I'm a 21-year-old woman. Until recently, I had never had a sex dream. Then I had my first one, but it was about a woman. I have a boyfriend who I've been with for over a year, and I have never had any sexual encounters with another woman. Since this dream, I've begun to question my sexuality. Could such dreams mean that I'm lesbian?
Dreams don't necessarily reflect your waking life. People have all kinds of dreams — even all kinds of sexy dreams.
Sometimes dreams may reflect something a person wants to do in their waking life — like have sex with a certain person of the same or other gender, kiss someone, try S&M, have oral sex, experiment with sex toys, have an affair or get married. Other times, dreams don't reflect a person's desires at all.
We can't control our dreams, and they don't necessarily reflect what you want or feel in a literal sense. Maybe it just means that you want closeness with your friend, or you enjoy spending time with her, or maybe it has nothing to do with her at all.
It could be that your body was feeling aroused at the time — men and women both show genital arousal at regular intervals during sleep. Maybe it was just coincidence that as your body was peaking sexually during the night, the image it latched on to was your friend.
As for your dreams and questioning your sexual orientation, I can certainly understand your curiosity but would urge you to consider how you feel.
Are you sexually attracted to women in waking life? Can you imagine dating a woman, or creating a romantic partnership with a woman? If yes to any of these, perhaps you are indeed "into" women in some way and may one day identify as bisexual or lesbian.
This is not to say that you need a label — many people just take what attractions and interests come their way without identifying themselves one way or the other. Research frequently finds people's sexual attractions, behaviors and identities don't always line up neatly.
If you're not interested in women in waking life, then perhaps you're a straight woman who sometimes dreams about women. Many women dream about women, and many men dream about men, even though they identify as heterosexual. In addition, many people who identify as gay dream about people of another gender.
Dreams don't have to change who you are and what kind of partner you want while you're awake. It's something we don't talk much about, probably because our culture tiptoes around talking about sex — but many people have sexual dreams about people they don't want to have sex with in waking life.
Similarly, sometimes you might have a dream about having sex with a man — maybe a professor, someone you work with, a guy in one of your classes or even a family member. It doesn't mean you want to have sex with that person, either. Dreams are just dreams.
If you're interested in learning more about dreams, a great academic book is "Working with Dreams in Psychotherapy," by Clara Hill. She's a professor of psychology and takes the perspective that dreams may have personal meanings for us, but that the dreamer himself or herself best understands them — and what you see in your dreams isn't necessarily a literal translation of your wishes.
Even though the book sounds like it's only meant for psychologists, it's a good read for lay people too!
Kinsey Confidential is part of a joint partnership between the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington (IU SPH) and The Kinsey Institute. The column is written by Dr. Debby Herbenick, professor in the IU SPH. Read past Q&A or submit your own question at KinseyConfidential.org. Follow us on Twitter @KinseyCon.
