The 6 Reasons Why You Dream About Being Afraid of Heights

The fear of heights – It is one of the most common fears, but also one of the most irrational ones. After all, how many people have fallen off something and died? And yet, it’s a very real fear for many. This fear often manifests itself in dreams.

Dreams about being afraid of heights occur because of 1) a heightened sense of awareness, 2) reacting to real-life events, 3) fear of failure or embarrassment, 4) fear of losing control, 5) changes in life, and 6) unresolved childhood fears.

Some people experience their fear of heights mostly in dreams. Such dreams may be extremely realistic and vivid, even causing the dreamer to wake up panicking.

Why Do People Dream of Being Afraid of Heights?

There are many reasons why people have dreams of being afraid of heights. However, here are the most common ones.

Heightened Sense of Awareness

Some psychologists theorize that people are more aware of their surroundings when they’re dreaming. This means that the dreamer will be more likely to notice if they change the landscape of a dream, such as moving from atop a skyscraper onto ground level, and thus feel afraid as they realize their predicament.

According to this theory, a person who is dreaming of being in a high place may be more conscious of the fact that they are in a dream and have the ability to wake up. This can cause them to feel almost as if they have superpowers because they know what’s going on around them without even trying to become aware. As a result, it’s as if they have a heightened sense of awareness or superpowers.

For example, you may feel afraid when you are on top of a building because you are more aware that there could be danger, such as someone pushing you off the edge. You feel this way because, in your dreams, you can become conscious of things you normally couldn’t notice when awake, such as recognizing that you are on top of a skyscraper or realizing that you are standing on a quicksand in your dream.

Reacting to Real-Life Events

A person might have dreams about heights because they’ve recently experienced an event in which height was a factor. For instance, someone who does extreme sports related to heights every day may dream of bungee jumping or dream about skydiving. The same applies if the dreamer went paragliding or doing any other activity.

It could be that someone has experienced being scared of heights in waking life. They might be learning to deal with their fear by expressing it in dreams, slowly getting used to the idea of looking down from high places.

When people dream, their brain’s reactions are the same as they would be if it were real life. This means that people will dream about something related to what is stressing them out or frightening them in real life. People who are afraid of heights may experience this fear in dreams, no matter how safe they feel at the time.

Fear of Failure or Embarrassment

A person might dream of being afraid of heights because they don’t want to fail at something. Failing at a challenge in a dream is often associated with real-life events in which a person feels they have failed or embarrassed themselves, and this can be carried over into their dreams.

In the case of fear of heights, it may also represent fear of looking bad to others when that person knows that they could have done well if they had just tried a little harder. The workplace can be a great example of such type of fear. People who have this fear in real life may dream of being afraid of heights to represent their anxiety about not working hard enough to succeed at something they know they’re capable of doing, and the potential for looking bad or making a fool out of themselves if they don’t try hard enough.

Alternatively, dreams of being afraid of heights may reflect anxiety about not having the highest standards for yourself or trying to avoid failing at something by not even attempting it in the first place, like if someone dreamed of being afraid of heights because they didn’t want to attempt an assignment.

Fear of Losing Control

A person might also dream of being afraid of heights if they recognize that the fear of heights is a way to keep them from losing control in general, such as being afraid of social situations such as romantic relationships, or public speaking.

Some dream analysts theorize that sometimes people dream about fears of heights, public speaking, or other situations to emphasize their desire for complete control. According to these theorists, if a person is having trouble surrendering control because they are overly protective of themselves, then it makes sense that they would dream about being afraid of heights – since fear of heights is often associated with losing control, just like a dream about an apocalypse.

A person might also dream that they are afraid of heights, which is similar to dreaming about stairs. So, if they are trying to push past their fears in real life, such as climbing or jumping off the edge of something. These dreams can be a sign that the dreamer is excited to take on their fears, and such dreams are associated with feelings of confidence and excitement.

Changes in Life

A person might have a dream about being afraid of heights if they’ve recently read about or experienced strong mental stimuli, such as a dramatic change in their day-to-day life. Height is merely one possible symbolic representation of this fear.

For example, if someone lost their job for no reason and then got into an argument with their spouse that resulted in a huge fight about something very minor, they might have this dream. If they see the height in the dream as representing how unstable their life has become, they’ll be less likely to feel afraid of it.

The dream also acts as a subconscious warning to the person, telling them that they need to think about their life more carefully. It might suggest that there are some issues within their relationships or jobs that need to be resolved before things get worse.

