In Ancient Rome, dreams played a very similar role to the Greek experience. The difference was that every class of Roman society's dreams were considered important, whereas in Greece, only those imparted by Holy Ones were. Somnus, the Latin word for 'sleep', is taken from an ancient Greek myth. Somnus was said to be both the brother of death, Morse, and the son of night, Nox.

Eskimo Indians of Canada and Greenland understood dreams to be the voices of ancestors and spirits. Both in modern and in ancient times, dreams were believed to be essential to daily life and they were wholly spiritually based.