Dream Symbols

Dreaming of Being Chased Dream Meaning

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support!

Dreams of being chased are very common. If you are wondering what it means to be chased in a dream or to be chasing after something, there are many ways to interpret this dream and understand the meaning.

What Does it Mean to Be Chased in a Dream?

The history of humans being chased can date back all the way to the earliest of times when humans first began life on this earth. It was a natural survival instinct, especially since during earlier times our ancestors often had very real threats and predators.

While it’s unlikely you will be hunted by wild animals in our modern life, this survival instinct is very natural, and it has likely stuck with us through evolution.

Our dreams of being chased are often a sign of feeling anxiety in our waking lives. We may feel as if someone or something is out to get us – even though the real threat of predators is very minimal in our modern lives.

Occasionally these dreams may be literal feelings of fear you may have. For example, if you live in a dangerous area that has high crime rates, you may feel very valid feelings of fear for your own safety. This dream may be manifesting to encourage you to take a self-defense class or even to consider moving to somewhere that is a safer community to live in.

Common Examples of Being Chased in Dreams

There are a number of ways the theme of being chased can manifest in a dream. These dreams can often be very realistic. These types of chase dreams are often some of the most commonly experienced nightmares.

Being Chased by an Attacker

Often times we may have dreams where we are running away from an attacker. You may have fears this person chasing after you will hurt or kill you. In these dreams, you are likely trying to find ways to run away and hide from the person or animal. You may even attempt to outwit the attacker.

In many cases, this dream means that you are trying to avoid something in your current daily waking life. You may be afraid of something happening, and you are trying to escape dealing with it.

If something in your life is causing you fear, stress and confusion, is can sometimes manifest in your dream as an attacker who is coming after you.

Being Chased by the Authorities

dreaming of being chased

Sometimes we may have a dream that we are running away from the law or police. It could be possible that this dream would manifest if you have guilt about something, or if you feel like someone else is preventing you from doing what you really want to do in life.

It could also be related to your own legal matters in your life. If you are scheduled to go to court or are indeed breaking a law, this dream could manifest as a way of dealing with your own emotions of not following the law.

Being Chased by Your Own Self

Often times, the attacker in a chase dream is not an outside force but actually manifests as a part of your self. You may be running away from your own feelings or even feeling regret about something you did. You may feel guilt about self destructive behaviors you are doing in your own life.

You may also have unresolved feelings about something. Look at the other details of the dreams for more details. For example, if you are being chased in a house, it is most likely that you are indeed running away from some of your own feelings and fears.

Running Away as a Recurring Theme in Dreams

Often times, these types of dream can be recurring – which means you have the same dream over and over again at different times in your life.

When a dream is recurring, you will usually notice similar elements across multiple dreams. For example, they may all take place in the same setting, or the attacker may be the same person.

However, the dream does not have to be the exact same in order to be a recurring dream. For example, you may dream of being chased by snakes one night and dream of being chased by a lion the next. The theme of running away from something out of fear is present in both these dreams, and this can give us a lot of clues.

Being able to identify what it is you are running away from in real life, and confronting it, is often the best way to stop these dreams and prevent them from happening again.

Dreaming Where You are Chasing Someone or Something

It’s also possible in the dream world for you to be the person who is pursuing someone or something else. Maybe you are chasing butterflies – this could mean you are living in the present moment or chasing after flighty thoughts and hopes.

It could also mean you are pursuing your goals and aspirations in life. Maybe there is something you want to accomplish. This dream could happen as a way to remind you what would be helpful for you on your path to achieve success.


How to Interpret a Dream Where You Are Being Chased

If you are frequently having these dreams, it’s important to understand what the dream means. Learning how to interpret your dreams can have many benefits in your life!

In order to interpret this dream, follow these steps:

Identify the Attacker:

Who is chasing you in the dream? Is it a person or an animal? Looking up the meaning of different animal symbols can be helpful to better understand the dream interpretation of this dream if you are being chased by an animal.

You may also want to look at the characteristics of the attacker. If you are unable to see the attacker, this could mean that you are afraid of the unknown or uncertain outcomes of a situation.

If on the other hand you can see that you are running away from a queen, it could mean that you are afraid of stepping into a role of power or leadership.

Look at the Setting Where the Dream Takes Place:

The setting can also give you a lot of clues as to what this dream may mean. When you interpret this dream, try to look at the details of where the dream takes place. Are you being chased on a road while driving a car?

