The meaning of a dream about bed bugs

Bed bugs are disgusting insects and parasites that invade our beds or couches.

Not only do they look nasty, but they can also cause disease and smell pretty bad. They feed on human blood and can cause really itchy bites or welts. They irritate the skin. If you are allergic to the saliva of these bed bugs, you might even get such a bad reaction that you’d have to take a trip to the hospital. No wonder, for most people, having a dream about bed bugs can be disturbing.

It’s safe to say that bed bugs, even in a dream, are bad news. These tiny parasites are also very sneaky because of their small size. They can hide in the creases and edges of bedding. You often only figure out that they are on your bed or in your sheets when it’s too late—they’ve already bitten you, you already have welts, and you feel like a mess.

Dreams about bed bugs, not surprisingly, often carry an unpleasant message. Your subconscious is using this almost universally bad sign in your dream as a warning regarding realities and issues that your conscious mind may be overlooking.

Maybe you’re in denial about certain things happening in your relationships, as well as your personal and professional life, and the dream image of a bed bug may be enough to wake you up to these issues.

Regardless, these dreams can serve as a warning sign to help us to pay closer attention to our life—health issues or health problems, financial troubles, enemies, or new worries in general about the future.

We may feel bad after having bed bug dreams, but we just have to take it with a grain of salt.

These types of dreams don’t necessarily have a one-to-one correlation with reality. Just because you have a dream about bed bugs doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to start looking through your sheets and bedding with a magnifying glass looking for these tiny critters.

Look close to home when you see such a dream. Pay attention to the things that you’re doing, like choices that you made recently. You probably would have a more productive time if you did that.

The General Dream Meaning and Symbolism Bed Bugs Represent

Generally speaking, dreams about bed bugs symbolically represent current realities.

These realities don’t necessarily mean things that have already played out. They don’t necessarily refer to events that are currently happening. Instead, they can shine a light on your thoughts, feelings, and anxieties about things that are about to come through or, at least, you think are about to happen.

This dream means you are bothered about something. You’re not exactly settled. Maybe you’re feeling restless and worried. And before it all comes together in the form of anxiety, your mind sends you this sign in the form of a dream.

Bed Bug Problems in Reality

Bed bugs can be a cause of anxiety, irritation, and other negative feelings because they can crawl on your skin and bite. When they bite you, you may have a reaction to their saliva, and you can develop welts. Not only are these itchy, but they can bleed and run.

A lot of people have bad experiences with bed bug infestations because they’re disgusted with the sensation of bugs crawling on their skin. They get the feeling that they’re trapped. It feels like they’re being overrun, especially when there’s a lot of bugs.

Also, when you are under sheets, and you suddenly feel these bugs on your skin, you can’t help but panic. It’s as if you’re underwater, and you have to surface abruptly. You basically have to pull the sheets around you, and it can create a sense of panic.

Bed bugs are usually caused by a lack of good hygiene and poor or dirty surroundings. Now, this is a problem.

A lot of the time, the reason why you’re confronted with bed bugs, in reality, is failings on your part. Either you don’t clean your sheets, or—if you live in a dirty area—you didn’t make sure that your own personal interior space is properly taken care of.

In other words, you dropped the ball because this is your responsibility. You can’t just say that it’s the landlord’s problem that there is a bed bug infestation because, usually, bed bugs don’t go from one room to another unless these rooms are equally dirty. I hope you understand where this is leading.

A Dream About Bed Bugs Can Be Triggered by Lack of Personal Accountability

Sometimes, a dream about bed bugs can be speaking to your lack of responsibility for the bad things happening to you.

Let’s get one thing clear: it’s very easy to think that things happen to you. I understand that. Everybody shares this impression because there are a lot of things in the world that we can’t control. When all these bad things come to us, we feel that we’re the victim. It’s as if we’re just unlucky.

But the truth is that we find ourselves in certain situations regarding certain topics in our lives because of the things that we allow ourselves to suffer. This is harsh to say, and it definitely is unpleasant to listen to, but it’s also true.

Certain things only occur when you make a decision, and it causes all these things to take place.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you willfully wanted to suffer, but the way you react to things may create circumstances that put you in a negative situation.

So when you see yourself suffering from a bed bug infestation, it highlights the fact that whatever troubles you may have now is a consequence of certain decisions you’ve made. If you take ownership of that decision, then you will go a long way in “disinfecting” or even “exterminating” a lot of the problems.

You’ve taken ownership. You’re not pointing the finger at your parents. You’re not blaming your bully of a boss. You are not agonizing over the emotional abuse of your first boyfriend or girlfriend. You’re not doing any of that.

Instead, you say to yourself, “well, I may not be the cause, but how I react to my decisions can either make my problems get bigger, or it can start the process of me overcoming my issues. How do I decide?”

It’s this moment of clarity that bedbugs can bring to the table—either in your dream or during your waking hours.

Hey, let’s face it: if you have just started drifting off to sleep and you feel really relaxed, and all of a sudden, you get this nasty sensation that you have these tiny critters crawling over the side of your face, all over your chest, maybe even up your butt crack, and all over your body, you can’t help but sit up and pay attention.

