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What are shrinking dreams about?

This symbol is identified by words like shrink.

Shrinking in dreams is a very uncommon dream symbol, occuring in about 0.3% of dreams. That's about 1 out of every 400 dreams.

What are the major highlights of shrinking dreams?

Shrinking is a normal dream symbol. Having shrinking in a dream changes the dream in the same way as most other dream symbols.

Shrinking dreams are friendly

Dreams of shrinking have greater increase of friendly interactions within the dream than most other dream symbols. While not all dreams of shrinking will be friendly and they can also contain aggressive interactions, dreams of shrinking are more likely to have friendly interactions than most other dream symbols. Other symbols that are like this include dirty, evil, shoulder, fists, endings, eyes, psyches, magnifying glasses, unnamed groups of people, and heads.

What symbols less present in dreams of shrinking?

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

Explore different elements related to dreams of shrinking

Who is in shrinking dreams?

Overall, dreams with shrinking are less related to characters in dreams. Specifically, dreams of shrinking are more related to animals, much more related to insects, and more related to fantastic beings than dreams in general. They are less related to distant people and less related to romantic partners.

Animals

more than usual

Insects

much more than usual

Different roles

the same as usual

Fantastic beings

more than usual

Distant people

less than usual

Close people

the same as usual

Family

the same as usual

Romantic partners

less than usual
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What are the emotions in shrinking dreams?

Overall, dreams with shrinking are aren't really related to emotions in dreams. Specifically, dreams of shrinking are more related to grief and sorrow, more related to embarrassment, and much more related to confusion than dreams in general. They are less related to happiness and less related to hatred.

Happiness

less than usual

Sadness

the same as usual

Grief and sorrow

more than usual

Embarrassment

more than usual

Confusion

much more than usual

Fear

the same as usual

Pain

more than usual

Hatred

less than usual

Fun

much more than usual

Love

the same as usual
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Who is in shrinking dreams?

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

Home

less than usual

Work

less than usual

Human places

less than usual

Transportation

the same as usual

Natural places

more than usual

Magical places

more than usual
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What happens in shrinking dreams?

Overall, dreams with shrinking are aren't really related to events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of shrinking are more related to friendly interactions and more related to disasters than dreams in general. They are less related to sex.

Aggressive interactions

the same as usual

Friendly interactions

more than usual

Sex

less than usual

Disasters

more than usual
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How do shrinking in dreams related to other dream phenomenon?

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

Lucid dreams

more than usual

Nightmares

more than usual

Recurring dreams

much more than usual

Recurring nightmares

the same as usual

Sleep paralysis

much more than usual

Sleeping

the same as usual

Waking life

less than usual
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How do shrinking in dreams related the senses?

Overall, dreams with shrinking are aren't really related to senses in dreams. Specifically, dreams of shrinking are more related to vision than dreams in general. They are less related to taste and less related to touch.

Hearing

the same as usual

Smelling

the same as usual

Taste

less than usual

Vision

more than usual

Touch

less than usual
Show Detail

How can you make sense of shrinking in dreams?

Shrinking dreams are very uncommon. Among other things shrinking dreams are normally interconnect and friendly.

Do you think this is true for your dream of shrinking? How might your dream of shrinking 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 shrinking 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 shrinking in dreams. See how you feel about shrinking now, in your waking life.

What are possible meanings for dreams of shrinking?

Shrinking in a dream can mean “diminish.” Such as when your respect, hope, fear, prospects, enthusiasm, or bank account diminish.

The symbolism shows in a dream a man had about having sex with a super-hot woman. Halfway through, she starts shrinking and gets tinier and tinier. The woman represents his wife, and her shrinking while having sex with him is a way of saying he’s enjoying sex less with her. She’s gained a lot of weight since they got married, and it means more work for him in the bedroom because their bodies don’t fit together the way they used to. He still loves his wife and loves sex with her, but his enjoyment of it is shrinking.

A woman dreams about being pursued by huge monster. The dreams recur and every time she sees the monster she runs for her life. Finally, one night she gets sick of running and turns to confront the monster. When she does, it shrinks, and what’s left is a small child looking scared and alone. The story is about her running from the needs of the child within her. The big monster is a classic image of overblown fear. Once it’s confronted, it shrinks back to a manageable size.

See also: Fear, Hugeness, Smallness, Psychologists

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 shrinking

Read some real dream reports of shrinking 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 dreamt my memories were deleted.

I stand at a hospital window, I stand with my mother and another woman, I cannot recognize her, but I know her.

My mother and I are talking, not about anything in particular. My eyes glide across the room, to our side are three separate hospital beds.

In the first sits an old white haired woman, she is missing her bottom half and looking somewhat dazed.

In the second bed are her legs, they are moving as if she were bicycling, they are connected to machines that seem to keep them and their bloodflow active.

in the third and last bed lies part of a man, he has been sliced from his left clavicle and diagonally down through his torso, he is alive and well, talking quite non-chalantly into the room.

Across his torso is several incisions that to me indicate he has either volunteered or sold what remains of his body to keep another persons organs alive using his own body.

my mother and I are talking, the young woman without a face stands with us, but mute.

I suddenly hear the words in my head.

\>Memory upload initiated<

I am flung through a sequence of memories I do not remember, scenes I have not experienced, play by in fast-forward.

