What does it mean when you dream about your crush?
A dream about a crush can colour a whole day. You see them in the corridor or on your screen and the dream is still there, as if something has happened between you that they do not know about. It is natural to want the dream to mean something about them. What it can tell you, with more reliability, is something about you.
Why your crush appears in your dreams
The simplest reason is attention. What occupies the waking mind tends to appear at night, and a crush occupies a great deal of it. But dreams do more than replay. They compensate: if you are holding back in waking life, keeping your feelings quiet and your face neutral, the dream often supplies the opposite, a scene where you are close, honest or chosen. The dream gives the feeling room that the day does not.
The crush as a part of you
Jung described the way we project inner figures onto people who can carry them. A crush is often the clearest example. The person may be confident, funny, gifted or free in a way that you feel you are not. Part of the pull is towards that quality. Asking “what do I see in them?” and writing the answer down is one of the most useful things you can do with the dream, because the answer is often a description of something you are beginning to want for yourself.
Dreaming about your crush liking you back
This is the dream people most want to be a sign. It is better understood as a rehearsal. The psyche tries out the experience of being wanted, often precisely because waking life has not offered it. That can feel like a gift or a torment depending on the morning. Notice the detail: how did you know they liked you? Was it a look, a confession, being picked first? The form tells you what kind of recognition you are hungry for, which matters well beyond this one person.
Dreaming of kissing your crush
A kiss in a dream is an image of joining. It can be romantic and physical, and there is no need to explain that away. It can also be a meeting with the quality the crush carries, the dream's way of saying you are allowed to take it in. If the kiss felt awkward or interrupted, the dream may be showing the hesitation you feel about that, not only about them. People sometimes ask how to dream about kissing their crush on purpose. Dreams cannot be ordered, though thinking about something before sleep does make it more likely to appear.
Dreaming of an old crush
An old crush from school or a past job, someone you have not thought of in years, usually arrives as a carrier of a time in your life. Ask who you were when you liked them. Dreams of old crushes often come when something in the present echoes that earlier self: a new start, a feeling of being young again, or a return of an old shyness. The spiritual meaning sometimes given to these dreams, a soul connection or a sign, sits close to the Jungian one turned inward: something from your past is asking to be recognised now.
What does it mean when your crush dreams about you?
If they tell you they dreamed of you, it means you are on their mind enough to appear, which is not nothing. But their dream is made from their own material, and you may be standing for something in them, just as they stand for something in you. It is a good opening for a conversation, and not a declaration.
When the dreams keep coming
If your crush appears night after night, the repetition is worth its own attention; see why you keep dreaming about your crush and our guide to recurring dreams. And if the person in the dream is an old flame rather than a new one, the guide to dreaming about your ex and dreaming about an ex years later go further.
A worked example: the crush at the piano
The dream below is invented for illustration. It shows the method, not anyone's real dream.
“I'm at a party at my crush's flat. He's playing piano and everyone is listening. He looks up, smiles, and moves over so I can sit next to him. I start playing too, and I'm good at it. I wake up happy and then embarrassed.”
The image
A crush at the piano, an audience, an invitation to sit beside him, and the dreamer playing well, which she cannot do awake.
Associations
She says her crush is “so comfortable being looked at”. She had lessons as a child and stopped at twelve because she hated performing. She has been asked to present at work next month and is dreading it.
What it compensates
Her waking attitude is that being seen is unbearable. The dream sits her beside someone at ease with it and lets her play. One possibility: the crush carries her own capacity to be visible, and the invitation to sit beside him is an invitation to that, as well as to him.
A small practice
Rehearse the first minute of the presentation aloud, once, to an empty room. Then write a sentence about what she would like him to notice about her, and whether she could notice it first.
Common questions
Does dreaming about your crush mean they like you?
No. A dream is made from your own memories and feelings and cannot report what someone else feels. It shows how much they are on your mind and what you hope for, which is useful in its own right.
Why did I dream about my crush liking me back?
The psyche often rehearses experiences waking life has not yet given, and being wanted is one of the strongest. The detail of how they showed it tells you what kind of recognition you are looking for.
What does it mean when you dream of kissing your crush?
A kiss is an image of joining. It can simply be desire, and it can also be a meeting with a quality the crush carries for you, such as confidence or ease. How the kiss felt, easy or awkward, often matters more than the kiss itself.
What does it mean to dream about an old crush?
An old crush usually brings back who you were at the time you liked them. The dream often arrives when something in the present echoes that earlier self, such as a new beginning or a familiar shyness.
What does it mean if your crush dreams about you?
That you are on their mind. Their dream is made from their own feelings, though, and you may stand for something in them. It is a good reason to talk, not proof of anything.
Written by Alexander George and reviewed against our editorial standards. Coniunctio offers reflection, not diagnosis or prediction. If a dream is tied to distress, please speak to a professional.
Related guides
What is Coniunctio?
A dream can stay with you all day and still make no sense. Coniunctio analyses it in Jung's method, symbol by symbol, so you can see what it is working on and what to do with it.
- A Jungian analysis of your dream, symbol by symbol
- A ritual to work with it: three offered, you choose one
- Follow-up questions and notes on every analysis
- A dream archive that grows as you feed it
“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness.”