# What's the most common type of dream? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842 "2000-11-05T21:11:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smartt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smartt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/1 "2000-11-05T21:11:18Z")
There are some kinds of dream that seems shared. Lotsa people say that they dream of walking into a room in their underwears. I, well, I fly a lot in my dreams. Not like Superman, more like that Greatest American Hero guy - but heck, it’s flying! And what are your most common dreams, fellas? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/2 "2000-11-05T21:19:41Z")
I dream a LOT about people I’m infautated with. This got a bit common last year with a certain guy…Maybe i’m just really sexually unsatisfied 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/3 "2000-11-05T21:24:39Z")
My apartment full of beautiful women some curled up and sleeping others playing like kittens and purrrring… “Bad Kitty, no scratching!” ahh… must dream more. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/4 "2000-11-05T23:00:13Z")
I believe that there are certain common themes in dreams which most of us share: flying, riding in an elevator, falling. I had a recurrent dream for many years, which took slightly different forms, but it has always been about not being able to take a bus home. For some reason, no bus at the bus stop went to my house. Sometimes, it was an “el.” I believe that dreams have memory components. I read once that dreams serve the purpose of ridding ourselves of not needed memory. On the contrary, they reinforce our memory. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/5 "2000-11-05T23:12:17Z")
Do you have a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid, with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you? Why am I the only one that has that dream? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_A\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Just\_A\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_A_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/6 "2000-11-05T23:29:24Z")
The most common type of dream in general, according to studies, includes you being chased by someone or something. Contrary to popular belief, the naked dream is actualy around 6th in those studies. I don’t have the list with me now (from my psychology class notes), but anyone interested can post a reply or email me about it and I’ll dig the notes out. Personally, my most recurrent dreams have to do with me walking around in hallways and passing different scenes of random things going on. It’s always different stuff everytime, but I usually know the people in them. Wierd stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/7 "2000-11-06T00:15:36Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever had the getting chased or showing-up-naked-somewhere dreams. I used to get the teeth-falling-out dream a lot, like every couple of months. They were always very disturbing, for some reason. I understand it’s a pretty common dream. Thankfully, I haven’t had it in years. - Dave ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/8 "2000-11-06T00:22:50Z")
Based solely on the fact that 10% of dreams being a high proportion of dreams compared to anything else, I would guess that explicitly sexual dreams were the most common at about 10%. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/9 "2000-11-06T02:48:18Z")
There’s two questions here: The first is a great GQ question, namely, “What sort of dream do studies show is the most common?”. The second question is a great IMHO question, namely, “What’s the most common dream that you folks have?”. Depending on which way this thread goes, it will probably end up being moved over to IMHO, but I’ll leave it here for a while to give the psychologists a chance to answer. ---
**Author:** ![Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Groundskeeper_Willie)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/10 "2000-11-06T02:57:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I used to get the teeth-falling-out dream a lot, like every couple of months. They were always very disturbing, for some reason. I understand it’s a pretty common dream. Thankfully, I haven’t had it in years. And I thought that I was the only one to have had this as a recurring dream. Not for the last year, but about once every month or two for maybe five years. You’re right, they _were_ very disturbing for some reason. Bill ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/11 "2000-11-06T03:07:29Z")
I often dream that I am shopping, which is strange because I do not shop often in real life. I don’t even particularly enjoy shopping. I’ve never dreamed of flying, but I have dreamed of levitating. Never had a showing-up-in-public-naked or something-scary-chasing-me dream either. I have had disturbing dreams about having my teeth knocked out. A friend of mine says that for years she dreamed about a house. She’d go around the house and see all the rooms. It was always the same house, but sometimes there were new additions. ---
**Author:** ![IBBen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85f322/32.png) [@IBBen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IBBen)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/12 "2000-11-06T03:08:47Z")
According to an online dream dictionary which posts words based on user inquiries, “teeth” is the most requested word. Their analysis of a dream in which your teeth fall out is: “If your teeth are rotten, crooked, and/or falling out this means that your lies are hurting someone very badly and that you will soon be found out.” I have also experienced this dream and it is disturbing, perhaps my conscience was telling me something. I wonder if this dream is more common for men or women? ---