The weather and elements can also have some meaning in the dream. For example, are you being chased by a tornado? Or are you being chased through the snow? Maybe you dream you are running away to escape into water – in this case it is very likely you are running away from emotions!

All of these things can give us a lot of insight into what the dream means!


Related Dream Resources


Have you had a dream where you are being chased?  Were you dreaming of someone chasing you and trying to attack you? Tell us about your dream experiences in the comments section below!

Similar Posts

36 Comments

  1. I dreamed I was sucked into a video game and was being hunted by the police. I died multiple times and my mom was playing to but she shot me.

  2. I was at my house and I head a lion roaring and it sounded like it is very far, and I opened my door and then i saw a lion,I tried to close the door but it manged to get in.i fough with a lion and I ended up killing it

  3. I dreamed that my ex (who I still love) but broke my heart was chasing me and trying to kill me, his girlfriend was with him and I was so scared for some reason, it was during a zombie apocalypse also but there was this house and I’ve noticed that I’ve ran into the back yard of that house so many times in different dreams, it would always get dark as soon as I got onto the property. I never went in the house but always around, I could hear my ex yelling out to me saying that he’s gonna kill me. When I was in the back yard, there was this dark alley way which I’ve also seen and walked through in other dreams. Anyways I walked through the alley and I could hear them come closer, I think I was just about to be killed if I didn’t wake up, I was actually quite scared..

  4. I had a dream about a man chasing me and maybe wanted to kill me who was certainly my husband in my dream..( i am not married) The place was my old house and its neighborhood . He had two people along with him, i ran away, tried to hide but failed to do so and then as i remember, he caught me and then he didn’t kill me and i suppose we talked about something and then we were good to go.. that’s what i remember..

  5. Okay so basically I’ve been having the same exact dream the only difference is where it is but they all have one thing in common, oh lived in each of this places. And I’m talking about the house itself is where it takes place. It always starts the same, my sister and I are watching the dark clouds come in for a thunder storm cause we love to watch the lightning, the there’s like an explosion almost in the air and lightning hits something and then an small space craft lands in our yard and the neighbor has this obsession with going to the moon before he dies because h knows his time is coming soon, so he goes down and helps the person that walks out of the ship to fix it. Then after my dad gives up ok trying to convince the neighbor not to go, we go back in the house and start prepping snacks. My sister and I have each a mug and I’m preparing marshmallows and Cándies. Then my step mom asks me to make her one too but she also wants this drink that I have to go get from the Tim’s down the road. So I go through the drive through and I call my friend and ask for some help as there is this guy sitting in his car face the drive though window and he’s just stating at me and it’s creeping me out and when I get to the window he comes out of his car and speed walks to me and I bolt out of there and he follows me. I get home lock all the doors and direct my family to an underground home I had built for them with appliances lighting electricity and 100% sound proof walls floors and ceiling. They ask why but I can’t answer, and I find myself with a gun at the front door and the guy on the other side of it trying to break it down and I wake up the second I pull the trigger but I don’t know on who the trigger was pulled.

    I have no clue what it could mean but I’d love to find out!

  6. Me and my girlfriend was being chased by va unknown person we were running 8 kept telling my girlfriend to SLO down . for some reason I had a bad limping my leg and ran slower than her.shevkept telling me were goin6g the wrong way.till we hid and got away

  7. My dream is that myself and others were trapped in this building by these men who wanted to harm us. we found a way to escape, but we were being chased all over the place by these people who tried to harm us, I can see the fear and anxiety in the faces of the people who were trying to run and hide. Everywhere we went people were being chased and scattered throughout this building and being chased by these same men who always seemed to know where we were no matter where we went, in the stairwell, elevator even through the parking lot. I was running so hard and fast, but still being caught by this man who tried to stab me with a knife in front of people who were walking in the streets as we were coming out of the parking lot. But then it was more so that I was watching it happen to someone else and it wasn’t really me who was being caught. Then I woke up.

  8. Please I dreamt of an unknown old man chasing me not to pass through his house road… When he trys to bit me with his wood, then he fold down

  9. I had this awful dream where I was standing in my bathroom when my 2 cats started attacking each other. (Cuddles is a Black cat, and Ginger is a Orange cat) And Cuddles but down on Gingers neck. I pushed Cuddles off of Ginger and Gingers head came off! It rolled on the floor and it took me a phew seconds to realize what had happened. I woke up immediately sweating but went back to sleep minutes later. I have no idea why it had happened. I have nothing against cats, and Ginger is my favourite out of all the cats we have. We have 3 cats. Skittles, Cuddles, and Ginger. And none of them are aggressive. They only bite when they wanna play, or show affection with little nips. The dream almost seemed real, but the head that fell of the body was too small. I think. At least that’s what I remember. I loved cats! If Ginger died I’d be forever heartbroken. So hopefully someone can give me some answers on why this dream had happened, and it wasn’t that long ago, either. .

