It seems that the number of possible dreams should equal the number of people multiplied by the number of nights they’ve lived. However, Michael Schredl, editor of the International Journal of Dream Research and professor at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany, conducted a study that found that there are three dream scenarios experienced by a large part of the world’s population: paralysis (26% of respondents reported this topic), falling (18%), and being chased (12%).
The details of these dreams may vary depending on the person’s waking experience, culture, and era. For example, Tibetans and rural Mexicans were more likely to talk about dreams of being chased by animals than participants from southern China or urban Americans. Nevertheless, the common features of the dreams made it clear that they shared their central plotline.
At the same time, the year of the dream (the author used data from 1956 to 2000), the age of the participants, and the country did not affect the final advantage of the three indicated topics. The only thing that made a slight difference was gender, as women reported such dreams more often. However, they also generally reported more nightmares.
The author also acknowledges other factors that could have slightly distorted the data. For example, it is possible that some respondents confused sleep paralysis (i.e., the inability to move after waking up) with a dream about being paralyzed. Nevertheless, the paralysis storyline was the most frequent, with 26% of participants reporting having had such a dream in the past few months.
Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? Can you differentiate it from a dream about being paralyzed?
The article was published in April 2021 in the International Journal of Dream Research.
