Research case · People & kin
Looking Forward to Seeing a Friend
Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
I was thinking about a friend that I was talking to today, and the conversation that we had, and, how I'm excited to see her when school starts. I'm done.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- Zhang & Wamsley 2019 dream EEG reports — krank curated text-only release v1 — Jing Zhang and Erin J. Wamsley (research); Erin Wamsley, Jing Zhang and Megan Collins (archive); Remington Mallett / krank (text curation), 2019 study; 2025 curated release. Curated text-only release, de-identified report 174
- Record type
- Research case
- Place
- Not stated · American
- Date
- Date unknown · contemporary study
- Uncertainty
- Moderate — De-identified sleep-mentation report; the source does not establish a calendar dream date. Chinese title and translation are AI-generated editorial drafts, not human-verified.
- Imagery
- Friend · Exam · Stars
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Friend
How long since you last saw this friend? What were you doing together in the dream — something you used to do?
Dream research Dream research
The “continuity” view in dream research finds that most dream characters are people we know, and that dreams tend to carry on our waking relationships and concerns.
G. William Domhoff, The Scientific Study of Dreams (2003)
Tang poetry Literature
Du Fu, not knowing whether his exiled friend Li Bai is alive, writes that “my old friend entered my dream, knowing how long I have thought of him”.
Du Fu, “Dreaming of Li Bai” (759)
Exam
Is it an exam you already passed long ago? What, right now, feels like being tested?
Jung · Compensation
Read through Jung’s idea of compensation, an exam dream may bring up a worry the waking mind is keeping quiet — or an old confidence it has forgotten.
C. G. Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology”, Collected Works 8
Psychoanalysis Depth psychology
Freud noted that people tend to dream of exams they actually passed, and read such dreams as reassurance: “you got through it then”.
Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), “typical dreams”
Modern dream surveys Dream research
In questionnaire studies of “typical dreams”, school, teachers and studying are reported by a large share of respondents.
Nielsen et al., “Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students”, Dreaming (2003)
Stars
One star or a whole sky of them? Were they close, and did they make any shape you recognised?
Chinese historiography Classical text
The “Treatise on the Celestial Offices” in the Records of the Grand Historian maps the night sky onto the human world: groups of stars are named as officials of a heavenly court.
Sima Qian, Shiji, “Treatise on the Celestial Offices”
Roman philosophy Philosophy
Scipio, dreaming among the stars, finds them far larger than they look from Earth — the dream is a lesson in how small human glory is from far enough away.
Cicero, De re publica VI (“Dream of Scipio”)
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- Choosing an art assessment Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
- A hotel I could see into England · before 1911
- Crossing the Grass Toward Cars Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
- Christmas at a house by the Welsh border North Wales border · Date unknown · literary dream-story
- People and pets in a large gym Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study
- Walking ahead with immense effort England · before 1911