What does it mean to dream about ladder?
A ladder usually pictures ascent or descent, progress toward a goal or a step down, the rungs between where you are and where you want to be.
Four ways to read it
Each reading below comes from a named tradition and a cited source, so you can see where it came from and decide what fits your dream.
Freud
Freud would read the rhythm of climbing, ambition and at times a bodily, sexual movement up and down.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
Jung would see the link between levels of being, the rungs of growth between the earthly and the spiritual.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
Continuity ties ladders to waking goals, advancement, and the effort of the climb, with a missing rung marking a gap in the plan.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
Jacob's ladder joined earth to heaven with angels passing on it, the old image of the rungs between the human and the divine.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).