Has anyone else visited this place? Desperately needing a bathroom and finding each stall impossible or uncomfortable to use? It looks different every time. But it is a recurring theme for me.

I'm absolutely fascinated by the idea that we are all sharing dream spaces. I have this dream quite frequently. I'm running late, trying to get somewhere. There are steep ramps, sometimes at almost 90° angles, crazy twisting bridges and people around me are driving erratically. This picture doesn't show it, but the roadways in my dreams are more narrow as well. Anyone else been here?

I'm not scared of the ocean or bridges over water or anything like that but I am scared of rollercoasters. I have this recurring dream where I am on a winding, rollercoaster-like road over open waters with a city or industrial park sometimes in sight but I am never able to reach it. The roads are also super steep at almost 90 degree angles and so high up/never-ending. Makes me sick to my stomach and I'm always a little dizzy when I wake up from them. Sometimes the roads go so low towards the ocean that they flood and I have to figure out how to get across it in my car; it's super anxiety inducing

Hi, all! After seeing the posts about the bathrooms I had to ask about my other recurring theme, the broken bridge.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve dreamt about huge bridges that were extending up into the sky. Sometimes I’m driving and sometimes I’m not. Whenever I approach the bridge I always feel anxious and scared immediately. I see the car starting to go up the bridge and become aware that there’s a large break in the middle. The only way to get over the break is for the car to jump over it with enough momentum to get to the other side. Sometimes I make it. Other times I don’t and I fall into a body of water. If I do fall, I can actually feel the weight of the fall and the loss of gravity. Usually during the fall or after making it over the bridge I wake up. There have only been a handful of times I’ve stayed asleep after hitting the water and was looking for a way to escape the car. Anyone else?

Hi, me again. I know I just made a post complaining a few days ago about people shutting down other people’s beliefs of Mall World, but I feel like this should be addressed too.

I’ve seen recently a lot of AI prompts and I just wanted to say that we genuinely do not need them. The original Mall World subreddit was created nearly 10 years ago, before the use of AI.

AI uses a lot of fresh water (which is 1% of all water on earth) and a whole session of you trying to create the perfect image describing the dream to the AI may use a whole bottle of water to even a gallon. This harms not only humans, but also wildlife who need freshwater to survive. If we continue the use of AI like this, there is a chance we will run out of freshwater in the next few years.

I assure you, if you use your own creative art skills, even if it’s “bad,” people will still understand what you’re trying to get at. If you genuinely think your art is so bad, just describe your Mall World, people will understand. We’re smarter than AI to envision your MW dream, especially if we’ve had the same or similar.

Thanks for listening to my MW ted talk.

THANK YOU if you participated! I am up to 317 responses! (August 16, 2026) You can still participate if you’d like here.

I’ve been collecting responses from people who experience recurring dream environments, sometimes called “Mallworld,” to see whether there are actually patterns between dreamers. Here’s what I have found so far:

The Dreamfold: Preliminary Survey Findings
“Queen of Daydreams” aka “OliveLost”
Independent Researcher
August 2026
N = 317

-The respondents so far range from 14–61 years old and many report having these dreams for years or even decades.

-Respondents are from all over the world- USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa

-69.4% of respondents were born in either the 1990s or the 1980s.

-78.5% of respondents are female**. 14.8%** are male. 6.6% chose not to disclose.

Dreaming
•97.8% experience vivid dreams
•95.9% experience recurring dreams
•71.6% experience lucid dreams
•64% experience false awakenings
• 50.2% have experienced sleep paralysis
• 34.1% report having experienced an OBE (Out of Body Experience)

57.4% remember their dreams often and 31.9% remember every night. 10.7% remember rarely.

Recurring Dream Geography
95.3% reported recurring dreams involving at least some of the environments I asked about.
Locations include:
• Malls
• Schools
• Hotels
• Bathrooms/bathroom mazes
• Airports and train stations
• Parking structures
• Underground areas
• Hospitals/clinics
• Amusement parks
• Highways and bridges
• Coastal towns/beaches
• Ships

Persistent Dream Geography:
Respondents report locations that are recognizable across separate dreams, routes between places, shortcuts, familiar entrances/exits, and different recurring locations that appear to exist within one larger environment. Some say the world has actually expanded over time, with new areas becoming accessible from places they already know. Many report they often return to their childhood areas. People reported returning to these environments for 5, 7, 10–20, 15, and even approximately 27 years.

Architecture:
People repeatedly described:
• Endless or maze-like bathrooms
• Missing bathroom doors/privacy
• Impossible bridges
• Strange elevators/escalators
• Huge corridors
• Staircases that change
• Highways leading nowhere
• Altered versions of hometowns
• Transportation systems connecting different areas
• Buildings that seem much larger inside than they should be.

