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Dreamscan be mysterious, strange, confusing, or even amusing. Have you ever shared a dream with your friends and noticed that many people report having the same or similartypes of dreams? The content of dreams can vary from one person to the next, but some people have suggested that certain types of dreams tend to be more common.
It is important to recognize, however, that this an evolving field that still has a great deal of uncertainty. More research is needed to understand why people dream about certain things.
Common Dreams
What do people dream about most often? In one study looking at the content of dreams, researchers found that some of the most common dream themes included:
Dreams Reflect Concerns About Daily Life
According to dream researcher Calvin Hall, who collected and analyzed more than 10,000 dreams, the majority of our dreams tend toreflect concernsabout daily life. Money, school, work, family, friends, and health are just a few of the most common things that people dream about.
Another study found that almost 84% of participants dreamed about events from their waking lives, and around 40% involved mundane events from the previous day.
Research has also suggested that the contents of our dreams are not invented out of thin air. One study found that of characters that appeared in dreams:
What researchers have also noticed is that there are a number of “dream themes” that tend to be quite common across different cultures. Events such as being chased, falling, or being naked in public are surprisingly common among people from all over the world.
Dream research has also revealed a number of other interesting results about what people tend to dream about:
The difficulty in studying the content of dreams is that it is impossible to objectively look at exactly what people dream about. Instead, researchers must rely onself-reportsfrom dreamers. This then leads to questions of whether these reports can accurately convey the subjective experiences of the dream. Particularly since many dreams are forgotten immediately or shortly after awakening.
A Word From Verywell
The next time you have what seems like a really unusual dream, remember this: you’re definitely not alone. There are a lot of books out there that try to interpret the symbolic imagery of dreams in order to search for hidden, unconscious meanings. But in all probability, your dream probably relates to some element of your daily life and it most likely shares common elements with many other people’s dreams.
Why Do People Dream?
9 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Hall, C. S. & Van de Castle, R. L.Content analysis of dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts; 1966.
Weinstein N, Campbell R, Vansteenkiste M.Linking psychological need experiences to daily and recurring dreams.Motiv Emot. 2018;42(1):50-63. doi:10.1007/s11031-017-9656-0
Kahn D, Stickgold R, Pace-schott EF, Hobson JA.Dreaming and waking consciousness: a character recognition study.J Sleep Res. 2000;9(4):317-25. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2869.2000.00213.x
Valli K, Strandholm T, Sillanmaki L, Revonsuo A.Dreams are more negative than real life: implications for the functioning of dreaming.Cognition and Emotion. 2008;22(5):833-861. doi:10.1080/02699930701541591
Schredl M, Atanasova D, Hörmann K, Maurer JT, Hummel T, Stuck BA. Information processing during sleep: the effect of olfactory stimuli on dream content and dream emotions.J Sleep Res. 2009;18(3):285-90. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2869.2009.00737.x
Fogli A, Maria Aiello L, Quercia D.Our dreams, our selves: automatic analysis of dream reports.R Soc Open Sci. 2020;7(8):192080. Published 2020 Aug 26. doi:10.1098/rsos.192080
Nir Y, Tononi G.Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology.Trends Cogn Sci. 2010;14(2):88-100. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.001
Empson J.Sleep and dreaming(3rd ed.). New York: Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press; 2002.
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