What Does It Mean To Dream About Rats? 7 Interpretations + How To Decipher Yours

Rats in a dream can have many meanings, ranging from a sneaky person (aka "rat") in your life, an issue that's "gnawing" away at you, or even secrets.

According to professional dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg, cultural associations and wordplay come up a lot in dream symbolism, with the term "rat" often colloquially used to describe a person who would snitch on you, throw you under the bus, or otherwise "rat you out."

Speaking of cultural associations, Loewenberg also calls out The Secret of NIMH, a popular children's movie from the '80s that has rats as characters. "So rats in a dream can represent secrets because of that association, The Secret of NIMH," she notes.

And when thinking about wordplay, we associate gnawing with rodents, so if there's some issue or person that's been gnawing away at you, Loewenberg says rats can show up in your dreams as a representation of that distress. Similarly, when we get bad news, we might say, "Oh rats," so the rats in the dream could represent disappointment or feeling let down, as well.

However, she adds, only you can understand what rats really represent to you, and if you had a sweet and affectionate pet rat in childhood, the rat could actually represent an aspect of yourself that's misunderstood.

Oftentimes, our dream symbolism actually represents some aspect of ourselves, so if there's a cage present, it could very well indicate a self-imposed cage that you're keeping yourself in. As Loewenberg explains, you might be trying to stay tame, hold yourself back, or rein yourself in.

In some cases, you might dream about an infestation of rats, and in this case, Loewenberg says it represents an amplification of whatever problem you're dealing with. "In any dream, the more there is of something, the more of an issue it is for you in real life," she explains.

Basements in dreams often represent the past, Loewenberg tells mindbodygreen, so if you've got a swarm of rats in your basement in the dream, they could be indicating an unresolved issue from the past that's still impacting you today.

More often than not, our nightly dreams have something to do with the day before, so Loewenberg always recommends looking to the previous day for clues to interpret your dream.

"Can you connect the emotion of the day to the dream, as well as the action or struggle in the dream? Because something from yesterday is showing up here," she notes.

You'll want to get clear on how you felt in the dream, as well. "If you were overwhelmed by fear or the amount of wrath or whatever was going on, what real life is making you feel that same sense of overwhelm? Or who in real life disgusts you?" Loewenberg explains, adding, "The subconscious is bringing it to your attention because it's something it wants you to fix.

These are all things you can self-reflect on, and of course, you can always jot down your thoughts in a dream journal (which is another effective way to get better at interpreting your dreams, according to Loewenberg).