A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Missouri, Eric Bernsee has enjoyed residing in Greencastle for more than 25 years. Years of consuming McDonald's iced teas, Dairy Castle flurries and Marvin's GCBs have helped make him the man he is today.

Indiana No. 1 in something? Dream on ....

Posted Wednesday, September 24, 2014, at 2:23 PM

Probably the last time anyone really remembers Indiana being ranked No. 1 for anything good was back when Hoosier hoops ruled the hardwood.

Usually state rankings find us in some kind of a dogfight with Mississippi and Arkansas for all the wrong reasons.

Like smoking prevalence. Obesity. Public health funding. You know, fun stuff like that.

Just check recent studies. Indiana ranks 31st in divorce rate. We're 39th in life expectancy.

And apparently we can't, as the Rolling Stones sang, get no satisfaction. We're 50th in a study there. Hey, who knew Mick Jagger was a Hoosier?

But look out now, finally a new survey says Hoosiers are the best at something. Apparently we are big dreamers. Big, big dreamers.

No, not about our futures or our families or possible fame and fortune. Not those dreams.

Not even typically dreamy Hoosier things like hoops or cornhole or morel mushrooms or pork tenderloins or spaghetti in our chili seem to come to mind in our sleep.

Nope. We Hoosiers lead the nation in ... drum roll, please ... dreaming about sex. At least that's according to something called the American DreamsCloud Index.

Now before you get too excited, only about 14 percent of all Hoosiers apparently dream about sex. But that is nearly twice the national average of about eight percent.

And when Hoosiers dream what they dream, most commonly (or so the study says), the dream involves either an ex or a person of interest.

Hmmm ... not the French maid?

Over a six-month period DreamsCloud studied the responses of some 110,000 adults to produce its not-so-dreamy results.

Here's how the study works: DreamsCloud, an online database of more than 1.7 million dreams, encourages users to post their dreams anonymously for others to digest. Other users then can comment on what dreams may come under, all under the guise of helping the dream weavers dissect what might fuel their fantasies.

Meanwhile, it should also come as no surprise that Hoosiers lead the nation in dreaming about pregnancy and babies. Some 28 percent (nationally the figure is 24 percent) of Indiana respondents saying they had experienced such dreams.

What else do Hoosiers dream about?

To hear DreamsCloud tell it, school is prevalent in 25 percent of our dreams. Homes -- the American dream? -- are at 14 percent and cars, fancy or otherwise, are at less than 10 percent.

And what about smooth streets and sound bridges? High-paying jobs and mild winters?

Yay, right, dream on ...