Understanding the meaning of the numbers in your dream is about pattern recognition and delving into their significance to you.
My grandfather used to say that the number 13 was lucky for him.
As related by my mother, he readily acknowledged how some people thought number 13 was bad luck. People also said that about black cats, too.
But, he said, “A person needs to make up their mind. A cat can’t help being black. Calling them “bad luck” just for that isn’t right.”
To him, the bias against 13 was nothing but superstition.
And, sometimes, when the number 13 comes up for you, it can be a good thing.
It turned out that way for him many times, according to her.
If he had been freaked out by the number 13, then he would have missed out on some good opportunities, real estate, and the rest.
Legend and speculation has it that the bad attitude toward number 13 started because there were 13 guests at the Last Supper. The thirteenth guest, Judas, betrayed Jesus.
From there, the bias against the number carried over into the hotel and construction industries where they wouldn’t construct a building with 13 floors, or they’d skip calling one of them the thirteenth floor.
When he stayed in a hotel, he never could find a thirteenth floor to stay on. That was a shame.
What about angel numbers? Lucky numbers?
Don’t bother with anything like “angel numbers.” While your guardian angel or your subconscious might use numbers to communicate with you, it certainly doesn’t mean what some person writing something like that off of the top of their head says it means.
That they may be lucky or have some other positive or negative connotation may be true for the person saying that. That doesn’t mean it will hold for you.
Naturally, like my grandfather, you might get to liking some numbers more than others if you’ve noticed a positive pattern. Or, perhaps, you feel dread because you’ve noticed a negative pattern. It helps make sense out of the noise, the constant stream of information that modern people contend with. If you see the number 13 (or whatever) recurring in your life and your dreams, it’s natural that you might develop a particular attachment to it the way my grandfather did.
When it comes to dream interpretation and numbers, what mostly matters is the symbolism you attach to them.
That’s the way your subconscious can speak to you.
When it comes to numbers, however, there’s an additional twist to the typical process of dream interpretation: numerical pattern recognition.
This is especially true for those with a mathematical and scientific bent when it comes to solving problems in those fields, according to Deirdre Barrett in The Committee of Sleep. However numerical patterns can appear in anyone’s dreams.
The Meaning of 0
None. Nothing. Empty. Infinity. Void.
Also, the end (as in a countdown).
If visualized in a dream, be sure it’s not referring to the letter “O.” There’s a big difference. Zero won’t always appear as an “O” with a line through it because it doesn’t uniformly appear like that in real life.
The Meaning of 1
Self. Alone. Singular.
Three Dog Night had a hit song about this: One Is the Loneliest Number.
If visualized in a dream, be sure it’s not referring to a lowercase “L.”
It could also be seen as an “I” on a numerical keyboard.
The Meaning of 2
In Western culture, this number can mean many different things, sometimes even contradictory. Like other dream meanings, it depends on the individual.
Two can mean a couple, a duality, coming up short, or a pair.
It can mean half or a division, as in “1/2.”
If seen, it can mean “Z.”
The Meaning of “3”
The Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit); Family (Mother, Father, Baby); Love Triangle (Choices as in this partner or that one, also: You love her, she loves him, he loves somebody else, you just can’t win).
It could also denote the concept of “crowd” as in “two’s company, three’s a crowd.”
It’s used in texting to make various symbols, too. <3 means “love,” as in I <3 U.
If you turn the numeral display over in texting on a numerical pad, the “3” makes an “E.”
The Meaning of “4”
When we get to the larger single digits, the meanings become harder to pin down. Four could denote stability, as most buildings have four sides to them. Some numerology sites note that four is a practical number.
It could also mean luck, as in “four-leaf clover.”
The Meaning of “5”
Five could denote health as it relates to five fingers and five toes. If you miss one of them, you’ll be less than complete.
The Meaning of “6”
Some numerology sites say that 6 is the number of homes and families. Not sure of the relationship there, but in Western culture, we talk about the “sixth sense” as a form of perception. Three sixes are seen as something evil, too, so some dreams could play off of that association.
The Meaning of “7”
Seven is often seen as lucky or referring to luck.
In texting on a numerical keyboard, turning the display over “7” makes an “L.”
The meaning of other numbers
The meaning of other digits can vary, depending on a person’s experience.
Numbers larger and much larger than these can have highly individual meanings.
Sometimes they can combine.
For example, the number 1000 means prosperity, happiness, and perfection to me.
Why? Well, once I won $1,000 in a drawing and that made me happy because the money came at a very useful time.
Furthermore, when a batter in baseball comes up to bat and gets a hit every time his batting average is 1.000.
It’s important not to be too literal trying to understand your dreams. 1.000 is not the same as “1” if we were doing math problems. We’re not, so 1.000 can mean the same thing as 1,000. It’s up to you to decide. The five can make an “S.” The nine sort of looks like a “G.”
When determining the meaning of a series of numbers in a dream, consider how they look on a calculator. For example, 7734 looks like “hell” when flipped upside down on a calculator.
There are other “tricks” when it comes to numbers, too. Sometimes you have to think back to math class. The fraction one-third when expressed as a decimal is 0.333… The threes repeat into infinity. Decimals can repeat in a variety of ways in dreams.
Some numerical variations to consider:
| Numerical pattern | Possible meaning |
| Odd numbers | Something “odd” or “strange.”
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| Even numbers | Leveling off, “getting even.”
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| Repeating numbers | Patterns, something without end, something that doesn’t quit.
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| Words or sentences with a numerical pattern | Consider this sentence: “I go off than dance.” The first word has one letter, the second, two, and so on. Chapter 9 of The Committee of Sleep covers a number of problem-solving dreams where the subconscious expressed numbers in them through sentences with an underlying numerical pattern.
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| Special numbers | There could be a number of unique, individual cases of this where the number is special. For example, a “pie” appears as the number 3.14 or vice-versa. Other personal, special numbers could be an old house number, a phone number, the numbers on a license plate, an identification card, or something else like that.
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Dreams can be a puzzle, and that’s definitely true when it comes to dreams with numbers.
Look for possible ties between your waking life and the particular numbers that appeared in your dream. Consider mathematical symbolism, too.
Have you had any numbers come up in a dream? Were you able to understand what they meant, what your subconscious was trying to communicate?
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James Cobb, RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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