From Abracadabra to Zombies

• a
• b
• c
• d
• e
• f
• g
• h
• i
• j
• k
• l
• m
• n
• o
• p
• q
• r
• s
• t
• u
• v
• w
• x
• y
• z

reader comments: dreams

5 Nov 1998
Mr. Carroll, I have a small correction. You wrote "With 5.9 billion people having an average of 250 dreams each per night," I believe that, on average, people have 5 to 7 dreams per night. 

Bob Novella
The New England Skeptical Society

reply: There are typically several distinct periods during sleep when dreaming occurs. Most dreaming takes place during the four or five REM periods. If we relied on reports of dreamers to determine how many dreams per night a person has on average, the number would probably be smaller than 5. That is, I doubt if most people remember 5 to 7 dreams per night. A further difficulty in counting dreams is the fact that dreams are often so incoherent that a number of disconnected "themes" might be counted as one dream by one person, while another might count the same dream as ten or twenty distinct dreams. Since it is the "theme" rather than the exact dream that will be counted as a clairvoyant hit by those who believe in such things, I agree with Terence Hines that dreams ought to be counted by "themes" not by REM periods. I grant that the number of themes he arrives at is partly guesswork. In any case, he seems to have based his number on The Mind in Sleep: Psychology and Psychophysiobiology (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978) edited by A. Arkin, J. Antrobus and S. Ellman.

Hines writes: "In a single REM period, there are upwards of fifty dream 'themes'--snippets of more or less (often less) coherent 'story.' Thus, a normal individual will have at least two hundred fifty (five REM periods times fifty dream themes per period) dream themes per night." One might quibble about the exact number of dream themes on average a person has each night, but it is certainly much greater than the average number of REM periods.

17 Aug 1998
I enjoyed your recent article on dreams, and I wanted to share a story with you.

My father, the late Dr. Silas White, taught Physiological Psychology at Muhlenberg College for over twenty years. He discussed dreams and their lack of relation to the future in his class. He was frequently asked questions along the lines of, "But how can you explain that I dreamed that my brother broke his leg, and I found out the next day that he broke his leg at summer camp?" His stock response was, "How can you explain that I've dreamed dozens of times that I was walking around downtown Allentown, and I panicked when I realized I wasn't wearing any clothing, but it has never happened to me?"

Also, doesn't every graduate student dream at some point that somebody offhandedly asks them, "So, are you ready for that final in Electro Theology?" Of course, you then realize that you signed up for the class but forgot to ever go to it. I never had it until my father told me about it. Then I had it all the time.
Aaron White

dreams