6 Interpretations For Your Scary Dreams About Being Chased

Dream interpretation allows us to decode the messages of our dreams, so we're able to integrate those lessons into our waking lives. If you've been dreaming about being chased, here's what it could be telling you, according to therapist and dream expert Leslie Ellis, Ph.D.

"In that respect," she says, "being chased is an image for the 'flight' part of the fight-or-flight response—our body's initial reaction to threat." So, generally speaking, "it's fair to say the dreamer is activated and feeling threatened in some way," she notes. Long story short: You're probably stressing!

"In the pandemic dreams I've been seeing," Ellis notes, "the chaser is more often something sinister and invisible—like a virus! So yes, it is important to pay attention to just what or who is doing the chasing, as this will help to understand the nature of what feels threatening." Here, she breaks down what a few variations of this dream could be trying to tell you:

If you're running away from someone you don't know, Ellis says this can mean you feel threatened but don't truly know or understand the source of the threat. This could even be a reflection of anxiety in your waking life, which can often arise for seemingly no reason.

If you're dreaming of a person you know well chasing you, Ellis explains, then you can ask yourself, What are the most notable characteristics of this person? Are they particularly angry or domineering? Do they have a troubled nature or some form of mental illness? Are they, in your experience, simply insufferable? "These might be traits that scare you in your own self," she notes, "because in dreams, as in waking life, we tend to project our own disavowed traits onto others."

Another common chase dream is to dream of being chased by an animal. In that case, "It might be a fear relating to the natural world," Ellis says. "Or you could consider the specific nature of that animal and what about it scares you." A bear, for example, might indicate you feel a problem is too big for you, or it's overpowering you, she explains.

There can be instances when you dream of being chased by something nonthreatening, whether an animal or person. If you are being chased by a deer, for example, "This is hardly a threatening animal," Ellis says. "So it might be that the dream is saying you are fleeing from something that is not truly scary—or maybe you are running from your own fearful nature, from the deerlike flightiness in you."

If you keep having this dream, Ellis says your dreams are trying very hard to get your attention—and it's even more important to pay attention to them. "In general, recurrent dreams are indications that something is unresolved or stuck, and they are also associated with more distress in general."

And lastly, should you be the one who's actually doing the chasing in this dream (which Ellis notes is far less common), it's "useful to inquire into the nature of what you are chasing," she says, as well as asking yourself if chasing and not getting what you want is a familiar feeling. This dream indicates you might feel something is out of reach.

From there, you can ask what they want from you. "Usually, when you do this, the frightening aspects of the chaser fall away," she says, adding, "I can't predict what the dream image will do or say because that depends so much on the individual dreamer—but I can tell you that this action always shifts the dream. It is never the same after this."

If you're feeling any sort of anxiety or tension in your real life, don't be surprised if it shows up in your dreams as a fast-paced chase scene. When we can interpret the messages of our chase dreams and flip the narrative ourselves, we can get to the bottom of them—and hopefully, prevent the bad ones from bothering us anymore.