What do people commonly have nightmares about?

Results from surveys sometimes are meant to get exposure for a product, such as mattresses. On February 12, 2020 there was a blog post by McKenzie Hyde at Early Bird by Amerisleep titled What are the most common nightmares? As shown above, the majority (52.5%) are in the categories of General Well Being or Life Threat. I first saw this survey mentioned in an article by John Anderer at Study Finds on February 10, 2020 titled What are the most common nightmares that people have?

They surveyed 2000 people. Percentages for 32 specific situations are shown above in a bar chart. The Top Five are Falling (64.7%), Being Chased (63.3%), Death (54.9%), Feeling Lost (53.8%), and Feeling Trapped (52.4%). The rest of the Top Ten are Being Attacked (49.5%), Missing an Important Event (43.7%), Waking Up Late (42.5%, Sex (40.3%), and Loved One Dying (35.8%). Public speaking was not on the list, but Taking/feeling unprepared for an exam is - at 27.2% and a rank of #17. Being naked in public (21.2%) only is ranked #22. And Going Bald (4.7%) is last, but presumably not for Donald J. Trump.

Another bar chart shown the gender distribution for 22 situations. Note that for 16 of 22 there is a larger percentage of females than males.

But if you take an insomnia medication like Ambien, then there instead can be weird combinations, as are described in a comedy routine by Patton Oswalt about the Vestibule of Dreams:

“The nightmare group comes out. Oh, it’s the clown with chainsaws for tits. Hello, we’ll be your nightmare. Or it’s the having sex with someone famous. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Scarlett Johansson, here we go. Or it’s the naked at school dream. Or it’s the, you know, I’ve gotta go take this test that I hadn’t studied for. All those classic ones. You take Ambien, go in the vestibule, all the doors open up, and all the groups come out, and they’re like…   

I thought he was having a nightmare. What the h*ll! Is he on Ambien again? Idiot! Alright, you know what, f*ck it. Put Scarlett Johansson’s face on the chainsaw-titted clown. And it’ll be on a plane that’s crashing, and it’s late for a calculus test. And he’s naked, he’s naked. Do the whole thing.”