CANADA — Conventional wisdom – which so often is merely conventional – insists that women are less interested in sex than men. One might logically conclude that this disinterest continues into the dream state. A recent research project drawing from a small number of Canadian men and women says otherwise. Released in early June and reported during the Minneapolis, MN Sleep 2007 conference, the study contradicts earlier, more traditionally concluded studies, finding that women have a nearly equal number of hot sex dreams as men. It did, however, find that what those dreams consist of are definitely gender based.

Female respondents were nearly twice as likely as males to confess to sleep time trysts with political, musical, or entertainment celebrities, including U2 front man Bono, and film stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Previous and current lovers also made the list, appearing in as many as 20-percent of their dreams.

While men weren’t as likely to be nocturnal star fuckers, they were twice as likely to star in their own dream orgies, often in mysterious or public places. Actual lovers only got screen time 14-percent of the time. In nearly every example, the male dreamers found themselves on the receiving end of female attention, avoiding the tedious reality of often leading the chase.

Study author and associate professor of psychology at the University of Montreal in Canada, Antonio Zadra, proposes that these unconscious thoughts may reflect wistful wishes.

Interestingly enough, of the 3500 dreams recounted during the two studied weeks — 8-percent of which were saucy — the 109 women and 64 men who participated revealed some of the strongest gender bias when it came to what turned them off while in their dream scenes. For women, it was often a flaw in the flow of encounter or a fumbled technique. For men, it was refusal on the part of their female phantom lover to comply with their fantasy wishes – or the failure of the entire venture due to some mishap.

Whether women are actually having more erotic dreams now than before the 1960s – or whether they’re merely more comfortable admitting their dreams – is uncertain, but the fact remains that as reported now, any woman is just as likely to be having one as any man.