About

Crystal Mall Dream refers to claims that numerous people worldwide experience recurring lucid dreams about the Crystal Mall, a dead mall in Waterford, Connecticut. The claims were popularized online in January 2024 after TikToker @roberttolppi posted a strange video at the empty mall that TikToker @stickandtoke Stitched, explaining that she and others she's talked to have had recurring dreams about the mall that always begin at the H&M store. According to the TikToker, the dreams always feature several consistent features or possible events, including people who are frozen like mannequins on the first floor, who only move if you walk down the broken escalator. TikTokers continued to post about the mall dreams over the following months, with some coming forward and also claiming to have had the dreams.

Origin

On January 14th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @roberttolppi posted a video purportedly taken at Crystal Mall in Waterford, Connecticut, a two-story mall that is considered a "dead mall" due to its low traffic.^[2]

In the video, the TikToker wanders around the second floor and films what appear to be several realistic mannequins on the lower floor, claiming that everyone just "stopped moving." The TikToker claims he can't find the exit as a voice over the PA system repeats, "Don't move," and starts counting down from 15. After the voice finishes counting down, all the mannequin people are gone. The video gained over 10.8 million views in a year.

On January 17th, TikToker^[3] @stickandtoke Stitched the video. In her response, she claims the mall is the Crystal Mall in Connecticut, explaining that she's worked there, that her adoptive father did the mall's plumbing, etc. She also claims that since childhood, she's had "extremely" lucid dreams about the mall.

According to her, she has told friends about it who have cut her off and explained the exact same "dream map" about the mall to her. She also stated that the H&M store is always the "spawn point" and maps out the mall as it appears in her dreams.

She claims that to the left of the spot where @roberttolppi is filming, there is always a fire. She also says that there are people who look like mannequins who don't move unless you go down the escalator. She compares the dreams to The Backrooms and says she won't go to the mall anymore because so many people she knows have these identical dreams. The video gained over 10 million views in a year.

Several commenters under the video claim to have had dreams about Crystal Mall, including people who have never visited the mall or even known about its existence until seeing her video.

Spread

Conspiracy theories and videos about the Crystal Mall dream became increasingly popularized over the following months in early 2024, continuing into 2025.

For example, on February 14th, 2024, the @mythical TikTok^[4] page posted a clip from Good Mythical Morning in which they talk about the Crystal Mall dreams, garnering over 80,000 likes in a year.

On April 29th, 2025, TikToker^[5] @listenbeforeisoph posted a video of herself with a long caption about having the Crystal Mall dream, writing, "I've been dreaming about this exact very specific mall for YEARS I've been trying to find out what it is for YEARS […] the only thing about the crystal mall that's different from my dream is the food court, the food court in my dream always has way more shops in it and is on the third floor, the layout besides that is the EXACT SAME." The video gained over 1.5 million views in a week.

Various threads discussing the Crystal Mall dream have also appeared on Reddit since early 2024, including a post to the subreddit /r/HighStrangeness^[6] on January 17th, 2024, that referenced TikToker @stickandtoke's video, which received over 180 upvotes and 100 comments in a year.

Another post to the subreddit /r/TheMallWorld,^[7] on January 19th, 2024, references "Lifelong reoccuring dreams taking place in multiple different spaces," including the Crystal Mall. The /r/TheMallWorld^[8] subreddit is a community centered around such common or shared dream locations.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References