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How different are the dreams of college students today as compared to 40 yrs back? How are men and women’s dreams different? Is there a particular subject dominating the dreams of college students? Who is having more sex in their dreams? Who is shopping more?

This article is based on the research article recently published by Dr. Raymond Rainville and his colleague. Dr.Raymond passed away this October. He was an expert in the study of sleep and dreams, and wrote a volume entitled “Dreams Across the Life Span”. May his soul rest in peace.

Eighty different dream diaries from students attending a course on sleep and dreams where collected from 1997 to 2007, with each diary consisting at least 20 dream reports (2400 dreams). The dreams were then coded. The codes include: food sharing, potential mate, competition, wedding, shopping, pregnancy, male bonding, multiple self-representation, religion/philosophy, and wild vs. pet animal dreams. Also, each dream was categorized as recognizable or anonymous. Wherein, recognizable dreams included either family or friends, while anonymous dreams included strangers.

Using the data collected along with dream data available from 1966 (HVDC), Dr.Raymond and team performed vigorous comparisons in multiple perspectives. We here present you with some of the vital information extracted from these comparisons.