My Mom and Dad, and sometimes my dogs appear in my dreams. Other than the first dream I had of my Dad, the morning after he passed away, it’s always as if they weren’t gone. In my first dream of my Dad,I asked him “Aren’t you dead?” he just laughed and said, “I was just kidding!”,
In my dreams, it’s usually an ordinary event happening, so ordinary that even though I remember seeing them in my dreams, I never remember the details.
I also see my Ex (whom AFAIK, is still alive and well) and sometimes it’s a bit more dramatic, but a lot of time it’s unclear that it’s really her and not someone else I’ve had a crush on, but not a relationship with.
Same time with my dogs. It’s usually a mix of the last two. They’re there, but not distinctly one or the other.
Yes they do. What’s kind of funny is a couple of times my Uncle has appeared in a dream. He committed suicide when I was 8 months old. Yet in the day he has a personality and talks and acts when there is no way I could know how he would act or talk.
Most of my family completely refused to talk about him and what his personality was like. His mom, dad and brother, (my dad), would tell me it was not my business when I would ask about him.
My mom would only kind of talk about him to me once I got into my 30’s.
I never see/imagine them in the visual sense of the word, but I just know they are there somehow or there is a general idea of my mother/sister/someone else being in the room or house where the dream’s events take place. It happens frequently and it’s never fun when it does, but that’s due to unresolved psychological issues.
Huh. I guess my past pets haven’t tended to appear in my dreams. I have had dreams with my grandma’s cat in them, when I dream about her still being around, but I think it has more to do with the place. I don’t really ever dream about my own house or my old houses, so none of my pets show up. Though maybe it’s that my current dog is really the one I’ve become closest to—though I don’t think he’s showed up in my dreams, either.
I do have departed loved ones show up. With my grandma I mentioned, I even remember her death, but reason we only thought she was dead. Same with my grandpa (her husband) and Uncle Lex (his brother) when they show up.
With Mom, I mostly don’t remember she’s gone, though I did once remember and start crying and hugging her. She’s just been such a constant part of my life that it just seems 100% natural that she’s there, and then I kick myself for not taking advantage of it when I wake up and realize it.
I smoke/vape cannabis pretty much every day. One effect is that I do not (remember) dream.
Once a year I stop forsake cannabis for a couple weeks. This is thought to reset tolerance. A few days into the process I’ll begin having (remembering) pretty intense, crazy ass dreams.
I still remember a dream I had during a tolerance break a few years after my mom died in which she appeared and played a central role. It left me shaken up for several days.
Sometimes my parents appear in my dreams. Usually I don’t know they’re supposed to be dead, but once in a while I do. I was thinking just a few days ago that my dad is always healthier in my dreams than he was his last few years: I haven’t had a dream with him being on O2 since he was still alive.
Dead pets appear only to stress me out - it’s always a case of either realizing I haven’t properly been looking after them recently or trying to figure out where they are.
Yes, I have dreamed of dead relatives, friends and pets. That is were they live now, although the things they do (rarely do they speak) often seem to attempt to tell me something in a very mysterious manner.
Only pet I’ve ever had is still alive, but same. When I dream about my dog, it’s usually a nightmare where I realize I haven’t fed her in months or haven’t let her outside to pee or poop in months or something.
Only dead relative that shows up in my dream is my mom, and that tends to not be too happy of a dream, either. Typically before long I realize she died, and I start saying to her, “What are you doing here? You’re dead!” (I don’t want to go into too much detail in this post, but I’m sure there’s a reason that the dreams are typically unpleasant. Her death was under rather unusual circumstances and caused some lingering drama and anger within the family.)
I have dreams of loved ones that have died. The dreams are usually just them doing regular stuff. They’re always healthy and death is not a part of the dream.
However, I’ve had 2 dreams of my son that died and they seemed to have been dreams that let me know he’s ok now. In one dream, I was in bed and it was VERY bright in the room. My son came in wearing a BRIGHT white t-shirt (healthy and looking like himself) and said to me - “Mom, that looks so cozy”. Then he laid down by me and I held him. But the brightness in the room was like something I’ve never seen before. In another dream, I was walking down the main corridor of a mall. He was in the distance and came running up to me with the biggest smile on his face and hugged me. He said very excitedly, “Mom, you’ll never guess what I’m doing now. I’m driving a Zamboni!”
