What do young children dream about?

Young children's dreams can be a way for teachers and caregivers to share with children and an opportunity for children to describe and even draw dreams. In two different preschool settings, in two different geographical locales, 94 children, aged 3-5 years, shared 266 dreams with a trusted, familiar teacher. Dreams were coded anonymously. The number of words in a dream varied from 3 to 157. Younger preschoolers reported significantly shorter dreams. Three-year-olds, contrary to previous research, were able to report dreams. Over 80% of the preschoolers' dreams included specific actions, and over a third of the dreams included three or more actions. More than 36% of the dreamers encountered and struggled with a 'monster' protagonist. Family members, human strangers, TV/movie characters, and friends were prevalent in the dreams of young children. Scenarios differed by gender. Girls dreamed more frequently of family members. Boys reported more fighting and chasing. Dream themes of boys, compared with girls, were twice as likely to include monsters, wild animals, pets, and curiosity. Power themes were four times more prevalent in boys' dreams. Girls were twice as likely as boys to report joyful dreams.