  10. I have recurring dreams that someone or something is coming to find me and I have to hide in very peculiar locations such as inside the ceiling. Sometimes there is a secret room within a room inside the ceiling and I’m always trying to get to the top, yet there’s always a sense of fear of what could be in there. Such as a spirit or ghost. It’s terrifying.

  11. I have had dreams for the past 10 years or more about different forces that i can or cannot see, like some type of spore that makes the people around me evil, zombies, bombs/detonations counting down over a loud speaker and exploding behind me as i’m running, etc. Recently i was not even able to see why i was running and hiding, i just felt like that was what I was supposed to be doing. A lot of the times i cant go back to sleep unless i try to “finish” and “win” the dream in a way and become safe, i guess I lucid dream in order to finish them. Almost every dream I have is me running away. I don’t have any reason for why.

  12. i am 12 but i had a dream of me and my brother were at our old house but the place different but anyway these like american kids there was 3 of them but they look at us i was fine at first because i thought they were racist because were African american then they smiled at us they went by this corner then they started to chase us we ran but every time im being chased in my dream i always run slow and I’ve been having chased dreams since i was in kindergarten so im used of running slow even though im fast but we started to run i caught up to my big brother he slowed down and got tired then i was like come on it’s life or death he didn’t listen and they got him and i got so mad i got a large stick hit them with it they had knives they stabbed me this also happens i feel the pain but i don’t die anyway he was gonna run but they got his leg and they put him sleeper hold and they still had him in a sleeper hold and dragged him in the darkens but the weird part was that no one cared it was like nothing happened i think in the future no one will care anymore so i think we were in the future.

    1. I had a dream that I was at my apartment garden and I met this nice neighbor and he made basketballs so he made me one and he loved painting too somehow he painted the whole apartment with these pictures they were beautiful but terrifying he turned really weird and he locked my sister and my mum up I couldn’t see them and I ran down the stairs but I couldn’t see like my eyes were spinning around in my head and he was catching up to me I ran into the street and I still couldn’t see I was falling and stumbling I felt his intent to kill me and he was coming closer and then I woke up but I couldn’t remember his face I used to have reoccurring dreams where I was at school playing duck duck goose and I couldn’t see anything and it was really blurry its a really scary dream but it makes me think about it for the whole day not worrying about anything else

  13. It’s starts out I’m tied up in my restroom and there is this man and he has some sort of needle poking different places in my arm using my blood to make a picture then he tells me that he’s gonna slowly kill me and then he leaves the room for a minute and I somehow escape the restroom and exit my house and get in my car then I look back at the door and I see him watching my start the engine and just as he starts chasing after the car I drive off flipping him off.

  14. I had a dream of someone who wants to take off my clothes and I am trying to escape and seek help. I am very afraid and I want to save myself however possible. There were some group of people who were supporting my attacker to chase me. Can someone explain to me what does this dream mean?

  15. I have been having these dreams most of my life I am 28 now and tonight I had it 3 times all in different settings. I try to hide but they always find me I’ve learnt now to tell myself to wake up when theres nowhere left to go most of the time there trying to kill me. I cant figure out why I am having these. First dream tonight was an attacker. Second dream was the police

  16. I’m 16 and I recently just had a nightmare and woke up from it at about 4:55 A.M and I couldnt sleep ever since… First setting I didn’t know where I was, it was like I was viewing someone else’s dream and it was about an higher being in human form of a girl and she seemed a bit emo, stoner type and she was saying something about ” the only reason why I’m here is the keep you guys safe from *him” then in a few seconds I seen a tan, tall, lanky male with full black eyes and he seemed demonic.. he started chasing them… Then it fast forwarded to me being in my old house with my little brothers and someone else I don’t remember, but here’s the catch, that house was FULL of demonic energy, the neighborhood was full of negative energy, (mountain view*) had a dark history there supposedly bad things would happen… and I live on big island BUT my brothers were there too but they live on Oahu which is a neighboring island… That one person and my brothers came running into the spare room in I was in panicking and saying *HE was coming and starting to lock the doors, there were two doors but I remember there only being one door, suddenly i felt something evil like at the pit of my stomach and instinctively went to close the curtain drapes and told my brothers to be quiet but the same *demonic person was crawling outside on the wall from the ceiling to the window and me and my little brothers made a run for it and I remember feeling pure terror and I just woke up right after that…. I woke up feeling that same energy in my stomach and swear I heard breathing in my closet… But my tutu (grandma) had my uncle come and bless the house so I hope it wasn’t linked to some type of presence that may be latched on to me

