Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 8 hrs ago
Smartphones appear in only a small share of reported dreams
Phones appeared in only a small share of reported dreams, despite their frequent use in daily life.
An analysis of 16,000 dreams found phones in about 3.55 per cent of women’s dreams and 2.69 per cent of men’s.
When phones did appear, they were often lost or not working, and people were rarely able to use them.
Waking people during dreams did not make phones show up more often in what they recorded, suggesting that forgetting unusual details may not fully explain the pattern.
One possible explanation is that the device matters less than its connections to people and experiences that carry emotional meaning.
Dreams often reflect emotional concerns, but why some everyday things are missing remains uncertain.
Researchers are still studying how dream content is shaped and why phones are so rarely reported.
Phones appear in only a small share of reported dreams, according to data from the Sleep and Dream Database.
A recent analysis of 16,000 reported dreams found phones in about 3.55 per cent of women’s dreams and 2.69 per cent of men’s.
When phones do appear, they are often lost or malfunctioning.
Researchers suggest that people may focus more on the content and connections associated with phones than on the devices themselves.
The reasons phones are rarely reported in dreams remain a subject of scientific research.
- Who
- Researchers, including dream researcher Kelly Bulkeley, examined reports of dreams.
- What
- Phones appear in only a small share of reported dreams.
- When
- A recent analysis; no date is stated.
- Where
- The analysis used data from the Sleep and Dream Database. The dreams’ locations are not stated.
- Why
- One proposed explanation is that people are more emotionally concerned with what phones connect them to than with the devices themselves.
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- Dream database
- Sleep and Dream Database
- Dreams analysed
- 16,000 reported dreams
- Women’s dreams
- Phones appeared in about 3.55 per cent
- Men’s dreams
- Phones appeared in 2.69 per cent
- Phone-related dream pattern
- Phones were often lost or malfunctioning
What people are saying
In light of the near-ubiquitous daily use of cell phones, this seems like a dramatic under-representation of cell phones in dream content.
If dream content is a reliable index of emotional importance, then the answer would have to be that people generally don't feel their phones are emotionally important to them.