Antonio Zadra and Genevieve Robert of the University of Montreal collected 9,796 dream reports, written by 572 participants over the course of two to five weeks.

They found that interpersonal conflict was twice as frequent in women’s nightmares as men’s. Men were much more likely to report nightmares involving disaster or calamity, such as floods, earthquakes or wars.

The researchers noted that women report far more nightmares than men. Exact cause has not yet been proven. Zadra argued that women, in general, experience higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders, and nightmares tend to occur in times of stress.

By Lee Shin-young, Intern reporter (sylee@heraldcorp.com)