Scott analyzes why certain themes appear in recurring dreams, proposing and examining two main theories: one based on prospective memory and another on physical sensations during sleep. Longer summary

Scott explores theories about why certain themes recur in people's dreams. He starts from an anecdote about a Jewish friend having recurring dreams about being unprepared for Shabbat, which mirrors his own dreams about being unprepared for homework or flights. He proposes that recurring dreams might be related to prospective memory - the brain's system for remembering future tasks. He then examines various common dream themes to see if they fit this theory, finding it explains some but not all types of recurring dreams. He also discusses an alternative theory about dreams being based on physical sensations during sleep, concluding there's strong evidence for the sensation theory and weaker but interesting evidence for the prospective memory theory. Shorter summary

Scott analyzes the results of the 2025 ACX reader survey, revealing interesting patterns in reader demographics, beliefs, and behaviors, with some surprising contrasts between vocal commenters and the general readership. Longer summary

Scott presents the results of the 2025 ACX survey, which had 5,975 respondents. He shares several interesting findings, including Trump's slight increase in favorability among readers, Long COVID trends, mask-wearing habits, architecture preferences, the impact of his voting guide, statistics about shoplifting and opinions on punishments, attitudes towards homeless encampments, cryptocurrency usage, and experiences with ayahuasca. The data shows some surprising contrasts between vocal commenters and the silent majority of readers, particularly on issues like crime and punishment. Scott makes the data publicly available with some privacy-protecting restrictions. Shorter summary

Scott announces the annual ACX reader survey for 2025, offering free subscriptions to random participants and highlighting interesting findings from previous years. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2025 ACX Survey, a yearly tradition that helps him understand his readership while enabling him to investigate interesting hypotheses and replicate psychological findings. He references several interesting findings from past surveys, including studies on birth order effects and sexual harassment rates in different fields. The post includes a link to this year's survey and mentions a reward of free one-year paid subscriptions for five random participants. Shorter summary

Scott analyzes ACX survey data on Internet addiction, exploring correlations between usage patterns, life satisfaction, and parental restrictions, while acknowledging the difficulty of establishing causation in the findings. Longer summary

Scott analyzes data from the 2023 ACX survey regarding Internet addiction, focusing on self-reported addiction levels, screen time, life satisfaction, and parental restrictions. The survey included nearly 6,000 respondents and explored correlations between these factors. While results showed that Internet addicts were less happy and that childhood restrictions correlated with lower adult Internet use, the study couldn't establish causation due to possible genetic or cultural confounding factors. Scott also examined how current Internet users plan to restrict their own children's Internet use, finding interesting patterns between self-rated addiction and actual time spent online. Shorter summary