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What are stairs and ladder dreams about?

Stairs and ladders are objects that allow us to easily climb or descend in elevation. They are usually constructed with forethought. They are passageways and points of transition. This symbol is identified by words like stairs, staircase, stairway, etc.

Stairs and ladders in dreams is a relatively common dream symbol, occuring in about 4.5% of dreams. That's about 1 out of every 20 dreams.

What are the major highlights of stairs and ladder dreams?

Stairs and ladders is a normal dream symbol. Having stairs and ladders in a dream changes the dream in the same way as most other dream symbols.

Stairs and ladder dreams are friendly

Dreams of stairs and ladders have greater increase of friendly interactions within the dream than most other dream symbols. While not all dreams of stairs and ladders will be friendly and they can also contain aggressive interactions, dreams of stairs and ladders are more likely to have friendly interactions than most other dream symbols. Other symbols that are like this include dolls, joy, stages, locks, metal, squares, weakness, opening, welcoming, and surprise.

How does the dream symbol of stairs and ladders affect the different aspects of a dream?

Explore different elements related to dreams of stairs and ladders

Who is in stairs and ladders dreams?

Overall, dreams with stairs and ladders are aren't really related to characters in dreams. Specifically, dreams of stairs and ladders are more related to distant people, more related to close people, and more related to family than dreams in general.

Animals

the same as usual

Insects

the same as usual

Different roles

the same as usual

Fantastic beings

the same as usual

Distant people

more than usual

Close people

more than usual

Family

more than usual

Romantic partners

the same as usual
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What are the emotions in stairs and ladders dreams?

Overall, dreams with stairs and ladders are aren't really related to emotions in dreams. Specifically, dreams of stairs and ladders are more related to confusion and more related to fear than dreams in general. They are less related to sadness and less related to love.

Happiness

the same as usual

Sadness

less than usual

Grief and sorrow

the same as usual

Embarrassment

the same as usual

Confusion

more than usual

Fear

more than usual

Pain

the same as usual

Hatred

the same as usual

Fun

the same as usual

Love

less than usual
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Who is in stairs and ladders dreams?

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

Home

more than usual

Work

less than usual

Human places

more than usual

Transportation

the same as usual

Natural places

the same as usual

Magical places

more than usual
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What happens in stairs and ladders dreams?

Overall, dreams with stairs and ladders are aren't really related to events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of stairs and ladders are more related to friendly interactions 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

the same as usual
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How do stairs and ladders in dreams related to other dream phenomenon?

Overall, dreams with stairs and ladders are more related to dream events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of stairs and ladders are more related to lucid dreams, more related to nightmares, and much more related to recurring dreams than dreams in general.

Lucid dreams

more than usual

Nightmares

more than usual

Recurring dreams

much more than usual

Recurring nightmares

more than usual

Sleep paralysis

more than usual

Sleeping

more than usual

Waking life

the same as usual
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How do stairs and ladders in dreams related the senses?

Overall, dreams with stairs and ladders are more related to senses in dreams. Specifically, dreams of stairs and ladders are much more related to hearing, more related to smelling, and more related to vision than dreams in general.

Hearing

much more than usual

Smelling

more than usual

Taste

the same as usual

Vision

more than usual

Touch

more than usual
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How can you make sense of stairs and ladders in dreams?

Stairs and ladder dreams are relatively common. Among other things stairs and ladder dreams are normally interconnect and friendly.

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

What are possible meanings for dreams of stairs and ladders?

Stairs have steps, and steps in the figurative sense mean the steps you take to reach a point in your life. Phrases like “taking steps to reach my goal” and “steps in my career” mean tasks, actions, achievements, and accomplishments that build on each other. The entry for Dungeon provides an example.

Stairs are associated with personal development, each step being like a stage of development.

Stairs are associated with movement up or down, and movement in life can go up or down. See: Ascending, Descending

The idea also applies to when dreams move into areas of yourself such as your intellect (moving up) or emotions (moving down). The association is created through the intellect’s being centered in the head, and emotions’ being felt in the heart and gut. See: Elevators

Steps can trip you, and “tripped up” means you hit a snag on your way toward a goal or personal destination. Tripping up stairs can symbolize “falling forward,” meaning failing but still advancing.

Also consider the idea in the phrase, “Take steps to protect yourself.” In a dream about finding a crocodile in a pool of dark water, the dreamer walks away from the area and finds steps leading up into the air, seemingly to nowhere. When the crocodile is understood as representing someone the dreamer can’t trust, the steps make sense as a message to take steps to protect herself from that person.

Spiral stairs can symbolize progress in your inner or outer life. See: Spirals

See also: Ascending, Climbing, Darkness, Descending, Elevators, Home, Spirals

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 stairs and ladders

Read some real dream reports of stairs and ladder 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.

Recurring dream

I've had a recurring dream my whole life. I walk down stairs into a solid steel room divided by a wall with a window in it. I walk into the side and there are 2 guys in hazmat gear. Through the window there are giant hooks hanging from a bar that turn into umbilical cords attached to dead babies. Nobody says anything, the hazmat guys just stare at me.

