Can you choose what to dream about? Maybe not exactly, but a new study has found that it is, in fact, possible to influence the content of your dreams, and it all depends on how you fall asleep!
Study author Calvin Kai-Ching Yu, PhD, an associate professor at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, says your sleep position can affect what you dream about. However, there’s one position in particular that leads to the weirdest, scariest and sexiest dreams: On your stomach!
The study of nearly 700 adults found that sleeping on your stomach was strongly associated with a variety of excitable dreams, such as having sex, being locked up, being smothered or unable to breathe, having a love affair with a celebrity, seeing a UFO, and being naked. Unfortunately, most people aren’t having such charged dreams because prone sleepers are the minority, with the majority being side-sleepers, followed by back, and then belly, says Yu. According to Prevention, past research has found that left-side sleepers have significantly more nightmares than right-side sleepers, whose dreams evoke more safety and relief.
Interesting!