What Are Popular Dreams? Eating Ice Cream, Marrying A Celebrity

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Funny, sad, erotic, bizarre and sometimes plain terrifying, dreams seem completely mysterious. But while each dream is unique to each individual, there may be common threads to our sleeping thoughts.  And wouldn’t you know it: eating ice cream and having a romance with a celebrity are top of the list.

In a new study in the November issue of the journal Dreaming, Calvin Kai-Ching Yu of Hong Kong Shue Yan University surveyed 608 individuals to try to determine what sort of dreams are most common.

(See TIME’s story on the science of dreaming.)

Previous research has shown that dreams cross ethnic and cultural boundaries—being chased, for example, seems a nocturnal fear wherever you live. So what dreams did participants in this study revisit the most often?

The most frequent dream–which over half of participants reported having on a regular basis–involved a teacher/pupil relationship and studying.  Over half of the sample also repeatedly dreamed of “searching for a certain place” and “falling,” according to a report on the study at Discovery News.

But here is where it gets fun: “Eating delicious foods” was the fifth most regularly dreamed theme, higher ranked than flying or being chased. And six of the top 20 regular dream themes involved fantastical inventions. One half of participants, for example,  dreamed of having a love affair with a celebrity.

But to those Freudians who think dreams are the seat of our base desires, it was romance rather than sex that prompted celebrity dreams: only 22 percent dreamed of having a sexual relationship with a celebrity.

(See TIME’s top ten celebrity-relationship flameouts.)

Given these findings, we at NewsFeed have decided it’s time for a nap.