Dreaming about rat
Rats produce disgust rather than fear, which puts them in a small group with insects and separates them from every predator in this file. The reports centre on number, on the domestic setting, and on the animal being where it should not be.
Also searched as: rats, mice, mouse, rodents, rat in the house, vermin
Number is the dominant feature. Dreamers rarely report one rat, and where they do it usually becomes several.
The setting is nearly always domestic. Rats in dreams appear in kitchens, under floors, behind walls and in beds, which is a much narrower distribution than any predator in this file.
Hearing rather than seeing is reported often and is described as worse: scratching behind a wall, movement under a floor, and the specific problem of not being able to locate it.
Mice appear in the same reports and are described very differently, with dreamers reporting something closer to pity or mild alarm than to the revulsion rats produce.
Common associations
- Contamination, which is where the disgust comes from rather than any threat.
- Multiplication, shared directly with the insect reports.
- The domestic breached, since these dreams happen indoors.
- Something heard and not seen, in the behind-the-wall reports.
Positive readings
Little, and where it exists it usually involves a single tame rat or a mouse, and is described with surprise by the dreamer.
People who keep rats report entirely different dreams about them, which is a small but clear demonstration of how much of this is cultural rather than intrinsic.
Difficult readings
The revulsion is the point and it is genuine. Disgust is a distinct emotion from fear and this is one of the clearest cases of a dream producing it.
Rats in a bed is one of the more distressing reports in the database and belongs with the bedroom material as much as with this entry.
Psychological perspectives
Disgust rather than fear is the useful observation. Threat simulation is usually framed around predators, and it accounts poorly for an animal that is not dangerous and is deeply aversive.
Disease avoidance is the better fit. Contamination sensitivity is a real and well-studied system, and rats sit at the centre of what it is tuned to.
The multiplication pattern shows up in insects too, and it may be a feature of how dreams generate quantity: a dream does not count, so more is produced without limit.
Cultural and historical
Plague is doing a great deal of work in the European inheritance, and the association is specific and historically located rather than universal.
In several Indian traditions the rat carries entirely different and positive content, including as a vehicle of a deity, and there are temples where rats are protected. That is a living religious practice.
Any entry that reads the rat as contamination full stop is describing one culture and calling it human nature.
What the sleep science says
Well supported: disgust and contamination sensitivity are distinct from fear and have their own well-studied profile.
Reasonably supported: the over-representation of multiplication and infestation in aversive dream content.
Not established: any meaning for the rat beyond what the dreamer's culture supplies, and the traditions diverge sharply.
Your own context
- How many were there?
- Where in the house?
- Did you hear them before seeing them?
- Was it disgust or fear?
If this recurs
Recurring rat dreams are worth setting down with any other contamination or infestation reports rather than as animal dreams, because that group tends to move together.
Emotions often reported
- disgust
- revulsion
- unease
- alarm
- dread
- panic
Specific rat dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
What happened
Where it happened
What state it was in
How many
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- How many, and did that change?
- Where in the house were they?
- Was I disgusted or frightened?
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 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 Content Analysis of DreamsAcademic book
Calvin Hall and Robert Van de Castle (1966) · Appleton-Century-Crofts
Cited for: The standard coding system for dream content, and the normative frequencies that later studies are compared against. The reason claims like "aggression is more common in dreams than friendliness" can be stated numerically at all.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of rat 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
- AnimalInsectsInsect dreams are reported with a distinctive quality: the distress comes from number and from proximity to the body rather than from any individual creature. Infestation is the characteristic report.
- PlaceHouseHouses are the most common setting in dream reports, which is the first thing worth knowing: a house in a dream is usually where the dream is, not what the dream is about. The details that vary, whose house it is and what state it is in, carry more than the house does.
- PlaceBasementBasements produce a narrower and more consistent set of reports than any other room: descending, dark, a sense that something is down there, and a reluctance to go further. The consistency is real. The standard explanation for it is not established.
- PlaceKitchenKitchens appear frequently and are described far more warmly than most dream settings. The reports centre on other people being in them, which is the detail worth keeping: a dream kitchen is nearly always a social room rather than a functional one.
- AnimalWormWorms produce disgust rather than fear, and the reports divide by location: in the ground, which is mild, and in or on the body, which is among the more distressing images in the database.
- AnimalFlyFlies are reported for sound as much as for sight, which is rare: the buzzing is described unprompted and is frequently the only auditory content in the dream.
Records that mention rat
These pages link to rat, 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.