10 Most Frequent Dreams – Survey Results

January 10th, 15:00PM

We've taken data from the Shattered National Sleep Survey, and after preliminary analysis have found the top ten most frequent dreams…

Sexy Dreams
According to the survey, anything goes when it comes to sexy dreams. Answers included the obvious (partners, spouses), the expected (celebrities, naked people), to the downright bizarre (horses). Here are four of the top sexy dream themes….

1) Celebrity Visions
Celebrities appeared in 4% of people's sexy dreams. Stars who come to you in the night include Sean Connery, George Clooney, Kylie, Rachel Stevens, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Aniston and Cat Deeley – and that's just a few of them! Of the 4% who dreamt of a celebrity, by far and away the most popular star visionary was Orlando Bloom (21%), followed by our very own Dermot O'Leary (20%), Robbie Williams (15%) and Justin Timberlake (11%). Rather worryingly, Simon Cowell also appeared in 2% of sexy dreams, as did Cameron Stout from Big Brother 4!

2) EastEnders
It seems soap operas don't just dominate our TV schedules, they dominate our dreams too – well, EastEnders does anyway. Of the 4% of people who had saucy dreams about celebrities or TV stars, 15% claimed a character from the Albert Square cast had appeared in their dreams, most notably Shane Richie (Alfie Moon) and Nigel Harman (young Dennis). Kat Slater also appeared for just one applicant. More disturbingly, someone admitted to having a sexy dream about Emily Bishop from Coronation Street!

3) Loved Ones
Unsurprisingly, 23% of the total respondents said they had sexy dreams about someone they know. Of that 23%, partners and spouses came top (55%) while 26% of us had sexual dreams about our friends. It seems we can't get those ex lovers out of our heads, 17% of us still dream about them. And 2% of us believe in keeping it in the family – dreaming about a relative.

4) Any Dream Will Do
3% of total respondents admitted they dreamt about "any random person," many of whom were faceless or just blobs of light or shape. 2% of total respondents said they had sexy dreams about themselves and 0.5% said they dreamt of having sex with their boss. Some were just too shy to tell us what their sexy dreams were about and some even told us to mind our own business!

Nightmares
56% of us remember specific themes from our nightmares, here are some of the most common ones…

5) Those In The Know
By far and away the most popular person to feature in a bad dream is someone you know intimately. 20% of total respondents had bad dreams about a family member, boyfriend or girlfriend, or a friend.

6) Death
6% of us have nightmares about death. Descriptions include dreaming about dead people, being killed, murderers, mad axe-men and even Death himself.

7) Monsters/ghouls
6% of people who remember their dreams said they had a bad dream about a monstrous-type character – be it a ghoul, a zombie or a witch. Included within that 6% were Freddy Kreuger and characters from the Harry Potter books.

8) Politicians/Leaders/Celebrities
Just 1% of us had a nightmare about a politician or a political leader. These included PM Tony Blair, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, Gordon Brown, John Prescott, US President George Bush, Adolf Hitler, The Queen, Princess Ann, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Celebrities counted for another 1% of nightmare visions, including Jordan, Moira Stewart, David Dickinson, David Bowie (twice) and Andie MacDowell!

9) Beastly Goings On
Animals and creepy-crawlies featured in 6% of total respondents' nasty dreams. Of these, dogs were the most popular beast (27%), followed by cats (9%). Curiously, one respondent claimed they'd had a bad dream about dogs carrying hammers! Dobermans and Alsatians were the hounds that featured most regularly in doggie dreams. It seems spiders are the scariest creepy-crawlies, 36% of those who had nightmares with a beastly theme said the eight-legged bugs appeared in them.

10) The Rest
The results of the National Sleep Survey really are fascinating – and this is just a preliminary report! People, it seems, dream about the most bizarre subjects, from a "giant pair of inflatable nose clippers" to "carrots." Also from the survey we gleaned that 96% of total respondents had dreamt of one or more of the following standard dreams; your teeth, flying, inability to walk or run, inability to speak or scream, being naked in public, having relationships with people you don't fancy, death of friends or family and being back at school or taking exams. Neil Stanley calls these "standard" dreams Stress Dreams. Most of us will experience dreaming about one or more of the above at some time in our lives – because they are all recognisable situations linked with common emotions, e.g. death (fear), nakedness (embarrassment/humiliation). But Neil says we shouldn't worry if we experience these dreams, they are natural but, he says, it could be time to look at your "awake" time, work out where the stress and emotion is coming from and sort it out – and our dreams will soon be stress free!