Dead Stairs in dreams
Progression. What is going up, what is going down, what is taking effort.
How dead changes the reading
The base reading of Stairs
Stairs going up in a dream are growth that requires effort but is paying off in proportion. Stairs that never end are the dictionary's image for a goal that has stopped being commensurate with what it costs you to reach it.
Going down stairs is descent — sometimes into yourself, sometimes into a phase you have been resisting. Falling down stairs is a setback in progress that you usually know the cause of within minutes of waking.
Where you often see it. Stairs in a house you do not own. Stairs you have to climb backwards. The dream uses stairs for progression — what is going up, what is going down, what is taking effort.
What it is not. Stairs are not always strain. The dictionary reads them as the dreamer's relationship to incremental change.
Related in the dictionary. Read stairs with staircase, climbing, and any scene of intentional level-change.