Sweet dreams are made of these, but what are nightmares made of? Turns out that depending on your naughty bits—surprise, surprise—men and women differ in what they dream about.
According to the most comprehensive study of nightmares to date—has anybody watched The Cell recently? That sh*t is terrifying dream fodder—researchers have discovered that while some demons creep in the shadows of all our minds (like fear of failure, fear of assault and being chased), gender creates fascinating patterns in what torments our psyches.
The study collected close to 10,000 reports from 572 men and women over several weeks, with conclusions that men are more likely to have nightmares about physical harm via natural disasters and chases/pursuits (including specifically being chased by swarms of insects). Sounds awful.
In contrast, women more often reported feeling emotional peril through interpersonal conflicts—what did that b*tch just say?!—in addition to feelings of inadequacy, frustration or humiliation. Ugh, that sounds awful too.
In addition, women’s dreams more often included a helping character, while men more often faced their harrowing journeys alone.
Slate’s Katy Waldman points out—cleverly—the possibility of reporting bias in the study (i.e. men might be eager to report epic action scenes and be more reluctant to admit nightmares about touchy-feely stuff).
Another possible issue: Of the 9,796 reports, only 253 qualified as nightmares by the study’s definition (apparently nightmares were defined only as dreams so intense and disturbing they woke your ass up) and that represents a relatively small sample size from which to draw conclusions.
Hey! We’ve got an idea: let’s encourage women to handle the wasp infestation in the yard, and encourage men to break the news to ornery extended relatives that their nuclear family will be opting out of the Johnson Clan Jamboree this year.
Scary stuff.
Image: ThinkStock
