Restless night? One in four Americans (25 percent) says a dream or nightmare has led to them making a change in their life like quitting a job or breaking up with a partner.

A survey examining the sleep quality and dreams of 2,000 Americans found that a quarter (25 percent) feel a dream changed their life in some way.

While the average American polled has a nightmare once a month (1.4 times) on average, according to the survey conducted by Talker Research, Gen Z experiences the most frequent bad dreams (1.8 per month), with nightmares reducing with age and boomers clocking precisely one bad dream per month (1.0). 

But good or bad, is there any point to dreams? The majority of people think so, and 67% believe that both nightmares and good dreams have a deeper meaning. 

As many as four in ten (37 percent) even say they’ve had a dream or nightmare come to reality in some form. 

Dr. Michael Kane, Chief Medical Officer for Indiana Center for Recovery, speaks to why dreams can have significance in our day-to-day consciousness: “What is most interesting about dreams is the fact that your brain still processes the experience as real. And that is why it sometimes spills over into our waking hours.”

Dr. Kane continues, “Nightmares or bad dreams can fill us with anxiety, while a dream where you are confident in facing an enemy can act as the first step to make a change in your life. Whether this is stepping away from a toxic environment or confronting a challenge, it acts as a way to let you know that you can deal with the situation.”

Results of the Talker Research survey also showed that one in six (16 percent) feel they dream every night, while nearly half (45 percent) recall their dreams at least most nights.

Men and women are just as likely to experience nightmares (both 1.4 times per month), but women are slightly more likely to think that dreams have a deeper meaning (61% men vs. 72% women).

Women are also more likely to feel a dream or nightmare came to fruition, and they’re also more likely to have taken action as a result of a dream than men.

Rather than taking things at face value, Dr. Kane suggests looking more to where your dreaming and waking feelings align as an indication on whether it carries significance: “The best way to interrogate your dreams is to look at the emotional core of the dream. Don’t try to make sense of every detail or action within it. Try to link the emotion you experienced during the dream to the emotions you are experiencing while you are awake. 

“If you find the situation where you experience these emotions, it can be a sign that you need to take action in that specific region of your life.”

Christa Hamilton, Astrologer at Practical Astros cautions that to interpret dreams fully requires significant internal reflection: “To take a dream out of context, with little self-analysis, isn’t always the best course of action. It would be like reading a paragraph of dialogue in the middle of a book without any idea who the characters are. 

“If you aren’t practiced in interpreting your dreams, trying to interpret a “big” dream is incredibly difficult. We often don’t trust ourselves and therefore, don’t trust the dream. If a dream “haunts” you long after you’ve woken up or if a dream continues to repeat, then that dream is worth considering on a deeper level.”

Research methodology:

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans; the survey was administered and conducted online by Talker Research between April 3 to April 8, 2026.