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There aren’t many things that fascinate， frighten， sadden， intrigue， confuse or enlighten us more than dreams.1 While science seems stumped about dreams， artists are inspired， creating countless books， movies， poems， paintings， dances and plays about dreams in an effort to understand more about this mysterious unconscious existence we enter when we sleep.2
More than 100 years after Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams， we still aren’t exactly sure what a dream really is.3 Science tells us that our sensory abilities （like vision， hearing， etc.） reside in various areas of the neocortex of our brains， and that during sleep these various areas fire randomly， producing illusions that seem disjointed and enigmatic.4 （In other words， dream-like.） Freud theorized that dreams were manifestations of our deepest， sometimes darkest desires.5 Still others have posited that dreams are sort of virtual simulations in which we rehearse threatening situations in case they happen to us in real life （and in fact some dream studies have shown that 70 percent of dreams involve threats of some kind）.6 Dreams often draw on our memories， but because longterm memory is associated with another part of the brain， the hippocampus， and the neocortex and the hippocampus don’t communicate well during sleep， our memory dreams are often fragmented and rarely follow a sensible plot line.7 We also have different kinds of dreams during different stages of sleep. Dreams during early REM sleep （a lighter phase of sleep） tend to incorporate recent memories from our waking hours.8 Dreams during late-night REM sleep tend toward the strange and fragmented. Non-REM sleep （a deeper sleep） tends to produce shorter but more straightforward9 dreams.
In the end， we still don’t know why any of this is so， although there is some speculation that dreams help integrate new memories with past experiences.10 There is also evidence that the free association of dreams helps the brain to be more creative and solve problems more efficiently.
Amerisleep， an online mattress11 company， recently did a survey of more than 2，000 men and women across America to see how their dreams compared. While the results aren’t strictly scientific， they paint an interesting picture of the shadow world we spend a third of our lives traveling through.12
1. The subjects of recurring13 dreams
Dreams may start recurring at any point in our lives， but the survey participants most commonly reported （39 percent） that they began having recurring dreams in childhood， while 21 percent said adolescence， and 15 percent said as adults. A full 25 percent said they had never had a recurring dream.
More than 100 years after Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams， we still aren’t exactly sure what a dream really is.3 Science tells us that our sensory abilities （like vision， hearing， etc.） reside in various areas of the neocortex of our brains， and that during sleep these various areas fire randomly， producing illusions that seem disjointed and enigmatic.4 （In other words， dream-like.） Freud theorized that dreams were manifestations of our deepest， sometimes darkest desires.5 Still others have posited that dreams are sort of virtual simulations in which we rehearse threatening situations in case they happen to us in real life （and in fact some dream studies have shown that 70 percent of dreams involve threats of some kind）.6 Dreams often draw on our memories， but because longterm memory is associated with another part of the brain， the hippocampus， and the neocortex and the hippocampus don’t communicate well during sleep， our memory dreams are often fragmented and rarely follow a sensible plot line.7 We also have different kinds of dreams during different stages of sleep. Dreams during early REM sleep （a lighter phase of sleep） tend to incorporate recent memories from our waking hours.8 Dreams during late-night REM sleep tend toward the strange and fragmented. Non-REM sleep （a deeper sleep） tends to produce shorter but more straightforward9 dreams.
In the end， we still don’t know why any of this is so， although there is some speculation that dreams help integrate new memories with past experiences.10 There is also evidence that the free association of dreams helps the brain to be more creative and solve problems more efficiently.
Amerisleep， an online mattress11 company， recently did a survey of more than 2，000 men and women across America to see how their dreams compared. While the results aren’t strictly scientific， they paint an interesting picture of the shadow world we spend a third of our lives traveling through.12
1. The subjects of recurring13 dreams
Dreams may start recurring at any point in our lives， but the survey participants most commonly reported （39 percent） that they began having recurring dreams in childhood， while 21 percent said adolescence， and 15 percent said as adults. A full 25 percent said they had never had a recurring dream.