Dreaming about drawer
Drawers are searched, and the search does not end. What makes them distinct from the bag reports is that a drawer produces contents rather than hiding them: dreamers report finding more each time they look.
Also searched as: a drawer, opening a drawer, a drawer full of things, a drawer that will not close
The unresolving search is the characteristic report and it is identical in structure to the bag material.
What is different is generation. Dreamers describe a drawer producing things that were not there, more than it could hold, or contents that change between openings.
A drawer that will not close is a second and quite frustrating version, usually because of what is in it.
Somebody else's drawer, opened by the dreamer, produces a specific guilt disproportionate to anything happening.
Common associations
- A search with no end.
- Contents generated on opening, rather than stored.
- Impossible capacity.
- Intrusion, in the somebody-else's reports.
Positive readings
Finding something unexpectedly good is reported and dreamers describe genuine delight, in the same way the bag entry notes.
The impossible capacity is a workable dream sign.
Difficult readings
The endless search is frustrating and dreamers often report knowing they will not find the thing.
The guilt at opening somebody else's is mild and unearned.
Psychological perspectives
The container principle is the useful finding here, and the egg and bag entries describe it too: contents are generated at the moment of looking rather than existing beforehand.
That is why a drawer can hold more than it could, why the contents change, and why the dreamer does not object. There was nothing in it until it was opened.
The unresolving search is the general obstacle machinery.
Cultural and historical
No tradition of note, which is worth stating. Furniture is not a subject the interpretive traditions covered.
The idiom about putting something in a drawer and forgetting it is available and thin.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dream container contents are generated on inspection rather than predetermined.
Reasonably supported: the prominence of unresolving searches.
Not established: any meaning for a drawer.
Your own context
- What were you looking for?
- Did the contents make sense?
- Was it yours?
- Did you find it?
If this recurs
Log with the searching and bag reports. It is the same dream with different furniture.
Emotions often reported
- frustration
- curiosity
- guilt
- confusion
- urgency
- surprise
Specific drawer dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- What was I after?
- Did the contents make any sense?
- Whose drawer was it?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
3 references. What these labels mean
- 1.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.
- 2.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.
- 3.Gender Differences in Dream Recall: A Meta-AnalysisPeer-reviewed research
Michael Schredl and Iris Reinhard (2008) · Journal of Sleep Research
Cited for: Dream-recall frequency as a measurable, individually stable trait, and the factors that move it.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of drawer 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
- SymbolBoxThe unopened box is the report. Dreamers describe knowing something is inside, frequently knowing what, and either not opening it or waking before they do.
- SymbolBagBags are reported through what is not in them. The characteristic dream is searching a bag that should contain something and finding it does not, repeatedly, in a way that never resolves.
- ActionSearchingSearching dreams almost never resolve. That is not a symbol (dreams are structurally poor at completing a search) but what is being looked for, and for whom, is worth recording.
- SymbolKeyKeys almost never appear alone. They appear as a problem. Lost, wrong, too many, or belonging to a lock the dreamer cannot find. The dream is usually about access rather than about the key.
- SymbolCoatCoats are reported through pockets and through ownership. Finding something in a pocket is one of the more common small dream events, and it follows the container principle exactly: what is in there is made when the hand goes in.
- 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.
Records that mention drawer
These pages link to drawer, either as something reported in the same dream or as a related subject. This page does not point back at all of them, so the list is assembled rather than chosen.