Where the numbers come from
The figures come from a large, widely cited survey of typical dreams: Nielsen and colleagues gave the Typical Dreams Questionnaire to 1,181 first-year university students in three Canadian cities and asked which of 55 dreams they had ever had (Nielsen et al., 2003).
Each page shows the share of people who reported the dream, exactly as the paper's table gives it, to one decimal place, with the dream's rank among the 55.
Figures for women and men appear only when the paper found a reliable difference (its own threshold, p < .005) and the dream was common enough for the authors to trust that difference. For rarer dreams the authors flagged gender differences as uncertain, and so do we.
What the numbers can't tell you
The participants were young students in Canada, most of them women, surveyed in the early 2000s. Other ages and cultures may report different figures, though the authors found the ranking of dreams very stable across regions and between women and men, and broadly similar to a survey from the 1950s. A figure says how many people have ever had a dream, not how often.
Dreams the study didn't measure
Some common dreams, such as dreams of an ex or of being pregnant, were not in the questionnaire. Their pages carry no figure: we never estimate or invent one.
The three readings
What psychologists say: what dream research says about the dream, such as the continuity hypothesis (dreams follow waking concerns), threat simulation (dreams rehearse danger) and the role of REM sleep in processing emotion. Each reading names the studies it rests on.
The Jungian reading: how the tradition of C. G. Jung would read the image. It is an interpretive tradition, not a scientific finding, and we present it that way.
In history and folklore: what dream books, myths and folk traditions said. These are part of the dream's cultural history, not predictions.
How the pages are written
The pages are written by David Marinangeli with the help of an AI writing assistant and checked against the sources listed at the bottom of each page. Numbers are never written by hand or by the AI: they are read straight from the study's table when the site is built.
The dictionary is written in English and translated into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
What these pages are not
They are for curiosity and self-reflection, not medical or psychological advice. If nightmares, sleep paralysis or disturbing dreams are frequent or affect your days, talk to a doctor or a therapist: there are good treatments.
Corrections
Spotted a mistake or a better source? Write to support@oneirosjournal.app. Corrections are made on the page and the update date changes.