**Author:** ![Zor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zor)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/13 "2000-11-06T04:25:48Z")
The conventional wisdom was that dreams helped us get rid of useless short term memeories we have accumulated during the day and won’t need later on. Now we also have research indicating that certain short term memories are reproccessed and sent to long term storage during dream time too. Here’s a related [article](http://www.sciam.com/explorations/2000/101600tetris/index.html) from Scientific American on dreams and learning. I have to note however that the study presented in the article has a rather small smaple size… ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/14 "2000-11-06T04:28:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IBBen \* > \*\*According to an online dream dictionary which posts words based on user inquiries, “teeth” is the most requested word. Their analysis of a dream in which your teeth fall out is: > > “If your teeth are rotten, crooked, and/or falling out this means that your lies are hurting someone very badly and that you will soon be found out.” > > I have also experienced this dream and it is disturbing, perhaps my conscience was telling me something. I wonder if this dream is more common for men or women? \*\* There are a couple different interpretations of the teeth-falling-out-dream I remember reading while I was having them. The one that stuck with me, because it was clearly related to what I was going through, was that it meant you were uncomfortable with your appearence. In high school, when I was having the dreams a lot, I thought I was ugly. I eventually realized I wasn’t ugly at all, became very comfortable with my appearence, and eventually the dream stopped. Yes Bill, the dreams were very disturbing. I remember one in particular to this day, where it wasn’t just the individual teeth falling out… the entire lower pallete came completely out, and I was desperately trying to put it back in. Must’ve been \* really \* uncomfortable with my looks \* that \* day! 🙂 - Dave ---
**Author:** ![smartt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smartt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/15 "2000-11-06T05:05:25Z")
**CHRONOS** , what I’m looking for is a psychological view of the subject. I’m deeply interested into the nature of dreams, and I even have some experiences of my own to share. 1. Recently, all my dreams are taking place in a very solid geography, like an entire dream city that exists only in my mind. And the funniest thing is that I KNOW all the places and roads of this dream city - and they’re pretty similar to the actual surroundings of the neighbohood I live, but with different contexts and dimensions. It’s hard to explain; try to imagine a dream city overimposed in the REAL city where you live; but the skyscrapers of the dream city are, I dunno, parking lots in the REAL city, my dream house has a cellar but my real house have not… I think you can get the idea. 2. There are two things I have noticed when I’m dreaming and KNOWING that I’m dreaming. Sometimes, some objects looks like theater props and/or facades. And when I’m having a sexually explicit dream, penetration is impossible; it’s like the vaginas aren’t hollow, but solid. Weird, but… ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/16 "2000-11-06T06:11:05Z")
Finding money is one of my most frequent dreams, although finding myself in public or at school in my underwear is pretty common. I also sometimes find myself back in high school after all these years. Sexual dreams are invariably ruined right before the good part by something wierd happening or by waking up. ---
**Author:** ![smartt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smartt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/17 "2000-11-06T06:17:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sqweels \* > \*\*Sexual dreams are invariably ruined right before the good part by something wierd happening or by waking up. \*\* Weird. The same thing used to happen to me. But then I started to have the dreams where I KNOW that I’m dreaming, and was able to cross the second base - but, as I said, “actual” penetration was “phisically” impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/18 "2000-11-06T06:17:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw23 \* > \*\*Do you have a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid, with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you? > > Why am I the only one that has that dream? > \*\* You’re not the only one. Val Kilmer’s character had that exact dream in the movie _Real Genius_. ---
**Author:** ![Kate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f04885/32.png) [@Kate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kate)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-common-type-of-dream/39842/19 "2000-11-06T11:06:19Z")
Short hijack - How many of you have actually come in your dreams? I mean the physical sensation, I don’t care what’s in your Fruit of the Looms when you wake up. It’s only happened to me a couple of times, usually I just wake up all horny. Pretty incredible when it DOES happen though. /Kate