Descriptive Evidence of Dreams

• In 15% of the dreams, the dreamer was by himself.
• In the remaining dreams, 45% of the people other than the dreamer were strangers to the dreamer.
• 37% were friends or acquaintances.
• 19% were relatives.
• Only 1% of the people in the dreams were public figures.
• Young people tended to dream more about their peers.
• Older people dream more about their families.
• Children dreamed about their parents.
• Parents dreamed about the children.
• Wives dreamed about their husbands and vice versa.
• Plots tended toward more play than work, more traveling then staying in the same place, more aggressive than friendly ones.
• Many of the dreams appear to concern gratification, particularly of sexual and aggressive impulses.
• Apprehension was the dominant emotion in 40% of the reported dreams.
• Anger, excitement, and happiness each occurred in 18% of the dreams.
• Color was reported in 29% of the 3,000 dreams for which this question was asked.
• Colors seem to be unpredictably random in dreams, though apparently some people always dream in color and others never do so.

Investigator: CS Hall
Source, date: "What people dream about," 1951
Location: Western Reserve University
Subjects: Educated adults