By+Larry+Schwartz

There arent 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 arent 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 dont 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 dont 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 arent 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.

It is rare to find a single person who has not had a dream about falling. Indeed， over 53 percent of the survey participants report recurring dreams about falling. Not far behind are recurring dreams about being chased （almost 51 percent）. Here are some of the other most reported recurring dreams（rounded up to14 the nearest percent）：

* Being back in school （38 percent）

* Being unprepared for a test or event （34 percent）

* Flying （33 percent）

* Encountering15 someone who has died in real life （31 percent）

* Death of yourself or a loved one （30 percent）

* Having your teeth fall out （27 percent）

* Being lost （27 percent）

* Running but getting nowhere， or running in slow motion （26 percent）16

* Being late or missing a plane， train or bus （26 percent）

* Being paralyzed17 or unable to speak （24 percent）

* Seeing snakes， spiders or other creatures （17 percent）

* Intruders18 breaking into your house （16 percent）

2. Our jobs may dictate19 our dreams

People in certain professions seem more prone to20 having certain recurring dreams. According to the survey， 74 percent of people in the telecommunications21 business have had recurring dreams about falling. 46 percent of those in public safety （police， fire， paramedic22， security） fly in their dreams. 55 percent of people who work in journalism23， publishing or writing， report having recurring dreams about being back in school. 26 percent of retired people find themselves naked in public. And early childhood education professionals often find themselves unable to find a toilet （25 percent）.

3. The kinds of dreams we have

About 70 percent of participants say that their dreams are either“realistic” or “somewhat realistic.” The remainder report that their dreams tend to be “somewhat bizarre” or “very bizarre.”24

4. Dream recall25

Only 19 percent of survey participants say they remember their dreams every night. 42 percent say at least once a week； 38 percent say they rarely recall their dreams and 1 percent say they never recall their dreams.

5. Men vs. women

Women are the winners in the dream-recall sweepstakes26： 24 percent of female participants remember their dreams almost every night， while 43 percent remember them at least once a week. Only 14 percent of the guys can recall their dreams nightly， although 41 percent can recall them at least once a week. 32 percent of women rarely or never recall their dreams， vs. 46 percent of men. （This lines up with27 a study by the Association of Psychological Science， which concluded that women have better short-term memory than men.）

6. What men and women dream about most？

The survey drew a clear line in the types of recurring dreams men and women have.28 Women tend to have more stressful dreams， whereas men tend to report more positive ones. 54 percent of women have recurring dreams about being chased， while only 48 percent of men have these dreams. 32 percent of women find their teeth falling out in dreams， vs. 24 percent of men. 24 percent of women discover their partners are cheating on29 them， against only 12 percent of men. Spiders， snakes and other creepy crawlers recur in 21% of womens dreams vs. 13 percent of mens.30

Conversely31， 36 percent of men report flying dreams， against only 29% of women. 16 percent of men meet beautiful strangers vs. 11 percent of women. 19 percent of men strike it rich32 against only 12 percent of women.

1. intrigue： 激起……的興趣；enlighten： 啟發(fā)，啟蒙。

2. 盡管科學(xué)還未能解開夢的謎題，但藝術(shù)家們卻受到夢的啟發(fā)，創(chuàng)作了無數(shù)關(guān)于夢的書籍、電影、詩歌、繪畫、舞蹈和戲劇，試圖更深入地了解人們?nèi)胨瘯r進入的這種神秘的無意識狀態(tài)。stump：把……難住。

3. 在弗洛伊德寫出了《夢的解析》100多年后，我們?nèi)匀粺o法確定夢究竟是什么。

4. 科學(xué)告訴我們，人類的感官能力（如視覺、聽覺等）存在于大腦皮層的不同區(qū)域。當(dāng)人睡覺的時候，這些不同區(qū)域的細胞開始活躍起來，從而產(chǎn)生彼此脫節(jié)而又神秘的幻覺。sensory： 感官的；neocortex： 大腦皮層；randomly： 任意地，隨機地；disjointed： 雜亂的；enigmatic：謎一般的，難以捉摸的。

5. theorize： 建立理論或?qū)W說；manifestation： 表現(xiàn)，顯示。

6. 還有人則假設(shè)夢是一種虛幻的模擬，人在夢里預(yù)演各種威脅性的場景，以免其在現(xiàn)實生活中真的發(fā)生（事實上，一些關(guān)于夢的研究表明，70%的夢均涉及某種威脅）。posit： 假設(shè)；virtual： 虛擬的；simulation： 模擬；rehearse： 排練，演練。

7. 夢經(jīng)?！敖栌谩钡轿覀兊幕貞?，但由于長期記憶與大腦的另一個部分——海馬體相關(guān)，而睡眠期間大腦皮層和海馬體不能夠很好地交流，所以回憶性的夢經(jīng)常是支離破碎的，極少會沿著合理的情節(jié)發(fā)展。hippocampus： 海馬體；fragmented： 分裂的，片斷的。

8. REM sleep： 快速眼動睡眠（rapid eye movement sleep）；incorporate：包含，吸收。

9. straightforward： 直白的，淺顯的。

10. speculation： 推測；integrate： 使合并。

11. mattress： 床墊。

12. 盡管調(diào)查結(jié)果并非那么科學(xué)嚴(yán)謹，卻為研究占去每個人一生1/3時間的這個“虛幻世界”提供了一個有趣的視角。shadow： 虛幻的事物。

13. recurring： 循環(huán)的，反復(fù)發(fā)生的。

14. round up to： 把數(shù)字調(diào)高為整數(shù)。

15. encounter： 遇到。

16. 漫無目的地奔跑，或慢動作地奔跑（26%）。

17. paralyzed： 癱瘓的。

18. intruder： 入侵者。

19. dictate： 主宰，主導(dǎo)。

20. prone to： 易于……，有……的傾向。

21. telecommunication： 電信。

22. paramedic： 護理人員。

23. journalism： 新聞工作。

24. （the） remainder： 其他人；bizarre： 奇異的，怪異的。

25. recall： 記憶力，記性。

26. sweepstake： 賭金獨得，此處指“勝者”。

27. line up with： 與……對齊，與……相符。

28. 調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，男性和女性反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的的類型不盡相同。draw a line： 劃界限。

29. cheat on： 背叛，對……不忠。

30. creepy： 令人毛骨悚然的，可怕的；crawler： 爬行動物。

31. conversely： 相反地。

32. strike it rich： 走運。