Dreaming About Nails

Nail dreams come in close. Dreamers rarely describe a scene, they describe a hand held up in front of them: nails too long, split, coming away, or growing while they watch. The traditional reading attaches nails to grooming and self-maintenance, the small upkeep by which somebody signals they are coping, and the interpretation tends to follow whatever the nails were doing rather than the room they were in.

Growing, breaking, falling

• Nails growing unnaturally fast. Usually read as something in the dreamer's life getting away from them.
• One nail splitting or tearing. Linked to a small setback that stings out of all proportion to its size.
• Nails coming off entirely. Handled like the teeth dream, as a worry about appearance and composure rather than as anything physical.
• Cutting them carefully. One of the few tidy images here, generally taken as deliberate trimming back.
• Painted or immaculate nails. Associated with presentation and with wanting to be seen as on top of things.

The teeth dream next door, and a caution

People who dream of their nails falling out very often dream of their teeth as well, and the pair belongs together. Both involve a visible part of the body coming loose without pain, and both leave behind a faintly ridiculous horror on waking. Both also have plain explanations available before any symbol is needed. A nail broken earlier in the week, a habit of biting them, or a knock to the hand will feed straight into the night's material.

No dream reports on anybody's health, and this one carries no information about your body whatever an old book may claim for it. If something about your nails is worrying you while awake, that belongs with someone qualified to look at them and not with a dictionary. As for the reading itself, begin from what nails mean to you. A dreamer whose work keeps their hands rough and cut short meets this image on completely different ground from one who sits for an hour every fortnight having them done.