If it’s not an actual person you know, then this stranger is going to represent a part of yourself, or it can represent just the forces at work that are making this change happen.” If you have this dream, Loewenberg encourages you to ask yourself, “Am I feeling pressured to change?”

Breathing moves from deep to shallow and from fast to slow in repeating cycles; eventually breathing slows and becomes very shallow; there are pauses; and, finally, breathing ceases. A few minutes later, the heart will stop beating as it runs out of oxygen. So many people tell me they’ve actually experienced the feeling of death and leaving the body. That dream would indicate that change has happened. If you feel yourself leaving your body in that dream, that’s a good indication that you’re feeling like this change is transforming you.” As dying progresses the heart beats less strongly, blood pressure falls, skin cools down and nails become dusky. Internal organs function less as blood pressure drops. There may be periods of restlessness or moments of confusion, or just gradually deepening unconsciousness. Up there with 'Fleabag' season 1 in it's genius. What appears to initially be an awkwardly dark comedy, slowly metamorphoses into a twisted conflict of ethics, dilemma and delivered by the most liberating performances from it's two leading ladies. There are some questions to ask yourself if you’re having this dream, Loewenberg says. “What change is happening with them? Have they lost a job? Have they lost weight? Are they working a lot more and you never see them? How have they changed, or how has your relationship with them changed?”A fear of death is essentially a fear of the unknown, and it's natural to have some level of existential anxiety while thinking about the mysteries that lie ahead of us in life. But keep in mind that the meaning of dreaming of yourself dying doesn't necessarily equate to anything morbid. “ Dreams about dying can be really intense, but they are typically symbolic and not to be feared,” McRae says. “They’re often showing us something we’re unconsciously or consciously really invested in.” It is also essential to feel the feelings that come along with what is oftentimes a harrowing dream to wake up from. “Especially if you’re dreaming of your own death or if it’s of a loved one, you feel that fear and that grief,” says Loewenberg. “The emotions in the dream are very, very real. And so you wake up thinking, ‘Dear God, am I seeing the future?’ But you’re not. So don’t worry. Instead, just ask yourself, what change or ending is happening in my life right now?” Medic kisses Heavy on the head. Heavenly music sounds while the light focuses on Heavy as he rises in the air.

Death in dreams is really about some kind of change or ending you’re dealing with in your real life,” says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, professional dream analyst. “The subconscious will show us this change in the form of a death so we can better understand the finality of it. We can let go of that which we no longer need so we can grow and embrace that which is coming.” Death dreams can also be prompted by witnessing death in our waking lives, which is why you might have started having them during the pandemic. “We have to take into consideration that a lot of people have died recently — and that death anxiety is at an all-time high — when we begin to interpret our own death dreams,” Fourkiller explains. “They still could mean something specific, but they could also be reflective of the time and societal miasma we find ourselves surrounded with.” Plants and pets are things in your life that you spend time and effort nurturing. So Loewenberg explains that if your pet dies in a dream, it could signal that you’re forgetting to care about something else in your life. “So for any of these things that would be in our care that are dying, we must ask ourselves, What in my life am I neglecting? Plants tend to represent something that has the potential to grow. A dog can represent a relationship. A cat often represents a woman, either the reproductive self or the sexual self. Fish can represent creative ideas, your ideas that thrive in your creative juices.”This will likely mean that your relationship with your friend is changing, but Loewenberg says that if nothing is different, this dream could indicate something else. “Your friend is going to represent a part of yourself. How are you like your friend? What quality do you share? Maybe your friend is always cheerful and the one that’s always emotionally supportive and you dream she dies. What’s going on with that part of you? Have you become depressed? Are you in need of cheering up? Are you having a hard time finding happiness right now?” At the same time, we also study the human mind and consciousness in the context of death,” Dr. Parnia said, “to understand whether consciousness becomes annihilated or whether it continues after you’ve died for some period of time — and how that relates to what’s happening inside the brain in real time.” In previous work, Dr. Parnia has conducted animal studies looking at the moments before and after death. He’s also investigated near-death experiences. “Many times, those who have had such experiences talk about floating around the room and being aware of the medical team working on their body,” Dr. Parnia told Live Science. “They’ll describe watching doctors and nurses working and they’ll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them.” Below, Loewenberg and Fourkiller analyze all the reasons why you may be dreaming about death, from dreams about your own death to dreaming about a death due to COVID-19. Loewenberg says this is one of the most disturbing death dreams that anyone can have, but it’s much less scary than it seems. “It’s because your child has reached some sort of milestone, it’s the end of the phase of their life. Whenever they start crawling, start walking, start feeding themselves, all these different big phases of life mark the end of that younger child. It’s actually the way we kind of grieve — the loss of that phase of their life. Because once you have a child, time goes really, really fast.”