February 24, 2014 2.55 pm This story is over 121 months old

Lincoln residents tweet most nightmares, study finds

Jar of Dreams: People in Lincoln are getting from some of the worst dreams in the UK, according to a new interactive online ‘dream catcher’.

People in Lincoln are getting from some of the worst dreams in the UK, according to a new interactive online ‘dream catcher’.

The Jar of Dreams website monitors the tweets users send out when they wake up and analyses the content to reveal whether their dreams are ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘weird’.

The tool found that sleepers in Lincoln are among those having the worst dreams, with 30% using key words and symbols ‘bad’, ‘sad’, ‘worst’ or ‘:(‘.

Jar of Dreams tool screenshot.

Jar of Dreams tool screenshot.

Leicester residents scored the highest for bad dreams tweets with 45% publishing details of their restless nights.

Leeds came second with 33%, Norwich third with 31% and Lincoln came fourth.

In contrast, tweeters in Swansea had the most pleasant dreams overall at 50%, closely followed by Hull (47%) and Nottingham (39%).

Happy dreams had 19% of tweeters smiling when they woke up, with just a handful (3%) waking up from a sad dream. Wired dreams made it into 9% of the nation’s nights.

One dream tweeter from the University of Lincoln said: “There were so many guinea pigs in my dream… That makes me sad”

Other Lincolnshire tweets included: “I had the most awful dream the hairdressers dyed my hair black and cut it all into a bob but the top layers stuck up like chicken feathers”

Another said: “Dreamt I served Rupert Grint sausage and chips, that dream was a good dream.”

Jonathan Warren, Director at Time4Sleep, who developed the tool, said it provides a valuable insight into the nation’s sleep habits: “We spend a third of our lives asleep, and have finally been able to use technology to gain a fantastic insight into how the nation sleeps and dreams.

“We thought it would be interesting to see the mood of people’s dreams every night, and how the content can change depending on their work, personal life or what’s been going on in the world that day.”

The top 10 cities for bad dreams:

  1. Leicester (45%)
  2. Leeds (33%)
  3. Norwich (31%)
  4. Lincoln (30%)
  5. Aberdeen (29%)
  6. Worcester (28%)
  7. Sheffield (27%)
  8. Manchester (26%)
  9. Liverpool (26%)
  10. York (25%)

The top 10 cities for good dreams:

  1. Swansea (50%)
  2. Hull (47%)
  3. Nottingham (39%)
  4. Newcastle (38%)
  5. Cardiff (38%)
  6. Birmingham (37%)
  7. London (36%)
  8. Glasgow (36%)
  9. Aberdeen (33%)
  10. Edinburgh (33%)