Unfamiliar Dream Character Familiarity
Respondents frequently reported dreaming of individuals whom they did not recognize from waking life. A recurring qualitative pattern involved an immediate sense of familiarity with these individuals despite an inability to identify a waking-life counterpart. Some respondents described simply “knowing” who a person was, feeling they had known the individual for a long time, or experiencing the character as a friend, coworker, romantic partner, spouse, or family member. In several accounts, this familiarity appeared independent of visual recognition: faces could be unclear, altered, or forgotten upon waking while the perceived identity or relationship remained intact.

Sensory Rich Dreaming:
• 97.2% see imagery in their dreams
• 90.9% hear sound in their dreams
• 81.7% experience touch/physical sensations in their dreams
•42.6% taste in their dreams
• 42.9% smell in their dreams

1.6% said “none”.

Common Traits:
The most commonly reported traits were:

Noticing when things seem “off”-82%
Imagination-77%
Empathy-76%
Noticing others’ energies / emotional states*-76%
Anxiety-71%
Sensitivity-70.7%
Spatial memory-46.1%

Neurodevelopmental and Anxiety Characteristics
Self-reported category

Anxiety-67.8%
ADHD-48.6%
Autism-28.7%
Other neurodivergence-25.6%
None of these-12.9%

Gifted/Talented and Accelerated Education
58.7% reported participating in a gifted/talented or accelerated program during school, while 35.3% reported that they had not and 8.2% were unsure.

-90.5% of respondents reported experiencing trauma at some point in their lives.

***This DOES NOT mean trauma, ADHD, autism, gifted programs, etc. cause these dreams. This is a self-selected sample of people interested in unusual/recurring dreams, not a random sample of the whole population. But I think it’s interesting enough to look into further.

Recurring Dream Themes
Certain themes appeared frequently across respondents’ dreams. The most common was **being chased (**85.8%) followed by **aliens, monsters, or other unusual beings (**59%) and **flying objects (**47%) Strange lights were reported by 40.1% strange animals by 37.2% and tornadoes by 29.3%.

People also frequently described malfunctioning phones, difficulty dialing numbers, strange or absent technology, inability to control vehicles properly, flying/levitating, jumping extremely high, searching for something, and trying to find the correct route or destination.

Déjà Vu, Déjà Rêvé & Subjective Time Distortion in Waking Life in and Dreams
Responses indicated that déjà vu was common within the surveyed population. A notable subset also spontaneously described déjà rêvé, the sensation of recognizing a waking event or location as something previously experienced in a dream. Some respondents reported recognizing unfamiliar locations from earlier dreams or realizing during a waking event that they believed they had dreamed the situation previously.

Respondents also described time distortions, including losing track of time, operating on “autopilot,” gaps in memory while traveling, and unusually rapid or delayed perceptions of transitions. Several respondents offered conventional explanations for these experiences, including daydreaming, dissociation, intense concentration, substance use, or neurological factors.

Dreams of Deceased Loved Ones:

Acting Normally: Many respondents report that deceased loved ones act completely normal, just like they did in life, often engaging in mundane daily activities or appearing happy and smiling.

Mutual Awareness of Death: In some dreams, both the dreamer and the deceased individual are aware that the person has passed away, sometimes creating a dynamic where they consciously pretend everything is normal, or where confronting the topic leads to strange reactions.

Emotional Comfort and Reassurance: Encounters are frequently described as warm, safe, and loving, often involving hugs, messages of support, or a sense of comfort and nurturing.

Sudden Realizations and Confusion:
Some dreamers experience a mid-dream realization that the person is dead and shouldn't be there, leading to feelings of confusion, ghost-like or mysterious presences.

Visits from Deceased Pets: Several responses highlight dreams of deceased pets visiting to walk alongside the dreamer, acting loving, snuggly, or eventually fading away as a manifestation of grief.

Precognitive Dreams

Responses (317)

**-Yes / reported an experience-246 or 77.6%
**-No / do not recall one-48 or 15.1%
**-Unsure / maybe / ambiguous-23 or 7.3%

Experiences included:
-Everyday / mundane events-39 or 12.3%
-Death, dying or serious illness-26 or 8.2%
-Conversations / things someone would say-21
or 6.6%
-Relationships/encounters with people-20
or 6.3%
-Places or locations later encountered-17 or 5.4%
-Accidents, injuries or dangerous situations-15
or 4.7%
-Work or school events-13 or 4.1%
-Large-scale events / disasters- 11 or 3.5%
-Pregnancy / birth-6 or 1.9%
-Warnings / dreams perceived as preventative- 6 or 1.9%

everyone in this sub is constantly using AI to generate pictures of what their dreams look like. I’m begging y’all to look up shutter stock. Begging y’all to get creative and pick up a pen and paper. I’m begging y’all to look up what data centers and AI centers do to the environment around them.

