This was a dream question sent to me for answer: If you’d like a chance for your dream question to be answered find out more about the The Dream Download™ here. This topic also features in my book Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal.
“I always have dreams that I am jumping off a wall but it (the feeling of falling) never ends. What does this mean?”
Falling can represent being or feeling out of control; it seems to be a particularly common dream after retirement. This may reflect a sense of not knowing what’s going to happen next, especially if a person has dedicated their life to one profession. This ‘not-knowing‘ can show up as free-falling in the way you’ve described.
It’s also helpful to think about dreams in metaphor: some use the word ‘fall’ to mean Autumn, so that could be significant to the interpretation. We also talk about ‘falling in love‘, so this may resonate with current events.
However, the fact that you consciously chose to jump off the wall in the dream, could represent that you’re aware of a decision that needs to be made and are ready to take the leap, meaning that you might decide to go for it. Perhaps there is a choice which can be made freely to see what happens – a bit like a ‘leap of faith‘. You might have decided to trust a situation and see what happens.
It also depends how you feel in the dream. I once dreamt I jumped out of an aeroplane, like a sky dive – I could feel the wind on my face, the sun was shining, I could see the fields below me – it was amazing! (So much so I’ve joked with friends I don’t need to do a sky dive in real life!) So if you feel ok about what was happening in your dream, this will be a different interpretation than if you were scared by the events. If you felt exhilarated this could be good sign that you’re feeling safe or happy about a recent decision, or maybe don’t need to worry so much about how things will turn out; we often worry things will be worse than they are, especially if they feel a bit risky. If you weren’t ok with how you felt in the dream, you may be resisting a change and this is leaving you with feelings of uncertainty.
Dreams can also be an echo of the past; I remember once speaking to a person who kept having the falling dream, and the traditional interpretations hadn’t worked for them. When we explored it, I asked them to go and ask family members if they knew of any occasions where this dream might make sense. It turned out in their early years they’d had a fall and although had no memory of this, family members remembered it well because of its significance.
I often get asked about a myth that if you hit the bottom in a dream if it’s fatal. However, many people have hit the “bottom” after falling in a dream and lived to tell the tale.
Falling in a dream is perhaps not to be confused with a “hypnic jerk”, the twitch or spasm you may experience when you are just dozing off. This can be caused by a number of different things, especially as you unwind and if you’ve had a busy day; stress can also be a factor. This is why it can be so helpful to make sure you wind down properly before bed, so that any tension doesn’t carry in to your dreams.
I talk about these types of experience, keeping a dream diary (to help understand common and recurring dreams) and offer a Sleep Cycle Repair Kit in my book, Answers in the Dark.
Delphi is the author of Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal, out now on Amazon and Hive. The Dreams Maven™ is part of the Helping You Sparkle™ portfolio. You might also like Monday Mojo™.
© Delphi Ellis, updated 2023 – please note this content may also appear elsewhere as promotional material for Answers In The Dark.
The Dreams Maven ™ 
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