What Do Lost Dreams Mean?

Here’s a recently submitted dream for dream analysis:

I’ve been dreaming a lot lately about being lost. A few nights ago I dreamed I was in a town I used to live in but I didn’t recognize any of the restaurants or stores. I didn’t know which way to drive because nothing looked familiar. I knew it was the town but it just looked different.  Last night I had a similar dream but I was in my aunt’s house. The rooms were different and each time I went through what I thought was the right door, it led to another room. I kept going in circles and just couldn’t get out.  I’ve read where you say that you can tell a lot about the dream analysis by how you felt during the dream and after waking up.  You’d think I would have been frustrated in these dreams and after waking up but I wasn’t.  I enjoyed driving around and seeing new things in the first dream and was even laughing in the second one. I’m just wondering what’s behind these dreams! Thank you in advance. – Lara

Lara, I have actually had similar dreams at different times in my life.  Ironically enough, the first dream you described is alarmingly close to a dream I once had. I dreamed that I was driving my daughters around a town that their father/my husband and I lived in when we first got married.  Some things were the same but a lot was different.  I had no idea where I was going!  Like you, I didn’t feel frustrated, worried, or upset.  In fact, in my dream, my daughters and I stopped and ate at an Arby’s (which the town didn’t even have!).

These types of dreams are simply your brain processing change or changes in your life.  Given the fact that your emotions (during and after the dreams) were positive, I’d guess that these changes have been positive – or, at the very least, NOT terrible!  My own dream came right after my family moved to a new home in a city. I was excited about the home as well as the city, so the emotions were all positive and upbeat.

Even when the changes in our lives are positive and desired, our brain still has to sort of wrap itself around everything and process what has happened.  When everything else is, literally, turned off while we sleep, our brain seizes the opportunity to sort things out.  When your own brain has finished processing the recent change or changes in your life, your lost dreams will, themselves, get lost.