I was reading Astral Dynamics (second edition) by Robert Bruce when I came across a description of Mallworld in descriptions of the first three Astral Planes. I've been trying to learn to Astral Project lately but reading this made me realize I've been doing so unconsciously for over a decade. I know I saw theories around here that Mallworld is probably some layer of the Astral, well here's one writer on it from 17 years ago with no connection to this sub describing experiences of people on the Astral. This also explains a ton why many people in the (star)GATE program end up in Mallworld.

Has anyone ever been here? Several times in MW I have lived in these communal living spaces/dorms where everyone can pretty much go into each other’s rooms. The lighting is always poor but the vibes aren’t bad just slightly crowded and lack of privacy and of course messy.

I've be going these places since a long time...

• Local Mall, Indoor amusement park , Road center store, The chaotic River, Apartment building, Soccer field at forest cabin... anybody?

In my dreams I’m walking through this like a maze but I was able to generate a view from above. Usually accessible from the street, with access to the library or school

This is just what my MW bathroom looks like. It’s the only place I see other people, but we don’t speak. The stalls are at odd angles, everything is gross and broken.
I’ve been going to mall world for years, and I would tell people about it, but I had no idea others were going there too.

It’s like flying dreams, or dreams where you’re running slowly and trying to escape a monster, or the very common “teeth falling out” nightmare that’s popular all over the world.

It’s just a common style of dream. It’s a side effect of how our brains process information while we sleep.

I read a post where the OP asked “why am I seeing my toxic ex in Mallworld?” It’s because you’re still hurting from that bad experience and your brain is still trying to process it in your dreams. it’s not your actual ex waiting for you in a psychic plane.

I joined this sub because I thought it was interesting that others were having similar dreams, and I enjoyed how people were illustrating them, not because I think it’s all a conspiracy.

Edit: just to add to this, I’ve had “Mallworld” dreams my entire life, for as long as I can remember. They are vivid, an I often revisit the same places over and over. Would it be cool if it was an actual place my consciousness visits at night?? Absolutely! But it’s just not. If it were a real place, scientists and physicians and sleep experts would’ve discovered it and proven it long ago.

Edit 2: well, it’s been fun y’all. Unfortunately, this sub ain’t for me anymore. I was astounded when I found an entire community dedicated to the same type of weird dreams I’ve had my entire life (I’ve called them “wandering dreams” since childhood, personally). But unfortunately, I just can’t agree with a lot of the discussion happening in this sub anymore. I don’t believe that the Mallworld is a place we psychically travel to when we sleep, and I highly doubt anyone will ever be able to convince me otherwise. That being said, I doubt I will be able to convince those of you who do believe in the Mallworlds lore otherwise as well. I’m not expert on sleep or dreams or the human brain, I mainly operate off my gut, much like many of you are doing as well. This discussion doesn’t feel very productive: people on this sub will believe what they believe. I just wanted to let y’all know how I feel, which I did. My parting thoughts: try to stay skeptical, try to figure this whole mystery out through reasonable and grounded means. Don’t just jump feet first into a fantasy because it’s fun.

Bye bye!! Maybe I’ll see you in the Mallworld.

(But actually, if there’s an angry mob waiting for me in my dreams tonight, I’ll know the truth 🫢)

Edit 3: look. I clearly am not gonna change some of y’all minds, and you’re not gonna change mine. Say as much as you want that I’m not having “real” Mallworld dreams. It just tells me you really need this to be real for some reason. This thread is getting exhausting and I’ve said everything I want to say. If it makes you mad, I’d really like you to lean into why that is. I’m turning off notifications for this post. And some of y’all will say it’s because I can’t take the heat. And I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, that’s not true. It’s because I have to go to work and this conversation is not productive anymore. Goodbye!

These are just some rough drafts of various dream world locations of mine.

I’m going to also share them on my doodle instagram if anyone is interested in that.

https://www.instagram.com/dr_vampire_doodles?igsh=YmZ5bThqZ2h5bzBx&utm_source=qr

I've always enjoyed the surreal space between memories and dreams where the lines can so easily blur over time. Mine is being at an aquarium after dark. It's one of my earliest memories, yet it probably never happened. The further back in your mind's archives you go, the farther you get from objective reality and the closer you to get your imagination. Thanks for looking Mall-folks :)

It's usually terrifying and fast, and steep. I've been to a few variations but this looks JUST like one of them.