Sex Dreams Equal 8% of Adults' Dreams

Sex dreams make up 8% of men's and women's dreams, a
University of Montreal researcher announced today.

Antonio Zadra, PhD, asked 109 women and 64 men to keep a dream diary for two
to four weeks. Participants were about 30 years old, on average.

According to Zadra, only two other studies have probed the frequency and
content of sexual dreams, and both of those studies were done more than 40
years ago.

In Zadra's study, participants jotted down every dream they had, whether it
was sexual or not. All in all, they noted 3,564 dreams. Of those dreams, 292
included sexual content.

"Sexual intercourse was the most common type of sexual content, followed
by sexual propositions, kissing, and fantasies," Zadra writes.

For men and women alike, sexual dreams accounted for 8% of all reported
dreams. Zadra also notes that "masturbation accounted for approximately 6%
of both male and female sexual dreams and an orgasm was experienced in
approximately 4% of all sexual dreams."

However, there were some gender differences in sex dreams.

"Men's sexual dreams were more likely to take place in public or unknown
settings, to have the dreamer initiate sexual contact, and to involve unknown
characters or multiple partners," Zadra writes, adding that "gender
differences in the content of everyday sexual dreams may reflect people's
waking needs, experiences, attitudes, and concerns with respect to
sexuality."

His findings were presented today in Minneapolis at Sleep 2007, a joint
venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research
Society.

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By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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