What research shows
Extremely common, and shows no relationship to the likelihood of contact resuming.
People · one of the most reported
Dreaming about an ex-partner
Unfinished business, not necessarily with them.
The psychological reading
Usually about the version of yourself you were in that relationship rather than the person. What the dream returns to is often the thing that was never said.
What tradition claimed
Read as a message being sent, or as the person thinking of you.
Included as cultural history. Traditional dream books are frequently ominous and have no predictive value.
Measured, not guessed
How many people have this dream
24%
have reported this dream at least once
Roughly
about 1 in 4
Rank among common dreams
well known but not top-tier
Dreams about a partner or ex correlate with next-day relationship behaviour — conflict dreams predicted more conflict the following day.
Source: Selterman et al., Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2014.
Figures come from the Typical Dreams Questionnaire, the standard instrument in dream research since 1958. Dream dictionaries almost never cite a number for how common a dream actually is — the research exists, it just does not get quoted.
The version matters
Different ways this dream shows up
Most dream dictionaries give one meaning for the whole symbol. In practice the specific version carries most of the information — losing every tooth and losing one tooth are not the same dream.
A friendly encounter
Often read as closure, or as reconciling with the version of yourself from that time.
Getting back together
Rarely predictive. More often about missing a quality the relationship had rather than the person.
An argument
Unsaid things. The dream supplies the conversation that did not happen.
Them with someone else
Usually about your own self-worth rather than about them.
An ex you barely think about
The most puzzling version, and usually the least about them — they are standing in for a period of life.
How to record a dream, why the feeling matters more than the content, and when recurring nightmares are worth a doctor rather than a dictionary — set out once on the main page.
Before you look anything up
How the dream felt matters more than what was in it. The same image can arrive as comfort or as threat, and that difference tells you more than any entry in a dictionary — including this one.
Measured prevalence · 11 of 28 symbols have published data
Where this ranks
24%
of people report having had this dream.
9/11
by prevalence among the symbols with measured data.
-15
points against the median of 39% across measured symbols.