What Is The Dreamometer?
A living archive of what humanity dreams
We dream — and have always dreamed — of the same patterns.
Falling. Flying. Teeth. Strangers. Houses. Doors. Water rising. What if you could see all of it at once?
The Dreamometer is a free, anonymous, public archive of what the world is dreaming about — right now, tonight, in real time. It is an original instrument, and there is nothing else quite like it.
How It Works
When someone interprets a dream at In Your Dreams, the symbols are extracted — falling, teeth, water, mother, library, stranger — and added to a public count. No names. No identifying information. Just the symbols themselves, joining a living archive that anyone can watch.
The brass dials you see overhead are not decoration. They tally what humanity is dreaming, the dominant emotional weather, the rising and falling of symbols across the world's sleeping minds, and The Thread — the single theme tying this week's dreams together, drawn from the symbols and moods themselves. The Schumann Resonance and the KP index — environmental rhythms that surround human consciousness as we sleep — are read here too.
What It's For
The Dreamometer is for the curious. For anyone who has ever lain awake wondering whether their nightmare is theirs alone, or whether the world dreamed it too.
There are three things you can do here, and none of them cost anything. Look up a symbol and read what the historical dream books actually said about it. Watch the dials to see which symbols are rising tonight. Or add your own dream and watch it join the count.
Where the Meanings Come From
Every symbol entry is quoted from the historical dream books in their own words, archaic spelling and all: Miller 1901, Fontaine 1862, Artemidorus in the 1644 English edition, with Ellis and Freud alongside them. More than two thousand symbols have a sourced entry behind them.
They are period voices, not predictions. A dream book from 1901 tells you what that century believed a snake meant — which is worth knowing, and is not the same thing as what your dream means.
The Most Dreamed Symbols
Some dreams belong to everyone. These are the ones that recur across every archive of dreams ever collected, and each has its own entry:
Falling · Flying · Teeth · Being chased · Water · Snakes · Houses · Death · Babies · Mother · Strangers
If you have ever realised you were dreaming while it was still happening, that has its own page: lucid dreaming, what people do to bring it on, and what the old dream books made of it.
Dreaming of losing your teeth is among the most reported dreams in the world. The older books read it as a warning about loss or reputation; it is now more often discussed in terms of anxiety and control. Both readings are on the page, and the dials will tell you how many other people dreamed it this week.
The Year in Dreams
Every December 31st we publish The Year in Dreams — a record of the twelve months just gone. The symbols that dominated, the ones that faded, the rarest things anyone reported, and the weeks when a single image moved through the archive all at once.
It is the closest thing there is to an annual report on what a year felt like from the inside. Each year keeps its own page and stays there, so the archive builds a record over time rather than replacing itself.
Always Free, Always Anonymous
You can watch the Dreamometer forever without paying anything. Adding a dream is free too — go to In Your Dreams to leave one in the archive.
Only the symbols and the timing are counted. Your dream text is never made public, no names are attached, and nothing that could identify a dreamer enters the archive. A full personal interpretation of your own dream is the one paid thing, and it is never required to take part.
Common Questions
What is the most common dream?
Falling, flying, losing teeth, being chased and water are the ones that recur across every archive of dreams ever collected. Which one is rising changes from night to night, and the dials show it as it happens.
Is the Dreamometer free?
Yes, and it will stay that way. Watching costs nothing and adding your own dream costs nothing.
Are the dreams anonymous?
Yes. Only symbols and timing are counted. No names, no dream text, nothing identifying.
Where do the meanings come from?
From the historical dream books, quoted in their own words — Miller, Fontaine, Artemidorus, Ellis and Freud. Period voices, not predictions.
Somewhere tonight, someone is dreaming what you dreamed.