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The most common dreams, ranked by research
Lists of “the top 10 dreams” are usually guesses. This one is counted. In 2003 a team led by Tore Nielsen asked 1,181 Canadian university students which of 55 typical dream themes they had ever had. The percentages below are theirs.
- 1 Being chased or pursued81.5%
Dreaming of Being Chased, Dreaming of Being Chased by a Ghost, Dreaming of Being Chased by a Snake
- 2
- 3
- 4 School, teachers or studying67.1%
Dreaming of a Classroom, Dreaming of a School, Dreaming of Arriving Naked at School
- 5
- 6 A living person as dead54.1%
- 7 Flying or soaring through the air48.3%
Dreaming of Flying Very High, Dreaming of Flying Very Low, Dreaming of Flying
- 8
- 9 Being physically attacked42.4%
- 10
- 11
- 12 Being killed34.5%
- 13
- 14 Insects or spiders33.8%
Dreaming of a Spider, Dreaming of Spiders, Dreaming of a Spider Spinning Its Web
- 15 Being nude in public32.6%
Dreaming of Being Naked in Public, Dreaming of Arriving Naked at School, Dreaming of Arriving Naked at Work
- 16 Being inappropriately dressed32.5%
- 17 Discovering a new room at home32.3%
- 18
- 19 Eating delicious food30.7%
Dreaming of Eating Earth, Dreaming of Eating Glass, Dreaming of Eating Raw Meat
- 20
How to read these numbers
Each percentage is the share of respondents who said they had had that dream at least once in their lives. It is not how often anyone dreams it, and it says nothing about what the dream means. Two things limit the picture: the sample was students, who are young and mostly in school, and people report what they remember, which favors vivid and frightening dreams. The ordering has held up across later surveys in other countries, which is why it is a reasonable guide to what is common, if not to what is universal.
Three patterns stand out. The most common dreams are about threat (being chased, falling, being attacked) and about exposure to social judgment (arriving late, school, failing an exam, being nude). That fits two theories that both appear on this site: Antti Revonsuo’s threat simulation account for the first group, and the continuity hypothesis for the second. Sexual dreams rank near the top but attract far fewer searches and articles than their frequency suggests. And the strangest-sounding dreams (flying, magical powers, meeting an angel) are shared by a surprising fraction of people.
The rest of the list
| Dream theme | Had it at least once |
|---|---|
| being half awake and paralyzed in bed | 27.2% |
| finding money | 25.7% |
| having magical powers | 24.9% |
| killing someone | 24.3% |
| being smothered, unable to breathe | 24.2% |
| being locked up | 24% |
| seeing yourself as dead | 23.8% |
| snakes | 22.1% |
| being tied and unable to move | 21.4% |
| a toilet you cannot find or use | 19.2% |
| your teeth falling out | 18.8% |
| tornadoes or strong winds | 17.7% |
| creatures part animal, part human | 16.8% |
| seeing yourself in a mirror | 15.9% |
| wild, violent beasts | 15.9% |
| seeing an aircraft crash | 12.8% |
| seeing an angel | 12.4% |
| floods or tidal waves | 12.4% |
| being the opposite sex | 11.9% |
| encountering God | 11.2% |
| earthquakes | 10.8% |
| seeing extraterrestrials | 9.5% |
| being an animal | 8% |
| seeing a UFO | 7.7% |
| being an object | 3.5% |
Source: Nielsen, T. A., Zadra, A. L., Simard, V., Saucier, S., Stenstrom, P., Smith, C., & Kuiken, D. (2003). The typical dreams of Canadian university students. Dreaming, 13(4), 211-235. DOI. Percentages are the total-sample prevalence from Table 1 of the paper; theme names are paraphrased.