[originaltext]Liz: Hello Fred. You don’t look so good. What’s the matter?Fred:

Liz: Hello Fred. You don’t look so good. What’s the matter?
Fred: I just didn’t have a good sleep. It seemed I dreamed all night. Do you dream a lot when you sleep?
Liz: Yes. In fact everybody dreams. And everyone needs to dream in order to stay healthy. There are two kinds of sleep, active sleep and-passive sleep. The passive sleep gives our body the rest that is needed, and prepares us for active sleep in which dreaming occurs. The dream stage is very important in our sleep cycle. When the person is dreaming, the eyes begin to move. Through the night, people alternate between passive and active sleep. The cycle is repeated several times throughout the night.
Fred: Do you know how long people usually dream during eight-hour sleep?
Liz: For about one and a half hours on average. So we need active sleep because dreaming helps us to rest our minds.
Fred: I see. All people experience dream cycles.
Liz: Can you remember dreams? What did you dream last night?
Fred: Oh yes. It was terrible. I dreamed that I was chased by someone or something. I don’t remember very well. So I was running all the time.
Liz: This is a very common type of dream. Over 70% of people have dreamed that they were being chased or pursued by something and often in the dream they find themselves unable to flee for one reason or another. These often occur during periods of great anxiety and may be related to frustrating situations which are frequently occurring in their waking life. Anxiety dreams are amongst the most common types reported and are particularly common amongst women (78%). Only 63% of men experience them.
Fred: How about dreams of violence?
Liz: Dreams featuring scenes of violence are much more common amongst men (50%) than amongst women (44%). The differences are not very great. Perhaps men are simply more likely to talk about violent things and it must be remembered that women are often the most ardent fans of TV westerns and wrestling programmes.
Fred: Are there any more kinds of dreams that men experience more than women?
Liz: Yes. When people are tight in finances, they often have dreams which involve finding coins showering from a slot machine or picking up money from the ground. About a quarter of men have had this kind of dream, but only 15% of women. This probably relates to the fact that money matters are more likely to preoccupy the male than the female.
Fred: Do you sometimes have dreams about falling?
Liz: Yes. It is a common type of dream too. Dreams about falling are very common with about 75% scoring average. The most frequently reported is one in which typically one trips over something, stumbles or falls and wakes up with a jump.
Fred: How do you explain this?
Liz: Psychologists now believe that these dreams do not have any great emotional significance, but are merely due to muscular spasms which take place on the threshold between consciousness and sleep. Well, dreams about flying or floating in the air are often considered to be related to an unconscious wish to escape from something. They are in fact about reported by about 50% of dreamers. Dreams about the sea are also common. Women (40%) are far more likely to experience than men (27%).
Fred: What other kinds of dreams women experience more than men?
Liz: Dreams about famous people. Women are more likely to dream about famous people, politicians, pop stars, film stars and the like (33%) than men (27%). One very common dream, which almost certainly falls into the wish fulfillment category, is when people report that they are actually meeting famous people in their dreams.
Fred: What do you think of the recurring dreams?
Liz: Recurring dreams are very common too. 70% of people reporting them on average. In most cases recurring dreams are of a vaguely unpleasant kind and are almost certainly caused because the individual has a problem of a significant kind which he is unable to resolve in his waking life. The solving of this problem almost always leads to the disappearance of tile recurring dream. Women are more likely to have recurring dreams than men.
Fred: That’s so interesting. Well, what causes people to have bizarre dreams, such as dreams about the loss of teeth?
Liz: Oh, some psychologists believe that it’s a memory dream, referring back to that significant period in your baby life when teeth fell out. Another explanation is that you are suffering from low level toothache which is not enough to get though to the conscious mind but which trickles through into your dreams.
Fred: Do you believe that dreams about the future will come true?
Liz: Well, dreams about the future which come true are very frequently reported though it is fair to say that scientists are very doubtful about whether these are simply coincidence or genuine peeps into the future. Almost 30% of people believe that they have had at least one such dream.
Fred: That’s so instructive. You are an expert in this field. Liz, how do you know so much about dreams?
Liz: Don’t you remember that I’m majoring in psychology? I have done some research on the topic Sleep and Dreams.
Fred: Thank you so much.