Women dream more about stress than men, according to Simba’s sleep study

Simba has just revealed its latest AI sleep study that’s looked into the different dreams and nightmares experienced by UK adults. Dubbed the ‘Dream Census’, the study found that women have more stress-fuelled dreams than men, as well as dreams of nostalgia, romance and anxiety.

Alongside its best mattress collection, Simba has recently been conducting research to better understand how sleep affects the mind and body. With the rise in AI technology, Simba has been turning the study results into AI graphic images to fully illustrate its findings.

One of its more recent studies was into sleep deprivation, where it was discovered that bad quality sleep has the biggest impact on the skin, weight, feet and hands. Simba’s latest study has taken a different approach and looked into the different dreams and nightmares experienced by the UK – and the results were sadly not too surprising.

Simba’s Dream Census was conducted in partnership with The Sleep Charity, and looked at 2,000 UK adults for a week to discover what types of dreams and nightmares were most often experienced. The biggest result found was that 30% of women reported dreams linked with stress and anxiety, 10% more than what men reported.

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Simba identified that the reason this figure was so high for women was due to the unique mental load that women tend to go through each day. As explained by Lisa Artis, Deputy CEO of The Sleep Charity, “Dreams are the brain’s way of processing emotions, memories, and stress. The fact that so many people are dreaming about being late, being chased, or feeling trapped suggests high levels of daily anxiety and stress are carrying over into sleep."

Alongside dreams, Simba also looked into nightmares, and found that 1 in 10 UK adults reported nightmares of being chased, lost or trapped, while 16% had nightmares about falling, being unable to move and having their teeth fall out.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, thankfully! Other results found a fifth of the UK did dream of ‘positive dreamscapes’, with many reporting dreams of romance, success and adventure. Aside from stress and anxiety, women’s dreams also featured a lot of nostalgia, and the most common dream experienced by the nation was reuniting with someone from the past.

Sadly, it’s not too surprising that women tend to experience stress-fuelled dreams, but it’s interesting to see how our day-to-day life transfers over to the dream world. This proves that taking the time to unwind after a highly stressful day, and practicing good sleep hygiene can have a positive effect on your dreams, and hopefully stop you from having the creepy teeth nightmare – I’ve had it and I can confirm, it’s terrifying!

For more sleep advice and premium mattresses, head to Simba and make sure to check out these Simba mattress sales, deals and discount codes.