Imagine waking up, opening your phone, and getting paid… not for answering emails or taking surveys, but for organizing someone else’s chaotic, surreal, half-remembered dream about flying llamas and infinite staircases. Welcome to the bizarre but very real world of dream-sorting — where you get paid to organize other people’s dreams using an app that feels like it was built in a parallel universe. It’s weird, it’s a little trippy, and it might just be the future of side hustles.
I Tried a Dream-Sorting App — Here’s What Happened
Let’s set the scene. One night, while doom-scrolling through yet another list of “Top 10 Ways to Make Money in Your Sleep,” I stumbled upon something that stopped me cold: “Earn $7 organizing strangers’ subconscious thoughts.” At first, I thought it was satire. But no — this was a real app, in beta, inviting users to sort, tag, and help people interpret their recorded dreams.
They called it SomniSort — a mashup of “somnium” (Latin for dream) and “sorting.” It paid in microtransactions per dream session, with bonuses for high accuracy, emotional insight, and — oddly — “poetic labeling.”
Naturally, I signed up immediately.
How Does It Work?
Dreamers record their dreams using voice notes or text when they wake up. These raw, messy notes get uploaded into the SomniSort system. As a dream sorter, your job is to:
- Categorize themes (e.g., flying, falling, teeth falling out, being chased).
- Tag emotional states (fear, joy, anxiety, euphoria).
- Interpret symbols using the app’s built-in library or your own ideas.
- Summarize the dream into a short, poetic sentence (like, “A purple cat leads the dreamer into a cave of mirrors.”)
- Rank the dream based on intensity and strangeness.
For every completed session, you get paid — not in dreams, but real money. The rate? Between $0.50 to $3 per dream, depending on complexity, rating, and speed.
And yes, if the dreamer likes your summary and interpretation, you earn bonuses or tips, sometimes in crypto, and sometimes — weirdly — in NFTs of symbolic dream images you helped create.
My First Dream-Sorting Gig: “The Cheesecake Labyrinth”
The first dream I sorted was titled, mysteriously, “I Couldn’t Find My Exit in a Cheesecake Labyrinth.”
The dreamer had described it in a panic-ridden voice memo, still half-asleep. In the dream, they were stuck in a maze made of cheesecake slices, being chased by a giant spoon wearing glasses.
I tagged the themes:
- Food
- Labyrinth
- Pursuit
- Anxiety
- Transformation (the spoon later turned into a parent figure)
Then I had to write a poetic summary. After three failed attempts, I submitted:
“An edible maze devours the dreamer as the spoon of judgment hunts them down.”
The app gave me a 92% creativity score. The dreamer even tipped me $1 in Ethereum.
I was… hooked.
Why Do People Want Their Dreams Sorted?
At first glance, it seems deeply personal. Why would anyone want a stranger to organize and interpret their subconscious? But SomniSort’s founders (a duo of former Jungian psychologists and AI engineers) argue that outsider interpretation offers unbiased insight.
Plus, the app’s target users include:
- Lucid dreamers trying to track patterns
- Therapists working with anonymized dream banks
- Artists seeking inspiration from the dream pool
- And yes, crypto traders, looking to mint dream NFTs (more on that later)
So, instead of feeling like an intruder, I began feeling like a curator of the collective unconscious.
The Gamification of the Subconscious
One of the weirdest — and most genius — features of SomniSort is its dream leaderboard.
Each week, the app ranks the:
- Top 10 strangest dreams
- Most poetic dream summaries
- Most insightful dream sorters
Guess who made it to #8 after just five days? That’s right: Me. My poetic breakdown of a dream involving a crying toaster in a field of clocks got 500 likes and a $10 bonus.
But beyond ego boosts, there’s strategy. You can level up from “Dream Janitor” to “Dream Architect”, unlocking higher-paying tiers and even access to premium or celebrity dreams (they’re anonymized, but rumors swirl).
Some top dream sorters earn $300 to $500 a month part-time. A few claim they make over $1,000 — especially those who sort in languages other than English.
NFTs? Yes, You Can Mint Dreams Now
Here’s where things go from quirky to downright sci-fi.
The app lets users mint dream-based NFTs — audio visualizations of real dreams, paired with your poetic summaries. As a sorter, you get co-creator credit and a cut of the NFT sale. I personally co-authored three dreams that became limited-edition “SomniScapes.”
