It depends on the dream....
Most people who dream of people they like and who take such dreams litteral have never studied dreams to know how they work. Often times, such dreams can be completely dismantled if you look up the images, actions and symbols in dream dictionaries and reread the dream symbolically. How many people have I read who dream of people over and over, but they never end up with that person? It's cause dreams don't normally work that way. Your dreams are mainly about you, your thoughts about things, your thoughts of how others feel about you (as opposed to their actual feelings), and sometimes projections of your hopes or fears etc. I dream a lot that the world is ending and that a nuclear holocaust is coming and can see the mushroom cloud of the bomb in the distance and everyone is running to find a safe place. Doesnt mean there is going to be a nuclear holocost. Usually such dreams happen at times my whole life has felt upset and it felt like my own personal "world was ending". I also dream alot I fly to the moon and live there. So, is that going to happen one day?
I think many of us dream of ex's, but it doesn't mean one is destined to end up with them or that they are feeling the same ways about us. Sometimes it does mean someone is connected to us or even a reconnection might occur. However, I think most times dreams simply reflect our mental activity and if we are strongly wanting and thinking that someone is missing us or if we think about someone a lot or if that person represents some sort of symbol then it can be less empathic or psychic connection to that person as our own psychic attachements and energies resolving themselves or acting out through dreams. And people are complex too. If you have someone who love-hates you or was hurt by you or has some other problem, they might have genuine feelings but still not be open to pursuing a relationship or reconnection.
I had a friend who was actually quite psychic, mediumistic and accurate with waking visions. With sleep though, she always felt her dreams were psychic and they rarely were. She kept waiting to meet and marry some guy who would have a vineyard because she dreamed once she married someone who had a vineyard. I dream I get married all the time and it has never happened because it was symbolic and not litteral. One dream I got married and then money rained down on me, and that dream was right when I was getting this job (which I get paid for helping people with partnerships). Weddings are VERY symbolic symbols. My friend also dreamed her ex was going to come back and kill her and her daughter had a similar dream so she thought it would happen. I read the situation for her and got no. Both simply have felt threatened by this person. Was 3 years ago and still he has never bothered her. Death was also something she always dreamed about. She would get really upset thinking her dreams were psychic, but no one ever died. She simply cut a lot of people out of her life, had given her twin daughters up for adoption, and had disowned her family. Death in her dreams meant the ending of those relationships, irreversible loss, or wanting to be free of someone.
Back to dreaming about ex's....
I regularly dream of certain highschool friends I had even though I never think of them in waking life, but they all stand for something. I also dream quite frequently about one particular highschool friend who I was crazy inlove with but there was never a relationship. I had a hard time talking to him let alone telling him how I felt. I always felt paranoid my feelings were so transparent, like it was the most awful thing in the world if he ever knew I cared about him. In my dreams of him, I would feel that same crush on him and we are both watching one another and the occassional word is exchanged but there is all that fear in the dreams he can tell how I feel about him and at the same time I feel he is watching me too feeling the same way and afraid to show. I never think of this person in waking life but he pops up in my dreams all the time, and the odd time in my dreams we even have sex or kiss. This has been going on for 15 years! It doesnt mean I'm gonna end up with him or even that he is thinking of me, wanting me, watching me etc. I have read the situation and no, that doesnt show. Plus, I've seen him in the last few years and he is now bald, heavy and not my type. But, in highschool he was every girls crush (which itself is a symbol, he stands for that attraction to those kinds of men). He has become a symbol and I still dream about him. He's a dream symbol pointing to a time in my life I started a pattern of loving someone at a distance and hiding it... wanting to obtain the boy who all the girls wanted.
Another reason one can dream about someone a lot, or even feel an intense connection with someone, is because of past life connection. But, remember that a past life connection does not mean you end up married or in relationship with the person you are dreaming about. It just means there is psychic debris left over and reasons why you two came into one anothers lives, to work out past karma which might include healing from unrequited love, or accepting a break up or completion of karma and moving on etc etc. Sometimes in the past life the other person was the unrequited love so you come back to experience things from their angle.
So many people i read think just because they dream or feel someones energy or have karma or strong feelings it means you're supposed to end up together or that it must be true that their love object is obsessing on them. People ask, "then why do I feel him all the time?" Cause you are tuning into him even if you think you arent thinking of him. You're getting readings right? You're curious? You're tuned in. Heck, its how I read people and I do it by thinking about the person and trying to feel them. If I dont clear myself I can have left over connectedness. If you are always trying to figure someone out or to be in their energy field, yes, you are going to start picking things up even when not thinking about it.
I still offer the same advice for any love addicts I counsel. Be it you think the other person is causing your love addiction from projecting their energy onto you or its coming from you, its the same advice. Get clarity. Ask questions. Use direct means to find out what the other person is thinking and feeling for you and if they dont want to hear from you or dont contact back, or give you an evasive answer cause they are afraid to be honest, let it go. Don't go the "I sense/dream this or that" route. That's a love addicts favorite avoidance tactic to maintain illusion and fantasy. Ask questions, state your feelings and intentions and then LISTEN to the response. The REAL response. Not the messages and dreams you pick up. If the person is telling you to leave them alone, not responding or not cooperative, then even if they have feelings, it's still time to detach and clear yourself of that energy and let them figure there stuff out. Find some way to clear the energy if you feel you are picking it up without thinking. Dont give it power. Otherwise you ARE a love addict and codependently living out your life through hopes of being with someone else, who, for whatever reason, even if all your feelings are right, is not capable... Ask your higher self for dreams that help you to learn from what you are going through. I was able to lucid dream about my highschool crush and ask him in my dream why he always appeared to me in dreams. He told me it was past life and that in a past life he was the obsessive unrequited love and I was inlove with someone else...
Things to note when dreaming of someone repeatedly:
1. Reoccuring dream themes or content with this person. Usually represents the lessons you have to learn from the person. Mine were about not hiding my feelings and desires.
2. Time element. Recurring people in dreams, even friends, especially of past can symbolize old left over karmic or psychic debris that is circling around in your energy field or psychological complexes. If its someone way past, it still means your living out that energy/trauma/hurt/unfulfilled hope that started at that time, especially if in the dreams you are both that younger age and appearance.
3. Symbols. What do the reoccuring people in your dreams symbolize to you? Some are people we see as threatening, some as desirable, some as smart, some as funny, some as comrads or confidents, some as life long loves, and some as unrequited loves. Your dream could merely be about the symbol. What other symbols are in the dreams?
Ok, so what are the dreams to pay attention to that tell us someone is energetically really trying to send us a message?
* Try learning how to lucid dream and then while dreaming you can ask your love interest why they are in your dream.
* Dreams where animals, angels, christ, counsellors or even psychics come to you and talk to you about your situation. I often have dreams where I see a tarot reader, or a card or rune is shown to me regarding a situation. These dreams I find often are more real and come true. Try going to sleep and asking your angels to appear in dreams and to help you or counsel you...
* Pay attention to any dreams where the person is trying to send you messages. Like quasi lucid dreams where they are trying to write you something and you are trying to read it. Or dreams where they are trying to call you on the phone. Dreams that you really wake you up are ones to watch for too. Sometimes its still deceiving though. Its best just to risk confrontation and asking the hard questions then going by a dream...