# In dreams, is flying always like swimming? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 4, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372 "2006-08-04T19:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dee3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@Dee3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dee3)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/41 "2023-07-09T11:34:55Z")
Wow, mine are just as youve described. Recurring dreams of flying over small crowds many time starting in a building using a underwater swimming motion to initially get off the ground and swim through the air. Also difficult takeoff. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/42 "2023-07-09T20:29:03Z")
In my flying dreams I often have to get started like a hang glider. I’ll dive forward off a small hill and gain speed and then fly around effortlessly. If I’m slowing down I’ll dive again to pick up speed and then climb higher. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/43 "2023-07-11T20:33:28Z")
In my dreams, I need a motion somewhat like swimming, but there’s no water resistance. It’s more of an inertia based thing, and swinging my extended fists down gives me thrust. Though, it’s nonlinear, and the slower upstroke is much less effective than the fast downstroke, so there’s a net upward thrust. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/44 "2023-07-12T01:33:32Z")
For me it’s usually like walking, but off of something higher up. Sometimes I even have trouble getting down. Sometimes I also just get tired of moving my legs, and sorta hover. Never anything like swimming, likely because I don’t swim. Also, if I do change orientation, it’s never in first person. I’m just aware I’m flipping. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/45 "2023-07-12T07:03:13Z")
I’m a strider, not a flyer. I remain upright, with my feet just a few inches off the ground. My strides get longer and longer, and it becomes a fun game or a dance in which I look ahead and choose where I’ll place my next step. I’ve never had the swimming sensation. It seems to me that, in such dreams, the sensation of the resistance of the water would be similar to other dreams in which you can’t run fast, punch hard, etc. About that, I recall reading 40 years ago that our brains release a substance during sleep that makes us less responsive and prevents us from moving as we do in our dreams. Even if I’m remembering that correctly, it might have been disproven since then. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/46 "2023-07-12T07:38:13Z")
I had about a 10 year stretch with flying dreams. They were mostly all the same. I would be standing on a lawn and trying to manipulate my arms to grab the most air for lift. The physics did not match my actual weight. It seemed like my arms were only generating about 20# lift each but it was enough for me to take off. Once I reached some altitude and stabilized physics no longer mattered. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/47 "2023-07-12T08:10:07Z")
I wonder why dreaming about flying seems to be so ubiquitous, at least in western culture. Surely someone has done a study on it at some point. When I dream of flying, there’s never any physical effort involved - I just will myself off the ground and control my speed and altitude by thinking it. I only ever seem to use it for practical reasons, though - commuting to work, or getting around the grocery store faster without having to walk up and down the aisles. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/48 "2023-07-12T08:16:17Z")
I just kinda float. Occasionally it seems like someone or something is pushing me in a direction. So I’m looking down in case I need a soft place to land. But I really have no choices. But going over people on the ground is definitely a plus. And a time saver. Funny, I never really have a purpose or destination. Kinda like my stoopid life. If I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/49 "2023-07-12T09:00:09Z")
I fly, but it takes great effort, so I don’t do it often. I fly vertically by flapping my arms strenuously with my hands cupped. I can achieve some horizontal movement (remaining vertical, not Superman-style) and control roll, pitch, and yaw somewhat by turning my hands like ailerons. I can easily jump over telephone wires, but clearing tall buildings or canyons isn’t always successful. So, flying in my dreams is mainly a parlor trick, something I do to impress onlookers (and impressed, they are!). Unfortunately, it is of little value when I’m being pursued by flying predators—primarily pterodactyls and their ilk. I learned that lesson the hard way. Trust me, being in flight in the talons of a dragon heading back to her nest to feed her lizard chicks is not fun. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/50 "2023-07-12T09:52:37Z")
Often it’s like swimming, but equally often it’s like piloting a glider plane, trying to catch the right current and stay on top of it. (I’m not a glider pilot, I’m just reliably informed that catching upward drafts rather than downward ones is a key part of it). ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/51 "2023-07-12T12:16:16Z")
My flying dreams have always been like I’m running in the air. It’s always exhausting, and I can’t do it for very long. What’s really odd is that in my flying dreams, I remember my previous flying dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/52 "2023-07-12T13:12:30Z")
I forgot to mention before that I do have another sort of flying dream, where I’m airwalking. This is usually only about a foot above the ground, which is often covered in something hazardous, like spikes. Unlike some other sorts of dream-flight, it takes effort, of approximately the same sort as balancing on a difficult surface. Related to that, I can sometimes walk on (not just above) very fragile surfaces, like fresh snow, by very carefully stepping only very lightly on them (never mind that the real-world limit of “stepping lightly” is one’s own weight). The only other superpower I commonly have while dreaming is phasing through solid objects. This never happens with soft objects: I always have to start with a hard-to-hard surface contact, like my forehead against a brick wall. Concentrate a bit, and my head starts to pass through the wall, after which the rest of me can follow. I’ve also VERY occasionally been able to teleport, but that seems to be a much more difficult trick. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/53 "2023-07-12T14:00:30Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > My flying dream are basically me flying without physical effort, just mental control of direction and speed. No swimming or flapping, etc. Mine too. Except that I don’t seem to either take off or land; I’m just up there. Sometimes I start to worry about landing, or about whether I can stay up, but if I do that I seem to wake up. Come to think of it, I don’t think I always have control of direction and speed, either. I’m just floating in the sky, generally fairly high up, and going somewhere; but it doesn’t feel like I’m deciding where to go. Whether those are just the versions I wake up from, and therefore remember, I don’t know. I don’t remember most of my dreams. – wait a minute, did I just reply to a seventeen-year-old post? Oh well, still an accurate response. – in the dreams I’m horizontal face down; not upright. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/54 "2023-07-12T15:01:24Z")
I jump up and keep my feet moving, like a long jumper. In fact, in these dreams I often think that I could easily break the world record for the long jump. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/55 "2023-07-12T17:13:42Z")
The only “flying” dreams I have involve me floating a couple of feet off the ground in a prone position. I propel myself by walking with my hands or pulling myself along on something. If I stop propelling myself, I slow down and stop. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/56 "2023-07-13T00:32:56Z")
I’m another one who lifts off the ground a foot or so. But I don’t walk or stride, because my legs don’t move. I ride gently upright straight ahead over the ground. There are never obstacles or anything beneath me I’m avoiding. Just pleasant forward movement. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372/57 "2023-07-14T20:25:22Z")
My rare dreams of flying are really gliding I guess–I’m always hanging onto a hang glider or something like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-dreams-is-flying-always-like-swimming/367372.md?page=2)