A man in his mid-sixties came to my clinic complaining about a recurring dream that had been troubling him for months.
Every night, he found himself stranded in an airport after losing his passport and identity card. He described a mixture of emotions: loneliness, helplessness and a heavy feeling in his chest.
He would wake up in a state of panic, his heart racing, unable to return to sleep. His question was simple: “How can I avoid having this dream?”
Many people believe that dreams contain hidden messages that can be decoded like a secret language. While psychology does not support most popular dream dictionaries, research suggests that our dreams often reflect our emotional concerns, unresolved conflicts and fears.
In other words, dreams may not predict the future, but they frequently tell us something about the present.
The airport in this man's dream is particularly interesting. Airports are transitional places that represent movement from one stage of life to another. For a man in his sixties, such transitions may include retirement, declining physical health, children leaving home, bereavement, or the realisation that time is becoming increasingly precious.
Losing a passport in that setting may symbolise a deeper fear — not merely of missing a flight, but of losing one's sense of identity, purpose, or direction.
Psychologists have long recognised the importance of identity in maintaining psychological well-being. Studies have shown that a strong sense of purpose is associated with better mental health, lower rates of depression, and even reduced mortality among older adults.
When individuals face major life changes, questions such as “Who am I now?” and “What role do I still play?” often emerge, sometimes outside of conscious awareness.
Research also suggests that between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of dreams contain elements linked to recent concerns and emotional experiences. Furthermore, stressful life events are associated with more frequent anxiety dreams and nightmares.
The brain does not switch off during sleep; rather, it continues processing emotions and memories. Some neuroscientists describe dreaming as a form of overnight emotional housekeeping.
When I explored the dream further with my patient, it became apparent that he had recently retired after more than three decades in the same profession. For much of his adult life, his occupation had been a central part of his identity.
Without realising it, he had been struggling with the transition from being someone defined by his work to someone searching for a new sense of meaning.
The solution, therefore, was not simply to stop the dream. It was to understand what the dream might be reflecting. We discussed ways of rebuilding purpose through volunteering, mentoring younger people, strengthening social connections and pursuing neglected interests. As his daytime anxieties diminished, the dream gradually became less frequent.
Perhaps the lesson is that recurring dreams are not always problems to be eliminated. Sometimes they are invitations to reflect. When the mind repeatedly presents us with the same unsettling image, it may be asking a question we have been avoiding while awake.
In this patient's case, the real fear was not losing a passport. It was losing a sense of who he was. And like many journeys in life, the first step was not finding the document — it was rediscovering the person carrying it.
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