has been repairing your house, and in a dream you shut elevator doors on a construction worker trying to enter it.

See also: Ascending, Attics, Basements, Buildings, Climbing, Descending, Numbers, Skyscrapers

This interpretation is from ""The Dream Interpretation Dictionary: Symbols, Signs, and Meanings" and is provided by J.M. DeBord aka "RadOwl". He is the author of several acclaimed books about dreaming, the host of The Dreams That Shape Us podcast, and is a moderator of r/Dreams, one of the largest dream sharing communities on the internet.

Examples of dreams of elevators

Read some real dream reports of elevator dreams.. These real life dream reports come from the moderated dream sharing communities of Reddit including r/Dreams, r/Nightmares, r/DreamInterpretation, or r/thisdreamihad. Please note that some of these may contain graphic, sexual, or violent images and text. Use the source link for each dream to view and join the discussion of each one.

I met the Devil??

Hi All, please help me interpret this dream because I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what this means. For context, I'm 24f. just lost a job because it wasn't in my field at all, and earlier this year I found out my ex cheated on me. As a hopeless romantic I was just devastated because I thought he was The One.

Let me tell you the story.

So it started off in a warehouse/flat situation where everyone was just hanging out, and I assume it was a sort of medical centre for crackheads too since we'd have a couple come over and some doctors would take them in. Then I eventually decided to follow my friend's sister and mum to the beach outside (think southend-on-sea but barren and with seating areas like in The Minnack Theatre in Cornwall).

We settled on the beach and sat around for a while until two of my friends came over, and we started talking about the Devil being on the top floor of this specific skyscraper, and how he tells you your future. Bear in mind that I didn't see skyscrapers surrounding the beach until they said this, and there was a specific black one which tbh looked pretty cool. So one by one everyone at the beach went to go see him, even my friends, and by the end of the day it was my turn.

My friend showed me the way into the building, but couldn't go up with me since the elevator warning said it was only for one person. As I went up, the elevator started getting smaller and smaller until I was compact. Then it turned out that there were some renovations going on on the top floor, and I was stuck for a little bit until this old couple pulled apart the elevator and got me out.

So, it was time to see the Devil. I started walking around the floor a little bit, it looked like a standard office building, walls were all white and there were accents of wood, loads of meeting rooms too. I found the room where the Devil, as it was the only room occupied, the door was wide open and it was lit with shades of purple, green, and black. So I walk in expecting to see him, but it looked like some generic-ass dude with a flarey costume and a skull mask, which was very underwhelming as you can tell. He explained the rules of visiting him to me, I

had to come up with a question like everyone else did and he would show me an answer/my future. I spent a lot of time at the beach wondering if I should ask about my career or my love life, I'm extremely indecisive and ended up choosing the latter last minute, maybe because I thought it was more important to me (dumb, I know, I should've picked career). He said that's fine, the question can be about anything I want and gestured at this little mountain in front of him. It was like a greyish purple colour and looked like dried lava, and it has a button that you pull out, which I assume is like a pull up to show you your future. He told me to pull the button and I did.

​

And then I woke up.

and now I'm so frustrated because I'll never know the answer, but also curious. I'm not majorly into dream interpretation, I used to do it a bit more in my teen years or only if a dream freaks me out and I wanna know what it means. But I cannot interpret this at all. Please help, lol.

P.S. I wasn't feeling particularly scared throughout this dream, I was pretty calm the whole time, I kind of thought of it as visiting a funfair attraction. There was a bit of anticipation when going up the lift, but otherwise I was carefree the whole time.

Thanks for reading!

Hi All, please help me interpret this dream because I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what this means. For context, I'm 24f. just lost a job because it...

Source | Show dream

A recurring dream about skyscrapers

The formula is pretty much the same whenever I have this type of dream. I step inside a skyscraper and I'm on the first floor. I don't use the elevator; I use the stairs, instead. I go up to, let's say, the fifth floor. I check out the surroundings by walking into different rooms. Most of them resemble either an office or an apartment. One time, there was even a candy shop somewhere.

​

But I don't stop there as I keep going higher. I make it to the tenth floor and check out the rooms again. Then I go up to the twentieth floor, and then the thirtieth floor. I keep going higher and higher, and I don't stop. Even when, one time, there was a zombie apocalypse right outside. I lock all the doors on the first floor and I keep going up. I'm not sure if I ever make it to the top floor/rooftop as my dream just ends right when I'm near the top.

The formula is pretty much the same whenever I have this type of dream. I step inside a skyscraper and I'm on the first floor. I don't use the elevator; I use...

Source | Show dream

I dreamed that I was making out with my brother. What does it mean?

In this dream- we were at a condo unit and we were both drunk I think. We were in the elevator, somehow it got a little dim when the elevator door opened. He approached and kissed me, it was freaking weird, so I pushed him away and asked him what was that about, he didn't say anything. Didn't talk or say a word to him after that. So fast forward okay, he tried approaching me again but this time he was apologizing. Then I woke up.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? I was grossed out and a bit of disturbed. Whenever we talk in the living room, that dream always hit my mind then I look at him otherwise. It's really weird. Ew.

