What are sister dreams about?

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.

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

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 sisters in dreams. See how you feel about sisters now, in your waking life.

A sister can be used in a wide variety of ways as symbolism. Begin narrowing down the possibilities by answering two questions. Is the person used as a character in the dream your actual sister (not an imaginary character), and if yes, has she been part of your life recently, or on your mind?

If you don’t have a sister, you can bet that the character in the dream symbolizes something about you, or is a surrogate for someone in your life who’s like a sister. There’s no chance that the character depicted as her could be in the story in relation to recent interaction with her, thoughts and feelings you have about her, or parts of yourself that you also see in her, symbolized by the character. Those possibilities are in play only if you actually have a sister, or the character is a surrogate for someone in your life who’s like a sister.

If you have a sister and she’s been part of recent events in your life, you’re likely to see her in your dreams. Your mind will touch on those memories at some point while doing its nightly review and brain tune-up, otherwise known as dreaming. Your dreams will touch on your thoughts, feelings, and emotions connected with your interaction your sister(s) and everything associated with that event.

It’s possible that your sister is only in the story in reference to the event. If so, she’s unlikely to play a central role in the story because the dream isn’t about her.

The character can symbolize your thoughts, feelings and emotions about her—a projection of you, not necessarily her. In the dream, if your sister behaves out of character, it’s almost certain to be a projection. The character is following a script you wrote subconsciously, to show what’s happening in your inner world. Even when her actions and behavior in the dream are based on something you’ve observed about her, it’s still based on your perceptions. With dream characters, a dream can use exaggeration and comparison, the same as it does with other symbols.

For example, a young man dreams about his sister competing in a pageant, reflecting his observations about her love life. See: Casinos

Then again, in a dream your sister can act just like she is in your waking life—the good, bad, and everything in between. In which case, pay more attention to how you act and react in the dream, because while some dreams can replay events pretty much as they happen and show people as they are, ultimately the dream is about you, not them.

Your sister can appear in a dream in reference to a past event, situation, or time of life together, such as while you were growing up together. See: Childhood homes, Family homes

She can symbolize something you associate with her, such as a trait, quality, or ability, and it’s likely to be something that’s either a way of telling the story, or something about yourself that you also see in her.

For example, your sister is good with words and you’re writing a memoir or a wedding toast, or you’re thinking through how to say something to someone in just the right way. She’s in your dream because she’s good with words and you’re trying to be good with words, too.

Or your sister is emotionally open and you’re not, but you need to be because you have emotions you need to express. You then dream about your sister as a symbol of being more emotionally open. The dream might even use her to show you what you need to know and convey advice from the unconscious.

Any sort of sister in your dream can symbolize general associations with sisters, such as someone to confide in, or a “sisterly talk.”

A sister in a dream can represent a relationship with someone in your life who’s like a sister to you, such as a best friend. It’s a way of saying that a relationship with a female is special. People have been known to have sex dreams about their sister, and the character is used as a surrogate for someone in your life who’s like a sister. It’s often in connection with exploring the idea of taking the relationship beyond the friend zone, into being romantic or sexual.

Does the relationship have that potential, and do you risk ruining it if you try to take that next step? Your dream will try to answer those questions for you, or at least do its best to help you answer them for yourself. In many cases, you already know the answers and just need help making the connection.

Dream characters are shown together in the same scene or adjacent scenes as a way of making connections between them. For example, if your sister is a mother and she appears in the same scene with your mother, it can connect with something related to parenthood. Sister and mom are shown together because they’re both moms. A sister and a friend can appear together because you think of your friend as a sister, or your sister as a friend.

Sexual interaction with a sister in a dream can symbolize something that’s forbidden or taboo. See: Incest

A sister-character can be used as a surrogate for another family member, such as a mom, and vice-versa—especially if they are a lot alike.

A sister-character can be used in the sense of something related to you, not a family relation but a personal one. Such as, you’re known publicly because of a particular talent of yours, and though it’s something people know about you, it’s not you. It’s what you do, not who you are, closely related to you, like a sister. This use of the symbolism is particularly likely if the sister-character is imaginary.

A sister is someone you witness going through changes, such as from child to adult, an association your dreams can use to tell a story about changes you see in yourself or someone you know.

A female who was recently dumped by her boyfriend for someone else dreams about seeing him and his new girlfriend in bed together. No sex is involved; they are just happy and in love, the same as they are in the Facebook pictures of them together that the dreamer recently saw. Then the dreamer’s sister—not her real sister, an imaginary character—comes in and hops into bed with them and it’s all clean fun. It’s a projection of the dreamer’s desires. She wants to be the girl with whom her ex is happy and in love. It’s a way of projecting herself into the scene, but without being obvious. If she saw herself in bed with her ex and his new girlfriend, she’d react differently.

Finally, a sister in a dream can mix and match with other meanings of sister, such as a nun or sorority sister.

Read the entry for Brother, too. The symbolism works much the same.

See also: Brothers, Childhood homes, Incest, Family, Family homes, Friends, Old friends

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.