When you are living that single life, you really luck out whenever you get the opportunity to have sex dreams. Your subconscious is essentially afforded a one-way ticket to an adventure that you would never be able to embark on if you were awake.
However, when you happen to be in a relationship, these sex dreams might not always be so amazing – particularly when your fantasies include having sex with someone who isn’t your partner.
A lot of times, when we wake up from these dreams of infidelity, we might feel a sense of guilt and anxiety. What exactly do these dreams mean? Do they even have any meaning at all?
You know that you would NEVER have sex with anyone else in your conscious life. You are positive that you always want to stay loyal and committed to your partner in the real world.
But is the fact that your subconscious feels the need to have the sex with other people a sign that things are less ideal in your relationship? Didn’t some famous philosopher or psychologist in the past say that whatever your subconscious manifests as desire is truly what you want in life?
Well, you can put all of those questions to bed. Just because you have a dream about cheating on your partner doesn’t mean that you actually want to cheat in real life.
Danielle Forshee, Psy.D. is a popular psychologist says that a dream doesn’t necessarily have to be something that reveals your truest desires and innermost musings in life. Sometimes, dreams are merely symbols or manifestations of things that might be going on in your life that you have failed to notice.
“A cheating dream may not suggest cheating at all, but instead suggests looking deeper into what the symbol of cheating means to you,” she says.
The act of you cheating in your dream can mean so many different things and it really all depends on the circumstances that surround your life. For some people, cheating might actually symbolize broken promises.
For others, it might symbolize a commitment that they have grown to regret in life – like perhaps wanting to skip a wedding they committed to attending.
On a subconscious level, if you have been contemplating about breaking a promise, then perhaps there is a chance that it would manifest itself in your dreams. That is according to the expert analysis of Stephanie Gailing who happens to work as a life coach who specializes in dream analysis in individuals.
“If we think about cheating on a partner, that’s a place where you gave your word but you’re going back on your word,” says Gailing. So, in essence, it’s essentially the same kind of narrative whenever you make a promise to someone else and you are thinking about going back on it.
That’s why your brain is making these parallels in your mind. That’s why it’s perfectly possible that your sex dreams have nothing to do with your sex life at all.
But then again, there is also a chance that they do. You have to know that dream interpretation isn’t exactly a sound science. Having a dream about cheating isn’t exactly going to have the same implications for all people across the board.
For some, infidelity in the context of a dream might actually come as a result of flirting with someone else in real life. That is according to the opinions of Jessa Zimmerman, a licensed sex therapist. She says, “If your sex dreams are about a particular person, especially someone you know in your real life, you should consider whether there is a real-life attraction (not a problem) and any sort of dalliance or flirtation with them (a problem).”
Perhaps your dreams are just manifesting some of the fantasies that you have when you are awake and conscious. And whenever that is the case, it might be important to think about broaching the topic in a talk with your partner.
You might not necessarily have to bring up the dream (it might even be a better idea that you don’t at all), but you’re still going to have to talk about the underlying issues surrounding those dreams.
“How happy are you, really, with your sexual relationship with your partner? Think about whether there’s stress around sex, whether you’re happy with the frequency of sex in your relationship, whether you’re expressing your desires and having them met, and whether you feel good enough about your partner that you want to be having sex together,” says Zimmerman.
If you happen to be unhappy with how your sex life is going, your dreams about unfaithfulness and infidelity might actually be a symptom. That’s why it’s really important that you are able to talk to your partner about these things.
At the end of the day, dreams can’t be definitive. And you’re just going to have to make of them what you will.