Dreaming about praying
Praying in a dream is reported by the devout and the non-religious alike, which is the first notable thing about it. The second is that dreamers frequently report being unable to complete it.
Also searched as: prayer, praying in a dream, asking for help, calling out
Interruption and incompletion are the most reported features: words that will not come, a prayer that cannot be finished, or forgetting the words partway.
That structure overlaps directly with the wider group of dreams in which speech fails, and dreamers often cannot say afterwards whether they made a sound.
A distinct and important group describes prayer that is completed and is reported as genuinely significant. For observant dreamers these are not dream images and the database does not treat them as such.
Praying in an emergency, without any religious practice behind it, is reported by non-religious dreamers often enough to be worth keeping a note of.
Common associations
- Speech that will not complete, in the frustrated reports.
- Address to something, which is the act itself.
- Practice, for dreamers who have one.
- Appeal under threat, in the emergency reports.
Positive readings
Completed prayer is reported as meaningful and steadying, and dreamers who have a practice frequently describe these dreams as continuous with it rather than as being about anything.
The database records that as the dreamer's account rather than reinterpreting it, which is the correct treatment.
Difficult readings
The incompletion version is distressing in a specific way for observant dreamers, and it is worth being clear that the speech failure has a physiological explanation and is not a judgement.
That reassurance matters more here than in most entries.
Psychological perspectives
Motor commands, including speech, are not executed during REM. A prayer that will not come out is the same phenomenon as a shout that produces no sound, and it happens to everybody.
Continuity accounts for who prays in dreams: people with a practice, mostly, plus a smaller group under threat.
Beyond that the database does not attempt a psychological account of what prayer is, because that is not a question dream research can answer and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
Cultural and historical
Dreams as a site of address to, or contact with, the divine are central to several major traditions, and dream narratives in scripture are among the most widely known texts there are.
The Islamic tradition distinguishes categories of dream explicitly, including the true dream, and has a substantial interpretive literature.
These are living religious practices, and this entry describes what dreamers report rather than adjudicating what prayer in a dream is.
What the sleep science says
Well established: speech commands are not executed during REM, which accounts for the incompletion reports.
Well established: dream content follows waking practice.
Outside the scope of evidence: what prayer in a dream is, which the entry does not pretend to settle.
Your own context
- Could you finish it?
- Did sound come out?
- Do you pray awake?
- What were you asking for?
If this recurs
Where a dreamer has a practice, this belongs in their own frame first and in the journal second, and the journal should record it as they describe it.
The speech-failure element is worth logging with the other frustrated-speech dreams.
Emotions often reported
- longing
- peace
- urgency
- frustration
- calm
- grief
Specific praying 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.
- Could I finish?
- Did any sound come out?
- What was I asking for?
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 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.
- 2.Ta'bir al-Ru'ya and the dream manuals attributed to Ibn SirinReligious or philosophical text
Attributed to Muhammad ibn Sirin (died 728 CE)
Cited for: The symbol readings of the classical Islamic dream-interpretation tradition as they circulate. ⚠ Authorship is disputed: Ibn Sirin was a real early figure renowned for dream interpretation, and the large manuals sold under his name are later compilations that gathered material from several hands. The tradition is genuine; the single-author attribution is not, and the pages say so.
- 3.The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream InterpretationAcademic book
John C. Lamoreaux (2002) · State University of New York Press
Cited for: Scholarly treatment of how the Muslim dream-interpretation tradition formed, who its early figures were, and how the manuals attributed to them were assembled.
- 4.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.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of praying 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
- PlaceChurchPlaces of worship in dreams are reported very differently depending on the dreamer's own relationship to religion, which makes this one of the entries where a generic reading is most useless.
- ActionBeing unable to speak or moveBeing unable to move or make a sound is extremely common, and it sits on the boundary between an ordinary dream and sleep paralysis. Working out which one you had is the single most useful thing this page can help with.
- EmotionPeacePeaceful dreams are under-reported rather than uncommon. They are less memorable and less likely to be searched for. When they are reported, they are described with unusual warmth.
- ActionVomitingOne of the small number of dreams where the physical explanation should be checked before anything else, and where being unable to complete the act is reported more than the act itself.
- ActionA gameGames in dreams have rules the dreamer does not know and cannot ask about, and everybody else appears to know them. That structure is the clearest statement of something the first-day, examination and competition entries each describe in part.
- ActionA secretDreamers report holding a secret of enormous importance and being unable to say what it is. The weight is generated and the content is not, which makes this one of the purest examples of the pattern this database keeps finding.
Figures people report during these dreams
From the archives, and held to their own evidence standard rather than to the one on this page. Reported alongside praying often enough to be worth naming.
Records that mention praying
These pages link to praying, 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.