For many people rats are considered to be dirty and carriers of disease, so rats in dreams can be a symbol of our stresses, fears and worries. Rats also have feelings of disgust and repulsiveness attached to them.
However, rats are also very clever creatures, quite cunning and able to perform tricks – so rats in dreams can also represent your cunning, devious side.
When you consider that we sometimes call people rats when they are liars and cheaters, dreaming of rats can also symbolize feelings of unfaithfulness or distrust in a friend or workmate.
Rats spend a lot of their time scurrying about in sewers, in the dirty underworld of humanity, so in dreams they are also connected with gnawing away at our life or darker parts of our selves that bother us.
For some people, rats are a positive sign – especially if the rat is a pet or religious/lucky symbol in the dream? In this case the rat or rats in your dream can be a sign of being vulnerable, needing to be cared for, or suggesting that you should be more caring of others or someone in particular, perhaps even yourself?