In this regard, bed bug dreams actually share a resemblance with dreaming of someone holding you down meaning.

The fact that they often take place because of bad hygiene puts the ownness on you—not your parents, not your crappy childhood, not the fact that you didn’t have much growing up—none of that.

It all boils down to what you are doing now that creates conditions that lead to you feeling disappointed, less than happy, or frustrated.

Dream About Bed Bugs Meaning and Symbolism

Dreaming of bed bugs in your bed means that something unpleasant is coming.

The good news is that, in your dream, they’re in your bed. It’s something that you can control. It’s something that you can make decisions on.

Usually, the dream image of bed bugs crawling in your bed can be a message of an event that is about to take place in your real life. This is your subconscious picking up certain signals that your waking mind or conscious mind may be dull to or is obviously trying to ignore.

Dreaming about bedbugs can also mean that you have an inner issue that you want to solve. It can be that you’re feeling dirty because you did something wrong in the past, or you hurt somebody.

It can also be a message that you have to own up to your mistakes. Maybe you’re the type of person who never runs out of “bad people,” “greedy people,” or “envious people” they consider as enemies and blame for whatever trouble they find themselves in because of their bad choices.

Seeing bed bugs repeatedly—and when it makes you feel uncomfortable in your dreams—means that now is the time to become an adult. Now is the time to take ownership of the consequences of your decisions and stop blaming other people and start living the kind of happy, content, and long life you feel you deserve.

What Does It Mean When You Kill Bed Bugs in Your Dream?

To dream of killing or wanting to kill bed bugs is a good sign. It means that you’re waking up to the fact that your decisions in the here and now have a lot more to do with the quality of your life. This is a sure sign of emotional and psychological maturity as a person.

You are now less likely to point the finger or desire that some sort of “personal savior” will lift you out of your issues. Instead, you’ve realized that you are in the situation that you’re in because of your choice.

And just as you can make those choices to produce certain consequences, you can make other choices to produce different results. Your dreadful and tiring navigation, search, or hunt for “redemption” is coming to an end, not because of other people but because of your own decision to work for it.

Killing bed bugs means facing your fears, overcoming your disappointments, and wanting to undo bad choices and make better ones so that you can be more successful in the future. It is also a good sign of personal rebirth and a rising sense of personal responsibility and consciousness.

To kill bedbugs can be a sign that a period of wallowing in bad decisions and allowing your disappointment to overcome you or even define you is about to end. You’re sick and tired of it.

Now, you’re basically choosing to be an adult and realize that your decisions have an impact on the reality you live. Now, you’ve decided to make better choices and rid yourself of the worries and guilty conscience.

What Does It Mean to Dream of a Bed Bug Sucking Your Blood?

This type of dream image has a very troubling image and meaning, and it relates to the sense of powerlessness you feel when you keep blaming other people or unpredictable circumstances beyond your control for the state of your life.

You can be unhappy about a wide range of things.

Maybe you think that your marriage or relationship sucks. Maybe you’re not making as much money as you think you should be making. Maybe your children don’t respect you. Maybe you have a tough time seeing eye-to-eye with your parents. Maybe your friends have issues with you.

Whatever the case may be, when you see the image of a big bed bug sucking your blood, you have this feeling that the real issue is in somebody’s hands, and you’re worried that there’s nothing you can do to get rid of your troubles.

Maybe your parents didn’t treat you right when you were a kid, or you even felt abused. Maybe you didn’t have enough money growing up. Maybe you married the wrong person, and now, this person has locked you in this prison of a marriage, and you feel that you can’t get out and live up to your fullest potential. Maybe you feel that you had the wrong kids, and these are just basically young devils and demons that exist solely to torment you.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

When you dream of insects sucking your blood, as much as your slap them or try to crush them, they will keep sucking your blood, and your energy continues to drain. It is a very discouraging and depressing image.

It also reflects an unwillingness to take responsibility for the choices that led you to where you are in your life.

When you say, “I chose this bug to suck my blood, and now, I’m going to choose to destroy it,” it is the moment you take ownership of your life.

But if you notice that your emotional response in your dream is to just frantically try to crush them with no explanation or no clear understanding of what you’re doing, it’s no surprise that more bugs appear. And then more bugs after them.

It is a terrifying dream vision because it highlights the fact that you don’t have much of a say in your life because you have robbed yourself of the ability to take control of your life.

Oftentimes, it takes just one simple statement that you have to fully believe: “I caused all this. I chose to live like this. Now, I choose to live differently.”

Dreaming About a Bed Bug Crawling Under Your Skin

When you see this dream imagery, it means that someone or something is annoying you. Now, it’s easy to just turn these people into caricatures of the enemy or just pests out to torment you.

In reality, everybody starts out as neither angel nor devil. It’s how we evolve through our relationships and our coping mechanisms that make somebody either a problem or a solution.

When you keep seeing these bed bugs in your dream—crawling under your skin, irritating you, and possibly biting you—you are obviously seeing these people as nothing but annoyances. They’re a drain on you. They are some sort of parasite.

Be very careful. A lot of these people are actually your loved ones. Just because you have written somebody off in your life—although they’re still in your life—doesn’t mean that’s who they are.