I feel like I have shrunk to 1/20th of my size and am being dropped into a pocket dimension. I stand, or rather float in a spherical room of technology I am unfamiliar with, I am weightless.

&#x200B;

after a short while I hear the same voice in my head again. >Memory upload completed, Memory deletion initiated<

I am thrust out of my body, I now see things through the eyes of the woman I could not recognize, but all from the point that I heard the "Memory upload initiated".

I look at myself through her eyes as my own grow blank and empty, absent. I suddenly start speaking in riddles, in a pace I cannot follow. I see my body shrunk and falling through a crack in space.

I hear. >Memory deletion completed<

I stand at a hospital window, I stand with my mother and another woman, I cannot recognize her, but I know her.

I ask my mother.

"What happened in Houston?".

she replies.

"You know what, let's just forget about that.

I look at her in bewilderment.

"But mom, I already have."

I stand at a hospital window, I stand with my mother and another woman, I cannot recognize her, but I know her.

My mother and I are talking, not about...

Source | Show dream

Dream about deadly low amounts of gravity on earth.

I was quite a bit younger when I had this dream, but I remember it to this day. There wasn't any sound, but I remember that me and all the other kids and adults at the daycare I went to had to hold hands and not jump. One kid decides to let go of the group and jump up, and he just went up and up infinitely until I couldn't see him anymore. The adults were worried and told all the kids to keep holding hands and not jump. Out of curiosity I let go as well and jumped. Last thing I remember was looking down watching the ground and people beneath me rapidly shrink as I floated up and I had this frightening sense of falling. Suddenly I was in space and the earth was fading into the distance. Then I woke up out of fear.

Thinking about it now, it kinda reminds me of that horror manga about the holes people would crawl into because they were drawn to it out of curiosity.

I was quite a bit younger when I had this dream, but I remember it to this day. There wasn't any sound, but I remember that me and all the other kids and adults...

Source | Show dream

I have this weird recurring dream that makes me nauseous, it started When I was 6, I pull a ham out of the bottom right hand drawer of my fridge and As I pick it up it starts shrinking drastically, as...

It never fails, I wake up every time feeling nauseous. Lol Have you ever experienced something like this? Just me? Lol

It never fails, I wake up every time feeling nauseous. Lol Have you ever experienced something like this? Just me? Lol

Source | Show dream

Same dream/nightmare for months

Okay, I've went to shrinks, doctors and other people trying to get this to stop.

This dream I have been having seems to serve some purpose or I might be going off of the deep end from this recurring dream.

Here's what it's about...
It starts off with me getting out of a vehicle that I don't know and I look around and I'm in an area that is snowing and with a old style house I pulled up too.
Apparently I live there since my body walks up to the door and unlocked it, as I open the door I holler out to my S/O that I'm home but I don't hear anything. So I start walking around the house and trying to shake off a bad feeling something wasn't right and so I grab my cellphone from my pocket and walk back to the door but as soon as I do I get stabbed in the back and I hit the floor I never see who did that to me.

I've went as far as trying to change the dream but it seems to end worse than the last. I think I'm seeing a path of my future self I'm more worried then anything because the last time I was able to see a mirror and saw myself and it makes me ill Everytime I wake up.

At one time I was able to mentally stop my body at the door with a feeling of deja Vu but it didn't stop myself for long and ends with me hitting the floor anyways.

So if someone could please tell me I'm not crazy and help me figure it out.

Okay, I've went to shrinks, doctors and other people trying to get this to stop.

This dream I have been having seems to serve some purpose or I might be going...

Source | Show dream

Hell

I was trapped in an industrial labyrinth with only a pistol. It was barely visible with the only ambient light coming from holes in the roof of the warehouse. I was chased by these disgustingly fat sausage shaped monsters frantically dragging and waddling themselves towards me with these frail and disproportionately small arms.

Their skin was a discolored gray with dozens of brown and green spots as if it were badly molding bread. The monsters’ skin stretched so tightly around their bodies that their rib cages bulged through despite their obese figure. The bottom portion of their faces were split open and dangled loosely like raw steak.

I tried shooting the monsters but that only seemed to make them angrier. Dropping the gun I ran, stumbling clumsily over stray pipes and occasionally my own feet. I cried, begged and screamed for help but my cries were drowned out by the cold darkness of the labyrinth and the guttural and bubbling growling coming from the wall of flesh nipping at my heals.

A burning vibration, what I believe to be dream pain, radiated throughout my foot into my calf as I collapsed to floor. I looked back to see half of my leg submerged in its gaping and fleshy maw, it’s cold and indifferent eyes locked with mine. I clawed at the grimy linoleum flooring as the monster dragged me deeper and deeper into its mouth.

I could feel my skin rip, the pop of ligaments being tore from bone and the crushing of said bone. I could feel my breath get lighter and and hear my screams grow fainter as it’s tongue crushed down on my rib cage. The shrinking of ambient light coming from the labyrinth being the last thing I saw as it’s mouth closed shut.

The darkness of its insides melted with an unknown ambient light and I found myself back at the beginning of the labyrinth again, eyes desperately trying to fix themselves to the darkness around me, the monsters directly in front of me.
This scenario looped more than 5 times with me dying every time until I finally woke up.

I was trapped in an industrial labyrinth with only a pistol. It was barely visible with the only ambient light coming from holes in the roof of the warehouse....

Source | Show dream
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