Why Are You Naked in Your Dream?

The train is late again. You look up and down the platform which is more crowded than usual – looks like your train wasn’t the first not to arrive.

You sigh and wonder whether it’s worth notifying work about the delay, but then you notice that the other people on the platform are staring at you.

You look around, confirming that the other commuters on all sides are staring.

You feel the blood rushing to your cheeks and a creeping sense of panic as you look down to see that you’re naked. You want to run, but the crowd is too dense and you can’t make any progress.

The crowd begins to laugh.

Still, it’s only a dream – right?

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud described the dream this way:

This shame response is at the root of most interpretations of dreams of inappropriate nudity. While some dreamers may have insecurities about their bodies that are reflected by such a dream, even dreamers that are happy with their body may experience them.

The exposure that these dreams represent is most often understood to be figurative; depending on the setting of the dream, it can indicate that the dreamer is self-conscious about being true to themselves in that location. If it’s with a person you know, or with whom you may ordinarily feel comfortable naked, it can indicate that you are struggling to show vulnerability.

Dreams of nudity in new or unfamiliar environments can indicate that you’re anxious about an upcoming change of circumstances – which can be related to work, relationships, travel or anything else in which new territory could represent a cause for concern.

Dream analysis is an invitation to self-analysis. Our dreams are never quite straightforward and so represent an opportunity to spend time in reflection about our circumstances. As Carl Jung stated: