\n<\/p>\n
M<\/span>y teeth have fallen out at fancy dinners and in public restrooms. They\u2019ve sprinkled from my mouth like enamel confetti before dates, important business meetings and major public speaking engagements. Each time, it\u2019s troubling, stressful and deeply inconvenient. Fortunately, it\u2019s only ever happened in my dreams.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people have that dream,\u201d says Dr Dylan Selterman, associate teaching professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University. People often tell Selterman they think it\u2019s weird that they have this kind of dream, or assume it says something about their personality. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Dreams of teeth falling out occur \u201cacross cultures\u201d, says Melinda Powell, co-founder of the Dream Research Institute in London, and author of The Hidden Lives of Dreams. Research suggests that 40% of the adult population will have had one such dream over the course of their lives, she says.<\/p>\n Why do so many of us dream about our teeth falling out? And what could it mean? We asked experts.<\/p>\n \u201cDreams are any kind of mental activity that we are aware of while we\u2019re sleeping,\u201d says Selterman.<\/p>\n These could present as a series of fleeting images, or full mental movies with plot and characters.<\/p>\n But nobody\u2019s entirely sure why we dream.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are good ideas, but nothing conclusive,\u201d says Selterman. \u201cDreams are still an unsolved mystery of science.\u201d<\/p>\n On one extreme, he says, is the idea that dreams are a kind of wish fulfilment \u2013 a way for our unconscious desires to express themselves. (Selterman\u2019s view of this theory: \u201cThat\u2019s crazy.\u201d) On the other extreme, he says, is the idea that dreams are \u201cnonsensical junk\u201d, the result of random neurons firing while we sleep.<\/p>\n Selterman says he tends to subscribe to the \u201ccontinuity theory\u201d of dreams, which suggests they help us prepare for future situations and consolidate information based on what we have already experienced.<\/p>\n Dr Kelly Bulkeley, director of the Sleep and Dream Database, sees dreams similarly. He describes dreaming as a sort of imaginative play. \u201cWhen we go to sleep, we detach from the external world, and our minds and imaginations are free and liberated to process the experiences we\u2019ve had during the day, connect them with past experiences, and get ready for what\u2019s coming,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Powell, who worked for 12 years as a psychotherapist, says that from a therapeutic perspective, \u201cdreams help us process our emotions by mirroring back to us our inner state.\u201d<\/p>\n But what does any of that have to do with teeth?<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n There hasn\u2019t been much research done on the topic, Selterman says, and what\u2019s out there isn\u2019t terribly strong. Many of the studies have been based on surveys, which can be inaccurate, Selterman says. People tend to overestimate or underestimate the prevalence of their dreams, and many don\u2019t remember their dreams with great accuracy. \u201cYou\u2019re asking people to reflect on something they\u2019re not really paying attention to in their day-to-day lives,\u201d he says. This makes accurate data difficult to gather.<\/p>\n Still, theories abound.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could reflect some kind of underlying apprehensiveness, or it could reflect something about the way in which we think about our appearance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n (Indeed, when I was in high school and asked a friend what they thought teeth falling out dreams meant, she said: \u201cI heard they mean you think you\u2019re ugly.\u201d I didn\u2019t mention having them again after that.)<\/p>\n Another theory is that teeth symbolize change, says Bulkeley. There are generally two times in a person\u2019s life when their teeth fall out, he explains: when we lose our baby teeth, and when we are very old and our adult teeth fall out. This makes teeth \u201ca very vivid marker of ageing and growing\u201d, he says; as a result, dreaming about teeth falling out could point to an \u201cexperience of growth, maturation, or decline\u201d.<\/p>\n A person\u2019s teeth might also fall out when they\u2019re not receiving adequate nutrition, notes Powell. \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to pay attention to this type of dream, as we are being urged to consider what is out of balance in our lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n People might have dreams about their teeth falling out when they are overwhelmed or depleted, Powell says. Sure enough, I have had these dreams most frequently when I was studying for exams or applying to jobs.<\/p>\n Dreams of dental distress might then be considered a signal that one needs rest and nourishment. Powell recalls one instance, during a time of \u201cextreme burnout\u201d, when she dreamed she was haemorrhaging from her gum, and telling those around her that she needed a blood transfusion. When she woke, she was shaken, but realized that the \u201cinfusion\u201d she really needed \u201cwas one of rest and renewal\u201d.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t dreamed of my teeth falling out recently, and for that I\u2019m grateful. But next time I do, I\u2019ll know that I\u2019m burned out, or experiencing change, apprehensiveness, maturation, decline, or anxiety about my appearance. Finally, clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My teeth have fallen out at fancy dinners and in public restrooms. They\u2019ve sprinkled from my mouth like enamel confetti before dates, important business meetings and major public speaking engagements. Each time, it\u2019s troubling, stressful and deeply inconvenient. Fortunately, it\u2019s only ever happened in my dreams. \u201cA lot of people have that dream,\u201d says Dr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1140,4033,1956,516,2818,17471],"class_list":{"0":"post-29598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dream","9":"tag-falling","10":"tag-mystery","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-teeth","13":"tag-unsolved"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are dreams and why do we have them?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What do dreams of teeth falling out mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n