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If you’ve ever woken up from a dream feeling a little hot in the box about what went down while you were catching up on them Zzzz, you’re not alone. Research out of the University of Montreal published in the journal American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that eight percent of adult’s dreams are of a sexual nature. Sex dreams, it turns out, are pretty common.
Experts have long debated whether or not we should take any meaning out of our dreams. Some say it’s a way for our brains to analyze and process memories and new information. Others – like the ones discussed in this Time Magazine piece – say that we dream simply to keep the visual parts of our brains active while we’re sleeping. It’s reportedly an evolutionary function related to survival. Still, you can’t help but wonder why you keep having those lusty type dreams, over and over again. Here are some of the most common sex dreams and what they could mean.
Cheating On Your Partner
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Waking up after a dream about cheating on your partner can leave you with feelings of extreme guilt. Don’t worry – it likely doesn’t mean that you want to cheat. It could, however, be an indication of jealousy issues in the relationship, says the International Journal of Dream Research. At other times, this dream might indicate a lack of intimacy in the relationship. You might have these dreams when you and your partner have been feeling emotionally distant – perhaps during particularly busy or stressful times in your lives.
BDSM
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If you dreamed of tying someone up, getting some whips and handcuffs involved, putting on a leather dominatrix suit and ruling over a sexual partner, it could mean one thing: you want to take more control in your life.
If you dreamed that you were the one being dominated, it could mean that you want others in your life – from your romantic partner to a colleague – to take more initiative. Either way, BDSM dreams often have to do with an imbalance of a power dynamic in your life and a desire to reset it.
Blue Ovaries
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You know the dream – you keep almost getting to have sex, but then you don’t. You get interrupted. Your partner gets pulled away. You were just about to do it, and now you’re suddenly standing in the middle of a forest alone. You wake up sexually frustrated – or with the female version of blue balls. The meaning behind this dream can be rather simple: you’re not getting as much sex as you need. If you’re in a relationship, your partner may have a lower sex drive than you do. If you’re single, you’re simply not getting laid enough (or perhaps need to masturbate more).
Sex With A Stranger
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This one can have multiple meanings. If you are single, and you can make out some information about the stranger in your dream, that could be your subconscious telling you what you look for in a partner. If you can never make out the person’s face or they are wearing a mask, the dream might be about wanting to explore having a more uninhibited sex life. Perhaps you currently only have sex in committed relationships and attach a lot of meaning to sex, but you’d like to have more care-free sex.
Sex With The Ex
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This is a very common dream and can be quite unsettling. If you are in a relationship, it also merges the infidelity dream with the sex with the ex dream. It can be indicative of unresolved feelings around a breakup. It does not, however, mean you’re meant to still be with that ex. You might just not have worked through everything post-breakup. If you’re in a relationship, you might be having intimacy issues with your current partner, and your subconscious latches onto the last partner you had because they had some qualities your current partner does not.
