A dream in which you are lying sunning yourself on an idyllic beach with rolling sand, gentle waves and warm tropical sunshine may represent simple wish-fulfillment and a longing to escape the daily grind of your routine and responsibilities. Another interpretation, the Freudian one, suggests that events on dream beaches can highlight your anxieties. For example, dreams of burying any authority figure in the sand may be symbolic of the Oedipal murder of the father figure, whilst castration may be represented by tall sand castles being washed away by the incoming tide of the feminine or maternal sea.
If you dreamed of taking a dip in the sea, pay attention to how you felt.
Beaches are places where water meets the earth, or, in symbolic terms, where the unconscious meets the rational mind.
If you dream of emerging from the water, for example, this may signal an end of a period of emotional conflict in your waking life. Do you feel emotionally stronger or emotionally battered by the experience? If you stayed on the shore, do you prefer to remain on the firmness of land and reason, rather than venturing into the perilous depths of the sea or the unconscious mind? Bathing whilst on holiday lends itself to a Freudian interpretation as a dream symbol of birth or of the desire to return to the mother’s womb.
If the sea washed away your footprints in the sand in your dream, is there something in your past from which you wish to move away so you can make a fresh start? If the sand in your dream starts to shift so you lose your footing, could this mirror a concern that the foundations of your life are about to give way? Holiday dreams can often contain romantic scenes in an arbor or other sheltered retreat such as a cave. Such dreams can suggest a longing for romance but they can also suggest frustration with aspects of your current relationship or love life, as well as a need for adventure and freedom of responsibility from daily chores.
If you dream of a holiday from hell in which you are given poor accommodation, are double booked or experience terrible weather or food, such a dream can warn against over idealism. It also suggests that negative thinking and pessimism will destroy the quality of your life if you allow them to continue. In dreams, desert islands may be symbols of loss or a general sense of emotional insecurity. Alternatively, they may also express a yearning for solitude, clarity, simplicity and time alone to reflect and work out your priorities.
[1]