16. Hot and Steamy Dreams

Having a sexy dream about someone you love or are attracted to in real life is a rather clear-cut carryover of your waking feelings into Dreamland: you have emotions and/or sexual urges that you long to express. Our society is pretty inhibited when it comes to expressions of sexuality outside of certain approved circumstances, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are hardwired to procreate. Dreams give us a forum to express these desires. If you’re in a relationship, having a hot and spicy dream about someone other than your partner may indicate that your waking sex life isn’t totally fulfilling your needs and that you need to reinvigorate your relationship. That said, sensual dreams are not always about unexpressed sexual desires: dreaming about sex with a platonic friend or even with a stranger could simply indicate a desire for closeness or intimacy without hang-ups or baggage.

17. Sex-mares

Unfortunately, not all sex dreams are pleasant. But don’t worry, just because you’re dreaming about having sex with your elderly 8^th-grade algebra teacher doesn’t mean that you are secretly hot for him. According to Keith Stevens, sex dreams about someone you are not attracted to – even someone you’re related to or someone of a different gender than you are normally attracted to – are unpleasant by design; they are meant to disgust you so that don’t pursue such unwise pairings in real life. Similarly, dreams about being raped encourage us to avoid this disturbing and dangerous scenario in real life. According to dreammoods.com, dreaming about being raped could also indicate you are feeling violated in some way.

18. Being Shot

According to Keith Stevens, this is one of the commonly reported dreams about threats from other people, especially in the United States. This type of dream may occur as a result of your instinctual concern about avoiding and surviving an actual shooting. You may have this dream in response to seeing coverage of shootings on the news or because of violent threats in your own life. Taking a more metaphorical approach, dreammoods.com interprets dreams of being shot as symbolizing any sort of confrontation or victimization in your waking life, including self-punishment.

19. Being Exposed on the Toilet

Like being naked in public, being exposed to the public while using the toilet leaves you extremely vulnerable. Going back to our cave-person roots, you need privacy when doing your business so that no one can attack you while you’re in a compromising position. Therefore, dreams about being exposed to the public exist to encourage you to avoid potentially vulnerable situations, according to Keith Stevens. However, despite our instinctual resistance to vulnerability, sometimes it is actually in our best interest, as when forming close relationships with other people. According to Ian Wallace, an “exposure” dream might be a good reminder that you need to open up to others and not worry so much about the potential embarrassment you risk by doing so.

20. Driving an Out-of-Control Vehicle

Most drivers have had this dream: You’re driving along and realize you’re about to hit a car or person … only to realize that the breaks or steering wheel won’t work! Of course, this could also happen in real life, so this type of dream could simply indicate anxiety about such an event occurring, especially if you have been in a car accident before. But as you might guess, dreaming of not being able to control your vehicle might also mean that you feel out of control in your own life, or that you cannot make consistent progress toward your ambitions, according to Wallace.