Episode 38: Sex Dreams And What They Mean

Where do our dreams come from? And what, if anything, do they actually mean? As someone who is a very vivid dreamer every single night, I have always been curious to learn more about the psychology of dreaming (including our sex dreams), so I invited a dream expert onto the podcast to explore what the science actually says.

For this episode, I interviewed Dr. Dylan Selterman, a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland. He is a social and personality psychologist who has published several studies on the topic of dreaming.

Some of the topics we explore include:

• Why do we dream in the first place? Does dreaming serve a purpose?
• How many times per night do we dream, and what are the most common dream themes?
• How often do people dream about sex, and why do some people dream about it more than others?
• Do sexual and romantic dreams reflect our waking experiences?
• How do dreams influence behavior in waking life, including how we feel about our partners?
• What do we know about lucid dreams (dreams where you recognize that you’re in a dream)?
• What do our dreams mean? And is there any value in analyzing them?
• Is there any truth to Freud’s theories on dreaming?

To learn more about Dylan, follow him on Twitter at @seltermosby and check out his Psychology Today blog titled The Resistance Hypothesis.

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Credits: LEGIT Audio (Podcast editing) and Shutterstock/Florian (Music). Image created with Canva; photos used with permission of guest.