Dreaming about waterfall
Waterfalls are reported for sound as much as sight, which puts them in the small group of dream images that reliably produce audio. Dreamers describe the noise first and frequently describe not being able to hear over it.
Also searched as: a waterfall, falling water, rapids, water coming down
Sound dominates and it is the reason this entry is worth having. Auditory content is scarce in dreams, and a waterfall reliably supplies it.
Being unable to hear over it is reported specifically, and dreamers describe shouting and not being heard, which puts a share of these reports with the speech-failure material.
The edge, from above, produces the same pull the well and roof entries describe.
Behind the water is a distinct and frequently reported image, and dreamers describe it as a space rather than as a hiding place.
Common associations
- Sound, which is the distinctive feature.
- Being drowned out, in the shouting reports.
- The edge, from above.
- A space behind, in the going-under reports.
Positive readings
The behind-the-water reports are described with real wonder and are among the more striking images people get.
The scale and noise together produce awe, in the way the whale and night sky entries describe.
Difficult readings
The edge produces vertigo, and the reports there belong with the falling material.
Being unable to be heard is frustrating and belongs with the voice material rather than here.
Psychological perspectives
Continuous broadband noise may be easier for a dream to generate than speech or music, in the same way a broad scene is easier than fine detail, and a waterfall is the purest example of that kind of sound.
That is a suggestion rather than a finding and the entry marks it as one, but it fits: the reliable dream sounds in this database are wind, rain, whale song and falling water, and none of them requires structure.
The shouting-and-not-being-heard reports may be the ordinary speech failure with an explanation supplied by the setting.
Cultural and historical
Waterfalls are sites of practice in a number of traditions, including ritual bathing under them, and they are treated as places of power in several.
The modern reading of a waterfall as release or as cleansing is thin and largely aesthetic.
What the sleep science says
Well documented: auditory content is reported far less often than visual, which makes reliable producers of it notable.
Well established: speech commands are not executed during REM.
Not established: any meaning for a waterfall.
Your own context
- Could you hear it?
- Did you try to speak over it?
- Were you above it or below?
- Did you go behind it?
If this recurs
Log the sound. It is one of the few reliable auditory producers and the record is worth having for that alone.
Emotions often reported
- awe
- wonder
- exhilaration
- vertigo
- frustration
- calm
Specific waterfall dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
Where it happened
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Could I hear it?
- Did I try to shout?
- Above or below?
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.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.
- 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 Brain as a Dream State Generator: An Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis of the Dream ProcessPeer-reviewed research
J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley (1977) · American Journal of Psychiatry
Cited for: The activation-synthesis model: that dream narrative is partly the forebrain making sense of brainstem-generated activity.
- 4.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 waterfall 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
- PlaceRiverRivers differ from other water in one respect that dominates every report: they move, and they move in a direction. What dreamers describe is the current, the far bank, and whether they got across.
- PlaceCaveThe natural counterpart to the built underground spaces. What separates cave reports from tunnels and basements is that a cave was not made, has no plan, and offers no assurance that the passage continues.
- 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.
- SymbolWaterWater is the most frequently reported dream element, and its readings are unusually consistent across traditions: emotion, the unconscious, and whatever is too large to be argued with. Depth and clarity carry most of the meaning.
- PlaceWellA well is a hole with water at the bottom of it, and the reports are about the looking rather than the water. Dreamers describe being drawn to look down, and describe not being able to see the bottom.
- PlaceA borderBorder dreams are document dreams, and they run into the finding that makes them almost inevitable: a passport is a piece of text with a photograph in it, and dreams can render neither.
