Common dreams: the dreams almost everyone has

Some dreams come back for almost everyone, like being chased or falling: they speak of shared human situations, not of a hidden message.

Frequency
Chase
Fall

The essentials

Common dreams at a glance

For you, knowing that a dream is common is often reassuring; what remains is to see why it came to you now.

Free tool: Interpret my dream
Also read: Dream dictionaries

Interpret my dream

The most widespread dreams

In 2003, Tore Nielsen’s team surveyed 1,181 Canadian students about 55 dream themes. Four exceeded 60%, among women as among men: being chased, falling, school and studies, sexuality. Following were rarer but well-known themes: being naked in public for nearly a third of people, losing teeth for nearly one in five. These figures hold for a group of students, not for everyone.

Why they look alike

These dreams stage simple human situations: fleeing, losing balance, being judged, failing a test. Freud already spoke of “typical dreams” and was wary of them, because they lend themselves poorly to personal associations. For current research, they pick up emotions that almost everyone knows: pressure, shame, the fear of disappointing.

Reading them for yourself

A common dream does not lose its meaning for that. Ask yourself what, these days, resembles that chase, that fall, or that exam. The dictionary details each of these dreams, with the situations that change the reading: being chased by someone you know does not say the same thing as being chased by a shadow.

Facts and sources

In a survey of 1,181 Canadian students, four themes exceeded 60% among women as among men: being chased, falling, school and studies, sexuality. T. A. Nielsen et al., “The Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students,” Dreaming, 13 (4), 2003, pp. 211–235
In the same survey, 18.8% of students had dreamed of losing their teeth at least once, and 32.6% of being naked. T. A. Nielsen et al., Dreaming, 13 (4), 2003, table 1
Freud already spoke of “typical dreams” (nakedness, exams) that almost everyone has, and which he read with more caution than the others. S. Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900, ch. V, D

A dream is read as a mirror of what you are living, never as an omen: no reading here predicts anything at all.

Common dreams: your questions

What is the most common dream?

In Tore Nielsen’s survey (2003), being chased came first, ahead of falling, school, and sexuality, all above 60%. Other surveys, conducted elsewhere, find the chase and the fall among the most cited themes.

Why do we often dream of school or exams as adults?

School remains for many the first place where they were evaluated. The dream readily takes it up when you are being judged or put to the test, even long after your studies. It speaks of the present, in an old setting.