What It Really Means When You Dream About Cheating

You're in a happy, committed relationship. But just last night you dreamed you were with someone else having the time of your life between the sheets. The thought that you might have willingly cheated on your significant other may have been more than a bit upsetting — because it's something you'd never do. But do those particular dreams have meanings, and what might those meanings be?

Dream Moods says sometimes cheating your significant other in a dream can be a warning that you might have compromised your convictions or your own value system in some way. The cheating dream might not have been triggered specifically by you going behind your partner's back, but by more general situations where you might have been dishonest. The site also says that if your cheating dream involved someone you know like a supervisor or friend, that person may have a quality or characteristic that you want to have or need to accept in yourself.

Dream expert Lauri Loewenberg says one reason behind a cheating dream could be that you're taking too time and attention away from your significant other and into something else. "Do you sometimes work too much or find yourself going on and on about work, much to your boyfriend's dismay?" Loewenberg asks (via Glamour). "The fact that you are getting these dreams means you are aware and sensitive to something that is causing your boyfriend to feel left out, or something that is causing him to feel 'cheated' out of his time with you."

Unless something is really bothering you, experts say it's ok to chill and let your cheating dream go. "You don't need to feel guilty about what you think about, especially when it's unconscious during sleep," Jessa Zimmerman, a sex therapist says (via Refinery 29). "We don't know where dreams come from or what purpose they serve, so we can't attribute ill intent." So while our dreams can be considered an early warning device, they could also work the same way some of our daydreams do, and act as a happy fantasy or diversion for our sleeping minds to entertain itself with.