Rats in a dream can have many meanings, ranging from a sneaky person (AKA “rat”) in your life, an issue that’s “gnawing” away at you, or even secrets.

According to professional dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg, cultural associations and wordplay come up a lot in dream symbolism, with the term “rat” often colloquially used to describe a person who would snitch on you, throw you under the bus, or otherwise “rat you out.”

Speaking of cultural associations, Loewenberg also calls out The Secret of NIMH, a popular children’s movie from the 80’s that has rats as characters. “So rats in a dream can represent secrets, because of that association The Secret of NIMH,” she notes.

And when thinking about wordplay, we associate gnawing with rodents, so if there’s some issue or person that’s been gnawing away at you, Loewenberg says rats can show up in your dreams as a representation of that distress. Similarly, when we get bad news, we might say, “Oh rats,” so the rats in the dream could represent disappointment or feeling let down, as well.

However, she adds, only you can understand what rats really represent to you, and if you had a sweet and affectionate pet rat in childhood, the rat could actually represent an aspect of yourself that’s misunderstood.

Here are some more interpretations on rat dreams based on the context.