  17. I dreamed I was in a building…like a small mall. I was being chased by what appeared to be human but it was black with red eyes. It was biting people as it ran after me. It’s ultimate goal was me. The bite would change me somehow. The mall was dark except a few lights from stores.

  18. I had a dream I was trying to get home, and when I opened the door and went in, it was a strange building and I couldn’t get out. I made a friend and we tried escaping together, and we met other people; but she ended up being evil. Her and the people we had met started chasing me through all the doors and I couldn’t get out until I woke up.

  19. I dreamt about being chased and I was shot on my forehead and no one was helping me out , and I didn’t die in the dream

  20. I always dream of being chased by a white faced thing with the mouth that goes all the why up to his or her eyes they have not hair and have really huge black eyes and i am being chased by it and always end up getting killed over and over again.

  21. I had a dream where I was in the hood and this big dude came out of a building and snuck me a picture. The picture was just of some random person but it was somehow important. I snuck that picture the a kid riding his bike past me, he looked at it then snuck to another person who looked at it, smiled then he snuck it to another kid riding a bike. Then the big dude who gave me the picture comes out of the building again and asked if I was handing it of. I knew that I was in trouble with him if he knew I did so I said no. He said “where is it then, let me see it” I said I put it away and pointed to the building. He didn’t believe me and I knew he was going to do something so I started to run and I ran into the same building but I felt like I wasn’t running that fast and the guy was catching. When I entered the building I saw a cop and as that guy was chasing me this cop was coming towards me too. The VIP was right behind but I wasn’t afraid of him or trying to run from him, I was trying to run from the big dude. The cop said I was under arrest for something that I did but before he could even touch me to put me in handcuffs I tripped on the ground still trying to get away from the dude. I pushed myself towards the cop and I was breathing really heavy out of fear because I didn’t want to get hurt. The cop was about to put me in handcuffs but then he saw how heavy I was breathing and told me to calm down. So I slowed my breathing and put my head down on the ground and closed my eyes.

  22. I dreamed of a wolf chasing me, I was at my primary school next to the teachers toilets and ran into the toilets but I couldn’t lock any door, it smelled under the door and saw my feet… It came inside and I woke up

  23. I had a dream that someone I knew was trying to kill me at a house but I didnt run away from them and I was gonna let the person kill me then we got interrupted by 2 people who walked in the room and she wasnt able to kill me….. it was my own sister tryin to kill me🤦🏽‍♀️ I woke up frightened

    1. I have been having this same dream of my family chasing me in the woods with a hunting dog my family and I have not been on good terms for sometime now I left home to start a better life and they won’t except that we have arguments over me leaving I now work on my own and not for my family they cannot except me leaving home so now I don’t talk with them but have on and off dreams love my family but have to go my own way same dream same family members

  24. I dreamt of a person who has abused me in the past is chasing me. in my dream, I was a kid who jumped into a dam (clear but turbulent water). usually I see myself running and being chased by ghost or aliens or someone I don’t know and can’t see

  25. I dreamed that I walked into a maze full of alligators and they were trying to attack me and I am trying hard to escape from them.

  26. I dreamed of riding a motor vehicle and was being chased by dogs who’s trying to ask for help/wanted to be rescued. We hit one color black dog, lying on the street and crying.

    1. I was outside my business premises with other people. Suddenly some soldiers numbering about 5 slowed down with their vehicle. One already tried to point the gun at me but couldn’t get the gun ready. I started running and one of them began to pursue me fiercely and trying to shoot. But he couldn’t close up with me as I escaped.

      1. I had a dream that a few people had jumped from different buildings to their deaths. In my dream I knew them and screamed out their name. Only to later as I entered a building which I lived to gather things and hide, noticed someone was following me, and trying to kill me, the ones who jumped were forced to by this person. They almost caught up to me, it was my ex husband. He was now trying to kill me like he did to the others. I managed to escape and woke up.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *