Ask a dream interpreter and certain visions can either mean you’re on the road to winning the lottery or as good as six feet under. Misery, death and prosperity can apparently all be suggested by your subconscious imagination – or, of course, dreams can mean absolutely nothing at all.
If you’ve ever wondered whether people around the world dream like you do, you’re in luck. A new study by bed guide mornings.co.uk (yes, that’s a thing) has unveiled what the most common dream is in every country. By translating the word ‘dream’ into every language and then analysing Google search data, the study revealed countries’ most commonly searched dream subjects.
Looking at the results, it’s safe to say that dreams can say a lot about a country’s psyche. The UK, for example, supposedly dreams most about teeth falling out, which apparently can mean you’ve been feeling anxious or stressed. Which, to be honest, probably feels about right.
The USA, Canada and Australia also both had lots of toothless dreams, but the most common dream around the world concerned snakes. The slithery bastards featured as the most common dream in more than a third of all countries, from Brazil and India to Kazakhstan and Egypt. Other animal-based dreams featured mice, lice, doves, squirrels and fish.
While animals featured a lot in the study, there were plenty of other popular subjects. These included ex-relationships (Japan, Togo, Madagascar), falling into water (South Korea), being cheated on (Andorra) and the dead (Costa Rica, Hungary).
Other countries ranked with slightly more positive subjects. Iceland apparently dreams a lot about snow (obvs), Greece about hats, Ethiopia about shoes, Bhutan about rainbows and Albania about... breasts. Lots of others dreamt about marriage and pregnancy, which we guess can be both good or bad, as well as money and cutting hair. Here’s a map of the world (including the most common dream for every country):
Of course, we cannot emphasise enough just how much the findings of the study should be taken with a pinch of salt. Google searches probably aren’t a reliable study of all dreams, likely skewing towards the particularly weird or freaky. After all, why would you Google a really boring, really uneventful dream?
You can check out the full study here.