Being late shows passage of time often links with particular areas of your life, your age, or your sense of ease or pressure. There are certain times of day that we have deeply ingrained habitual responses to – such as morning coffee is for some people, lunchtime, time to go to work or end it. So time in a dream might refer to one of those things for you.
Lateness can mean you feel you have left something too long or you have missed out on something – as when we say “missed the boat”. Maybe you have not acted quickly enough to avert a situation, or have not arrived soon enough at a realisation or stage of life. But lateness can also be avoidance of responsibility.