One dream — “The Infinite Elevator to Nowhere” — sold for 0.3 ETH ($525). I made 10%, for simply tagging and summarizing it. Not bad for something that felt like writing Tumblr poetry for someone’s nightmare.
Is It Ethical to Monetize Dreams?
Not everyone is thrilled with this trend. Some critics argue that monetizing dreams — especially deeply personal or traumatic ones — turns therapy into entertainment. Others fear data misuse or emotional exploitation.
SomniSort counters by enforcing strict anonymity protocols, including:
- Dreamers never knowing who sorted their dreams
- Sorters only seeing codenames
- AI filters to detect trauma-related dreams (which are excluded unless opted in)
Still, it’s a philosophical minefield. Are we commodifying the most intimate, subconscious part of the human experience?
Maybe. But it also feels like a new art form — somewhere between poetry, psychology, and digital gig work.
What Makes a Good Dream Sorter?
After 200+ dreams, I’ve noticed what separates the pros from the dabblers. Great sorters have:
- Empathy — You’re not mocking someone’s dreams. You’re making sense of them.
- Creativity — Poetic summaries earn better ratings and rewards.
- Pattern recognition — Spot recurring symbols across dream logs.
- Emotional intelligence — Understand how emotions drive dream logic.
And most importantly, they stay weird. The more surreal your mind is, the better you’ll connect with the swirling soup of symbols other people dump into the dream cloud.
Sample Dream Breakdown: “I Was a Lizard Dating a Lightbulb”
Let me give you a real (yes, real) dream I sorted:
“I was a lizard wearing a tuxedo, dining with a sentient lightbulb in a forest restaurant. The waiter was my dead uncle.”
I categorized:
- Transformation
- Romance
- Death symbolism
- Electricity
- Reptilian identity
Poetic summary:
“A cold-blooded lover dines with the light of longing, under the trees of memory.”
Rating? 98%. Tip? $3. Reaction? “Whoever wrote this should do dream theatre.”
Honestly? I might.
Dream Sorting Isn’t a Joke Anymore
At first, I treated it as a side hustle joke — like, “Ha! I’m a freelance dream janitor now!” But the more I did it, the more I realized how powerful and fascinating this work is.
You begin to notice:
- How similar strangers’ dreams are
- How childhood trauma leaks into random symbols
- How many people dream about teeth and waterfalls and old schools
- And how much peace people get from a good summary
It’s strange, beautiful, and kind of profound.
You Can Actually Train For It
SomniSort offers free “Dream Sorting Academy” courses. You’ll learn:
- Jungian archetypes
- Symbolism mapping
- Creative writing techniques
- Ethics of dream data
Graduates even get verified badges and higher payouts. It’s like Duolingo for dreams, but with a paycheck at the end.
The Dark Side of Dream Work
Not all dreams are whimsical.
Some are:
- Deeply traumatic
- Violent
- Intimately personal
- Existentially unsettling
Sorters can opt out of trauma-tagged dreams, but even the normal ones can hit hard. I once sorted a dream titled: “I Met My Childhood Self and Couldn’t Speak.” I needed a break after that.
Dream work can feel like therapy — for both the dreamer and you. Be warned.
The Future: AI + Dream Sorters?
SomniSort is developing AI-sorting assistants, but the human element remains central. The company says:
“Dreams are messy, emotional, poetic things. AI helps categorize, but only humans can feel the poetry of a dream.”
Still, some sorters worry the gig will become fully automated. For now, though, creativity still pays — literally.
Final Verdict: Should You Try It?
If you’re:
- A night owl with a poetic soul
- A lover of weird content
- Looking for a quirky side hustle
- Comfortable reading dream confessions from strangers
Then yes — get paid to organize other people’s dreams. It’s not just bizarre; it’s brilliant.
Even if you don’t get rich, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of humanity — and some truly wild mental images.
Just be prepared. Once you’ve sorted 100+ dreams, you might start dreaming about sorting dreams.
Written by the author, Fatima Al-Hajri 👩🏻💻
✅ Sources
- SomniSort Official App Page (Beta): www.somnisort.app
- Journal of Dream Research: “Symbol Mapping in Modern Digital Dream Logs”
- Reddit Thread: r/WeirdSideHustles — “I Made $200 Sorting Nightmares”
- Dream Psych: “Why We Crave Dream Interpretation from Strangers”
- Personal Experience, Author Trials (2025)
Let me know if you’d like a matching Arabic title or a shorter version for promotion!
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