What does it mean to dream about thirst?
Thirst in a dream usually marks a need that has not been met, and what you longed to drink can point to a deeper want in waking life.
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 thirst as a bodily need pressing into the dream, but also as desire in plain form, a longing for something the self lacks. He held that such craving can stand for wants far beyond water. The dryness may mark a hunger the waking self has not satisfied.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
Jung would see thirst as the psyche seeking what nourishes it, the longing for a source that has run dry. He linked the search for water to a search for renewal and meaning. The craving can mark a deeper need for what gives life.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
Continuity research ties dream thirst to waking need, sometimes the body's own and sometimes a longing the mind carries into sleep. Bodily sensation can press directly into the dream. The thirst is best read against what you feel you are missing awake.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
Myth made thirst a torment and a quest, Tantalus with water always out of reach, the seeker after the well at the world's edge. The longing for the living spring ran through many tales. Across cultures water was life itself, and to thirst was to want for what sustains the soul.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).