For example, if you have a father and, in your mind, this person is a bully who may have physically abused you in the past and is nothing but a jerk. Don’t wait until he dies to wake up to the fact that the reason why you are able to go to school, why there was food on the table, and also why he was gone for long stretches of time is that he was sacrificing his life for his family.

When you see that, it’s too late. You see that his main love language was to sacrifice his love and his time doing something that he probably hated so that his loved ones could live.

Unfortunately, a lot of people, especially daughters, focus on the emotional absence, and they read all of their negative thoughts, frustrations, and disappointments in the fact that their fathers were emotionally absent. Oftentimes, they discover late in life just how much their fathers loved them. But it’s too late; their old man had died and was buried a long time ago.

Don’t let that come to pass. Ultimately, when these people are in your life, and you have somehow reduced them to the image of crawling bed bugs, there’s something more going on.

All these negative emotions, frustrations, and disappointments that you feel are on you.

When you look at them for who they really are, and you’re completely honest about your relationship and the things that you have done and said to influence how things turned out, there’s a lot of blame to go around. It’s not a one-way street.

Once you start thinking along those lines, you start seeing people for who they really are—both good and bad, pluses and minuses. There’s no such thing as a perfect mother as much as there is a perfect father. We’re all flawed human beings that need to live with each other.

Once you get to that point, you see these people in your life as they are, and you are able to respect them and love them. Whatever they’re doing, which is still the same, starts having a different effect on you.

Dreaming About Bed Bugs Crawling on Your Body in Your Sleep

When you dream of bed bugs crawling on your body, you can’t help but feel helpless. This is a sign that there’s some sort of illness that’s coming on the horizon.

Generally speaking, this is some sort of mental or emotional illness. Depending on how pronounced the crawling sensation is, it can indicate the duration and severity of the illness.

Make no mistake; depression and anxiety are mental illnesses. The only difference, really, is severity.

Dreaming About Being Bitten by a Bed Bug

When you see a bed bug bite you, and it’s sunny out and the bed it crisp and clean—it’s not sucking, it’s not hanging on—it’s just a bite like it sucked blood, and then you’re able to smack it or get rid of it, this can mean a favorable thing.

It may be some sort of favorable proposal with regard to your business. It can also mean a raise or a promotion. It can also mean that a lot of your issues when it comes to your love life are about to be clarified and, eventually, resolved.

It can also mean that the person that you share your love life with is going to be leveling up in their life. Maybe they’re up for a promotion, or they’re moving the family to better pastures.

Whatever the case may be, something good is in the offing.

The Final Word When You Dream About Bed Bugs

There are more interesting articles about pest-like animals or insects in dreams—like the Biblical meaning of frogs in dreams—but like dreaming about bed bugs, these all involve your personal emotional state.

When you experience such a dream, pay careful attention to your assumptions about yourself and the people that you care about the most.

Sometimes, a dream about bed bugs, as disgusting as that imagery may be, may be waking you up to deep and profound truths about yourself that, when resolved, can lead to a better place emotionally, financially, and relationally.

Dream Example #1

I once saw a dream about bed bugs. It was a couple of months ago where I woke up with all the sheets ripped off the mattress.

I got out of bed, and there were bugs all over the floor. My bed was infested with bedbugs.

I tried to sleep in the living room and the couch, but they would start crawling on me and biting me every time I fell asleep.

I tried to wash them off, but they would crawl back onto me.

There were bugs on top of all my clothes, which made me nervous because I didn’t know if they’d come off. We put all our clothes in garbage bags and put them outside for a few days.

I then realized they were on my bed. I went into panic mode and started washing everything in hot water. I immediately got rid of the mattress.

These huge bedbugs attacked me whenever I tried to sleep. They were as big as my hands and legs and just kept attacking me everywhere.

There were so many bugs that it felt like the room was full of them. I couldn’t get them off of me; they were crawling all over my arms, legs, neck, and face.

Whenever I tried to pull one-off, three more would come upon its place. They bit me everywhere, and I kept scratching myself the whole time.

The bedbugs had already made their way onto the floor and walls as well as to my clothing and belongings nearby. I tried to get them off of me, but they were too much, so I gave up trying because it was pointless.

Every time I closed my eyes or turned off the lights, they would start to move fast.

I was in my bedroom looking at the bed, and I thought I saw a few bugs on it. I got close to the bed and realized that there were so many bugs everywhere.

They were all over my room- behind furniture, on top of the ceiling fan above me, crawling up from the carpeted floor.

They were always trying to attack me because I could see their mouths open with sharp teeth.

Whenever I tried to run to the other room, they would be there waiting for me. I tried to call my dad’s friend to help me, but he couldn’t hear me.

The bedbugs kept flying around the room. They kept attacking me suddenly; one swooped down and bit me right in my throat.

I was in so much pain, and there seemed to be more and more bedbugs. The bed bugs were crawling over me, biting me everywhere every single minute.

It was so painful that I just laid there in bed while they bit me to death. I lay there in a huge puddle of my own blood, feeling every single bite and scratch from their tiny teeth.

It was so painful that it felt like they were eating my flesh right off of me.