I've had a recurring dream my whole life. I walk down stairs into a solid steel room divided by a wall with a window in it. I walk into the side and there are 2...

Source | Show dream

I had a weird dream yesterday...

So,I dreamed that i have a phobia about going down stairs.(I was kind of scared about it already,but this makes me automatically stay away from down-going stairs.) But in the dream,I had to walk down 100 steps. I immediately trembled and was scared.Is there some kind of meaning of this?

So,I dreamed that i have a phobia about going down stairs.(I was kind of scared about it already,but this makes me automatically stay away from down-going...

Source | Show dream

Have you dream the same location several times?

There is this I house that I have dream several times over the years... since I was a kid! I’ve dream about it, idk... ~40 times in my life. Sometimes I find rooms that i didn’t knew they existed, like secret rooms, i tell whoever I’m with (in my dream) hey! I haven’t been in this room before.. -oh yeah! This is where x sleeps.

It’s a super old house, all dark wood, little light coming through. It has very long stairs and lots of nooks and ‘secret rooms’. Sometimes I’be been to the attic which is whole floor with lots of rooms in itself. Sometimes I go through the kitchen. One time the house was burning and i was trying to get out.

The first time I remember dreaming this house I was maybe 8yo. I am now 38 and last night it came to me again.

I have images of it right now since I just dream it, but if I try to draw it or something I wouldn’t be able to since it makes no sense!

There is this I house that I have dream several times over the years... since I was a kid! I’ve dream about it, idk... ~40 times in my life. Sometimes I find...

Source | Show dream

The scariest dream I've ever had, and my friend has had it too.

I'll dive right into it.

First off, this is not a dream with any actual storyline or even any actual objects/people in it. It is very abstract, and it's hard to even explain, which is why I've often given up on trying to do so. That is until a friend of mine recently told me about having this exact experience as a child (I've never told him about my own identical experience).

It's a dream that we both had multiple times as kids. I can't know for sure, but I want to say between the ages of 6-12. My friend told me that all his siblings had them too during those years.

The dream itself is a sort of two dimensional screen/wall. My friend described it as countless of black shapes on a white background. I myself always thought of it as a machine/factory - and when I said that, he told me that the "shapes" would sometimes be gears and whatnot to him. The main point is that it is a two dimensional scene playing before your eyes, where a lot of things/shapes are moving around, sort of like a huge machine taking up all of your field of vision.

Then, at some point, something goes wrong. It's like some error causes the whole machine to break down. You just know something just went wrong, and the feeling you get is pure fear, because you know that the error that just happened, is the worst thing that could ever happen.

I don't like to exaggerate, but I remember it as being much more overwhelming than the fear of death.

My friend said that he would often wake up in full panic, screaming and even trying to jump down their staircase. I too remember being in a state of complete panic, and even more so because I couldn't explain to my mom what was wrong.

I'd be happy to give more details if requested, but really I just hoped to hear some input :)

I'll dive right into it.

First off, this is not a dream with any actual storyline or even any actual objects/people in it. It is very abstract, and it's hard...

Source | Show dream

Can’t go back so sleep. Clearest dream I’ve ever had. Please read

I just woke up from a dream. Just spooked out to be honest.

The dream started out with me and my family in a different home, we were watching tv. I went to school, but only my spanish class. Our teacher was mentioning the whole planet will be having a heart attack for two reasons: to have your consciousness go to a parallel universe. And two, if you survive, somehow you will adapt... idk. So I died, and my dream self had thoughts too, because I heard “myself” ask why there wasn’t pain. I woke up in the dream In a really nice house. I was with my mom and sister and it was the morning. My mom told me to start getting ready so I did. I checked if there was anything different in this “parallel universe” (physically) and it was just my teeth (idk.) I showered, FaceTimed my friends, and then changed in my room. I went downstairs and talked to my family, I even mentioned to my sister that it was her time to walk the dog (the clock showed 5:54 or 6:5... not sure.) I went back upstairs to my room and I turned on a Xbox and ps4... idk why. I noticed I had this small tv I used to have as a kid and I wondered why I still had this same tv.

I then heard a knock, I ran downstairs, but all the lights were off. The flight of stairs was endless and I just kept going down. Eventually I woke up In my own bed and I felt something start pulling on my blanket, I let go and then I just heard a bunch of clown horns, like from a little tricycle or something. I cried for help, I even thought someone heard me. I then felt something watching me, I felt some kind of pressure on my chest as if something was right on top of me. I woke up in my real dream, I still thought I didn’t have a blanket. Still spooked out.

This was my clearest dream yet. There are some minor details I let out but I really thought that I was gonna die... or something. Sorry

I just woke up from a dream. Just spooked out to be honest.

The dream started out with me and my family in a different home, we were watching tv. I went to...

Source | Show dream
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