Yes, my parents appear quite frequently, often associated with the house where I grew up. It’s usually something quite mundane going on, but sometimes after a while I get this odd nagging feeling. Wasn’t there some alternate reality where they died a while ago? Maybe that was a dream I had, I think… within the dream…
This is more similar to my dreams. I dream about dead relatives and pets all the time, and usually within the dream it’s all completely normal. If I wake up from one of these dreams I usually need to re-set my brain to “reality.” Mine aren’t stress dreams; they’re usually comforting.
I dream about our previous doxie boy a lot. He was such a cuddly sweetheart, and he was in my arms when we had to have him put to sleep. I think it made a deep connection in my psyche.
My dog has appeared in my dreams several times since his passing. As much as I can recall, in those dreams he was doing pretty much the same ordinary routines he was doing while alive, nothing supernatural, and I never wonder “aren’t you supposed to be dead?” - everything just makes sense, as if I were transported 10 years back in time.
Then I wake up and feel sad that it was all just a dream, but grateful at the same time that I got to spend a couple more hours with him.
I haven’t had any other relatives/friends who were close to me pass away yet (e.g. one of my grandmothers is dead, but I barely knew her as a person), but I’ll report back if any do and they subsequently appear in my dreams.
Not to me, but my wife regularly notes that she has dreams about her deceased family members. She’d often get dreams about her grandmothers, and after her father died in 2019, she now dreams about him sometimes, too. Plus, she has dreams about our two old dogs, and one of our old cats.
I’ve had frequent dreams of Nee-Nee and Pop-Pop, my paternal grandparents; sometimes they’re so intense that it takes a few minutes after waking up for me to remember that they’ve been gone for more than a decade.
I also dream of some of my favorite deceased cats.
It was a very traumatic event for me when Momma died. In Real Life, I lost my marbles for a while (I cried constantly and felt something terrible was going to happen). Mr VOW almost bodily picked me up and carried me to the family doctor.
Two weeks TO THE DAY I began taking Paxil, it was like I “woke up” and the dark clouds surrounding me dissipated. Thank GAWD for antidepressants!
I began having dreams where Momma would appear. She never said a word, just smiled.
Gradually, the dreams became fewer and fewer, and when she did appear, she’d be further and further away from me. I finally remember seeing her at a distance, wearing her coat. She waved and smiled.
I take “Z” pills to sleep now, and only very rarely remember my dreams. I wish I could see Momma again.
Funny this post comes up now - my mom died in 2012 and my dad in 2014, and last week was the first time I’d dreamed about either of them! I had dreams that included them several days in a row - think it may be because I am planning a trip back to my hometown (I haven’t been back since my father’s memorial service) and it’s bringing up memories. We were just doing normal stuff, back before either of them had dementia.
It took me a long time to dream of the first dog I lost as an adult too - something like 7 years elapsed - and I remember that as being a good, peaceful dream where he was letting me know he was OK. I’ve had dreams of other dogs that have died since then, and they usually aren’t good ones; not sure why the difference.
My ex-significant other died about 3 years ago. We were together a long time and stayed good friends after we parted. I still dream about him all the time. In the dreams, we are usually young like when we first got together. Sometimes I know he is dead (but don’t wonder how he is there). Other times I don’t and it’s like any other dream.
Now that you mention it, no not really. A wide variety of people and some animals show up in my dreams, but not deceased pets or people that I can recall. But as I’ve mentioned elsewhere I don’t have a tight extended family. Both of my grandfathers died before I knew them, both of my grandmothers more than 35 years ago. Cousins, aunts and uncles I’m fond of are either alive or died far away and after 25 years or more since last contact. My parents, siblings, assorted partners and closer friends are all still alive.
So things might start to change in the next decade or two, since I’m no longer a spring chicken and neither are most of my loved ones.