Dreaming about curtain
Curtains are reported for movement. A curtain moving with no draught is one of the more effective unsettling images there is, and it produces unease without anything being behind it.
Also searched as: curtains, a curtain moving, behind the curtain, drawing the curtains
Motion with no cause is the characteristic report, and dreamers describe watching it specifically.
That is notable because dreams generate motion sparingly, as the cloud and leaves entries describe, so a moving object with no mover is doing something deliberate.
Something behind a curtain is the second version and is nearly always unresolved: the dreamer does not look, or looks and there is nothing.
Curtains that will not close, leaving a gap, form a third group and belong with the exposure material.
Common associations
- Motion with no cause, which is the whole of the first version.
- A concealment that is never resolved.
- A gap that will not close.
- A boundary that is not solid.
Positive readings
Little directly. Curtain motion is a decent dream sign because it is easy to watch and the absence of a draught is checkable inside the dream.
Difficult readings
The unresolved presence produces the standard sustained unease.
The gap version is mild and belongs with the exposure group.
Psychological perspectives
A curtain is a boundary that admits the possibility of something without confirming it, which is precisely the condition that keeps a vigilance system running.
The motion is the interesting part. Dreams generate movement where attention falls, so a dreamer looking at a curtain will see it move, which is a nice example of attention producing the phenomenon it is attending to.
The window entry covers the related material about what is on the other side.
Cultural and historical
Veils and curtains as a boundary between the ordinary and the sacred appear in a number of traditions, including in temple architecture, and the tearing of one is a specific and significant image in Christian scripture.
The theatrical curtain is a separate and much later image and is available to everybody.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: motion is generated where attention falls, which accounts for the causeless movement.
Reasonably supported: unresolvable concealment sustains unease.
Not established: any meaning for a curtain.
Your own context
- Was it moving, and was there a draught?
- Did you look behind it?
- Was there anything there?
- Could you close them?
If this recurs
Log with the being-watched and window reports rather than as an object.
Emotions often reported
- unease
- dread
- curiosity
- alarm
- anticipation
- detachment
Specific curtain dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
What happened
What state it was in
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Was there any draught?
- Did I look behind it?
- Was anything there?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
4 references. What these labels mean
- 1.The Reinterpretation of Dreams: An Evolutionary Hypothesis of the Function of DreamingPeer-reviewed research
Antti Revonsuo (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Cited for: The threat-simulation hypothesis. That the over-representation of threatening content in dreams may be functional rather than incidental.
- 2.The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development and Content AnalysisAcademic book
G. William Domhoff (2003) · American Psychological Association
Cited for: The continuity hypothesis (that dream content largely reflects waking concerns) and a sustained critique of symbolic dream interpretation as an evidential method.
- 3.The dream narratives of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (Genesis 20, 28, 37 and 40 to 41; Daniel 2, 4 and 7; Matthew 1 to 2 and 27; Acts 10 and 16)Religious or philosophical text
Various, compiled
Cited for: What the biblical texts themselves record about dreams: that they are treated as a channel of divine communication, that interpretation is presented as a gift rather than a technique, and which specific dreams and readings appear. Cited for what the text says, never as evidence about dreaming.
- 4.Dreaming: A Conceptual Framework for Philosophy of Mind and Empirical ResearchAcademic book
Jennifer M. Windt (2015) · MIT Press
Cited for: A modern philosophical treatment of what dreams are, including the immersive-spatiotemporal-hallucination account and the status of dream reports as evidence.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of curtain have gone for other people, in their own words. Nothing here is an interpretation of anyone else's dream. It is a record of what happened and what it was like.
Nothing here yet. Be the first to say how this has gone for you.
Related records
- PlaceBedroomThe bedroom is the one setting where a dream can be mistaken for the room you are actually in, and that makes it different from every other entry here. A large share of frightening bedroom dreams are sleep paralysis rather than dreams about a bedroom.
- SymbolWindowWindows work as a boundary you can see through but not pass, and the reports divide almost entirely by which side of it the dreamer is on. Looking out is calm; being looked at through one is among the more unsettling reports in the database.
- SymbolMaskMasks are reported for one reason: they remove a face that the dreamer needs to read. The unease they produce is the same unease the faceless-person reports describe, and the two belong together.
- ActionBeing watchedThe sense of being watched is one of the most consistently reported dream experiences and one of the hardest to describe, because the watcher is usually never seen. In sleep paralysis it has a specific, well-documented physiological basis.
- SymbolSkinSkin reports are the ones most likely to have a real physical cause, and the physical question should be asked first. Itching, crawling and heat are all sensations a sleeping body can genuinely produce.
- SymbolA crackCracks are one of the few things dreams reliably show growing, which is unusual: dreams produce states far more readily than transitions, and a spreading crack is a transition being watched.