Unresolved Childhood Fears

Some psychologists say that a person who dreams of being afraid of heights may have experienced a traumatic event in their youth.

For example, a child who lived through an earthquake might have nightmares about earthquakes even as an adult, or a child whose parents were arguing loudly below them every night might have nightmares about heights to symbolize the sense of fear and helplessness they felt as a result.

As an adult, the person would not only still feel that fear but also be unable to remember its origin. Thus, dreaming about heights is their subconscious mind’s way of trying to resolve the problem so they might stop waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

Falling From a Height in a Dream Meaning

The meaning of this dream is usually associated with a sense of loss, and despair. In general, it can be said that people dream about falling from a height when they feel as though they are losing control over some part of their lives. Their unconscious mind is trying to convey this message through the symbol of freefall.

It is hard to say at which point exactly a person can be deemed as “losing their footing” in the waking world, but more often than not it can be associated with some form of failure in their daily life. These failures could be the loss of a job, break-up or divorce or even problems related to everyday stress and anxiety. They may seem like big things, but they all have the power to shake our self-confidence and make us feel utterly powerless.

Dreams in which a person is falling from a great height can be incredibly vivid and realistic in nature, creating an intense sense of fear and anxiety when we suddenly find ourselves plummeting towards the ground at high speed. In many cases, these dreams are so short that people do not have time to even grasp what is happening before they abruptly awaken from their slumber. In this sense, these dreams can be seen as a “warning sign” from our inner minds.

Dreaming of Standing in a Tall Building? Here’s Why

In a standard dream dictionary, the interpretation of this type of dream is most often associated with feelings of insecurity and vulnerability. However, most people have been in a tall building before and they didn’t feel insecure or vulnerable. So what’s behind that reoccurring dream?

Although many people equate ‘standing in a tall building’ with ‘feeling insecure,’ this is not a necessary conclusion. A more accurate interpretation of this dream has to do with how the actual act of being in a tall building makes one feel. Think about it: if the dreamer is in one, there’s an extremely high probability that they have gone up several flights of stairs because, well…that’s what people do when they are in a tall building. Now, if the dreamer is afraid of heights, this could easily trigger feelings of insecurity, especially when standing near the edge to look down below.

However, if the dreamer is not afraid of heights and standing at the edge doesn’t bother them, then what does it mean? One possible explanation is that standing in a tall building in a dream is about being on the cusp of some new height in life. Perhaps it means that there are some new opportunities on the horizon, or some new phase in life will begin soon—something big.

Dream of Being Afraid of Falling Explained

People dream about being afraid of falling because it is a common fear. In the safety of one’s own bed, one feel secure and protected. As such, being afraid of falling from it symbolizes a sense of vulnerability or lack of control over a situation in one’s waking life.

One may also dream of falling down the stairs, across the floor, over an object or out of one’s bedroom window. As with falling from one’s bed, falling signifies vulnerability and lack of control. It may also signify one’s careless approach to life. Falling can be used as a metaphor for taking chances in life—one cannot control whether they will succeed or fail in a given situation, which is a great source of anxiety. As such, the key to overcoming this fear in one’s dreams may be to take more control over their lives in waking life.

Getting Scared in a Dream Interpretation

People get scared in a dream because it is their subconscious reacting to something in the dream that they are afraid of. Dreams are formed when people sleep, and many times dreams can be an attempt to fully experience an emotion; if a person is scared in real life, it may be translated into dreaming by having them get scared at night.

Dreams also serve as a release for all that may be on the mind of a person. Often people get scared in dreams because they are afraid of something at night anyway, and so when they experience this fear while asleep the brain translates it into an image that makes sense – typically something one would see in a scary movie or read in a horror novel.

People who are often anxious about something, in particular, may dream about that, and this can manifest into dreams of getting chased or hurt by something. Often, if a person doesn’t know why they got scared in a dream, then this could mean that they are afraid to die and their brain created an image for them in a dream to help them face that fear.

Conclusions

It’s not uncommon for people to dream about being afraid of heights, and it can be a sign that you’re feeling anxious or need some kind of control over your life. The good news is if you know what this fear symbolizes in your dreams, there are plenty of ways to overcome the anxiety associated with these types of dreams.

For example, if someone has an irrational fear of public speaking but they have an upcoming presentation at work they still want to give, try rehearsing their talk as much as possible before the event so that when the time comes they won’t feel overwhelmed by how many people will be looking them in the eye. Alternatively, find a therapist who specializes in cognitive therapy and use exposure therapy techniques like systematic desensitization to gradually get rid of the mental block.