What does it mean?

In this dream- we were at a condo unit and we were both drunk I think. We were in the elevator, somehow it got a little dim when the elevator door opened. He...

Source | Show dream

I had a dream I got shot in a mass shooting

Not sure how the dream started or escalated to the point it did, but here’s a short summary:

In the dream I was looking at a bunch of statues. The statues looked like angels and had a religious meaning to them. There were people there with me and these statues were located in like a indoor gazebo that led outside and overlooked a body of water.

Suddenly someone a man came up behind me and told me “It’s not safe here something’s about to go down” and he pointed me to an elevator where people were frantically being ushered in to get to a ‘safe room.’

The safe room honestly looked like a classroom for like a high school with windows that looked out to what I guess would’ve been part of the gazebo I was just in. We were safe in there until shots started firing out coming through the windows. This lasted for like 30 seconds until it came to a sudden stop. After the shooting stoped someone in the room shouted out “Is everyone ok?” I initially answered “Yeah” with everyone else and then I looked down and saw my right leg was dripping blood. I then said out loud “Wait shit, why is there blood on me” until I rolled up my shorts to see that I had been shot on the upper-inside of my right thigh.

Someone from the safe room said he’d help evacuate me out of the room despite not knowing if the gunman was still active. We got to a large flight of stairs that you could press a button that would make the stairs either go up or down. Neither of us were familiar with the building so we had no clue what way led out of the building.

Eventually we got out of the building and into a place that looked like a crowded subway terminal with plenty of people just casually walking around. Myself and the guy who helped evacuate me both started screaming for a medic before I woke up.

Not sure how the dream started or escalated to the point it did, but here’s a short summary:

In the dream I was looking at a bunch of statues. The statues...

Source | Show dream

I have no idea about what I just dreamt.

In my dream I am at a hotel a very big one. I am running away from someone. I never actually see them but I can hear them call my name in a deep masculine voice. When the voice would called for me it was like if he was growling. In order to escape him I climbed the stairs of the hotel. Remember the stairs were very fancy made of gold. At one point I jump from one set of stairs to another. I am climbing and I come to a halt, there is a beige tarp covering a metal fence on that floor almost like a quarantine. That is when I hear the voice call out to me from behind the fence. Telling me to go in there but from underneath their hand goes through the fence, grabbing my ankle. I grab the rails to keep me from falling backwards. I finally ask the voice why should I and what is going on? Before they could answer somebody begins pulling them back from the other side. They grip the fence telling me to run.

I fled from there and running back down. Now I could hear someone running after me. Quickly run down to the main floor of the hotel (which is full of people) I book it for the elevator and I get in and try to close the doors. Some old man put his cane through the closing doors opening them. I push the button to close the doors and again the elderly man puts his cane through the closing door. Now this elderly man had no plan on getting on the elevator he was just doing it out sheer entertainment. So I decided to get out of the elevator and I notice that people are acting quite strange.

I can’t explain how they were acting but I crossed to the other side of the room to see a very attractive couple a long haired brunette man and longed haired blond women making out, naked laying in a red chaise lounge chair with gold painted wood. A small crowd surrounded them entrance, I tried to go around them as I did the male called out to me and the crowd split in the middle and told me to come close. Without thinking my body moved closed to them. They both get up and approach me. The man asks me where was I going while the woman gets behind me gently caressing my face. I tell him that I was just walking trying not to disturb them or the crowd. The woman giggles in my ear as the man now embraces me whispering in my ear telling me how they were waiting for me. I am now hella confused because how did they even know me because I had no clue who they were. I ask them who they were if I knew them and the woman speaks and says I prayed to her once and the man says that I sang to him once. I still have no idea who they are. They ask me to join them and I politely declined. They told me that they would be here waiting for me if I ever changed my mind.

I turn around and walked away from there. And I notice there are some people are running around around and for some odd reason others in orgys. I walked avoiding bumping into anyone until I was up against a wall. Then a person grabbed my hand dragging me into a beautiful garden. With many rose bushes filled with blooming red and pink roses. We hide behind a big tree. The person has short Carmel colored hair with a caramel-like skin tone. They stared at me for a while as if figuring out something before warmly smiling at me. They asked me if I was okay and told them I was fine. I asked them what was going on and why everyone was acting so odd. They told me that it could be something in the air that is causing people to act strange but they knew for sure that the plants in the garden made return back to normal. They told me that they were glad they weren’t the only normal one here and patted my head. I have no idea why but when they patted my head I felt like there was butterflies in my stomach and felt warm. I asked them where they were from and they said Kansas. Then all of a sudden they embrace me, it felt as if an explosion of warmth spread thru my body. They tell me not to forget them and then I woke up.

I have never had a dream like this. And it was very chaotic to say the very least. I have no idea what any of this means.

In my dream I am at a hotel a very big one. I am running away from someone. I never actually see them but I can hear them call my name in a deep masculine...

Source | Show dream
DreamWell logo

Explore your own dreams

Download the free DreamWell app to start journalling your dreams.

Download now