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4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

The 6 Most Common Sex Dreams and What They Probably Don’t Mean

The brain isn’t a reliable narrator.

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You wake up, momentarily confused, a little guilty, and then fully aware of what just happened in your dream. The person involved was not your partner. Or maybe it was someone you can’t even begin to explain. Welcome to a completely normal experience.

Sex dreams are one of the most universal human experiences nobody talks about. According to Psychology Today, around 75% of women and 85% of men report having had an erotic dream at least once in their lives, and a 2007 study surveying more than 15,000 people found sexual content in roughly 8% of all dream reports.

It’s not just you. Our brains use sex in dreams the way a novelist uses metaphor: to get at something they can’t say directly. Here are the most common scenarios, and what they probably don’t mean.

The most panic-inducing entry on the list. You had a dream about your ex, and now you’re sitting with the disturbing question of what that says about you. Probably not much. Research published in the journal Dreaming found that around 70% of........

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