Sleeping Albatross in dreams
A long-distance ocean bird — a burden you carry, and the long journey it implies.
How sleeping changes the reading
Sleeping in the dream means the symbol is present but dormant. The base reading still applies, but it is not active right now — sometimes the dream is asking whether you want to wake it up.
The base reading of Albatross
An albatross in a dream is two old images at once. It is the long-haul traveller who can stay aloft for weeks without landing, and — through Coleridge — the weight a person earns by harming what should not have been harmed. The dream brings the bird when something you did, or failed to do, is now travelling with you for a long way. An albatross flying freely is the dream telling you the burden can be released. An albatross hung around the neck is the dream naming a guilt you have not yet found a way to set down.