Pandemic Dreams: Have you been having unusual dreams?

Have you wondered why you have been having vivid dreams during this lockdown? Well, fear not- you are not alone.

COVID-19 has rendered our pandemic dreams to be coloured with a myriad of unprecedented changes in our daily lives- such as the way we work, study, sleep, eat and more. Moreover, moving away from usual environments and daily stimuli has probably left us with a swirl of unfortunate transitions to make- leading us to have vivid, bizarre dreams.

However, research indicates that having vivid dreams could possibly be helpful in our emotional lives. In Cartwright’s (2010) study, participants who dreamt about their former spouses after separating were reportedly less depressed than others who did not have similar dreams. This was true even if the dreams were unpleasant in nature, such as the former spouse embarrassing them in public. Cartwright (2010) stated that such dreams helped participants ‘move on’ and thus had a healing power. Similarly, many of us may have possibly had ‘random’ dreams about former friends, acquaintances, or some other people who we may have not been in contact with for a while. Thus, in the current era of social distancing and being unable to meet people for a while; our dreams perhaps serve as biological signals reminding us to reconnect with people.

Many studies indicate that the content for our dreams stem from the memories and emotions carried from our waking activities. For example, Barrett (2020) examined the dreams of people during this global pandemic through an online survey. Fairly common dreams include ones where the person actually gets the virus. Dreamers would see themselves being short of breath or having an increasing fever.

What is interesting are other clusters of dreams, which Barrett term as ‘bug dreams,’ which were said to be metaphors for the virus. These dreams include literal swarms of insects and bugs- attacking the person. The question arises- What is the relation between bug dreams and a global pandemic? Barrett cites two reasons for this- one is that ‘I have got a bug’ is a common metaphor for ‘I am sick,’ thus associating it with ‘I have got the virus.’ Secondly, bug dreams could also result from the belief that ‘even little things can harm you;’ thus perhaps being a metaphor for virus particles (Barrett, 2020).

Barrett (2020) also noted ‘anxiety dreams,’ stemming from the pandemic, i.e. dreams regarding wearing masks and social distancing. The dreams were either- one, dreamers going out of their homes and realising that they forgot their masks; and two, dreamers going out and seeing that people around them had forgotten their masks. A final important cluster was that of ‘trauma nightmares’ experienced by healthcare workers, which were not bizarre or metaphorical in any way, but stemmed from their daily duty. Thus, their dreams included them having to take care of dying patients, respirator machines not working- and thus are horrible representations of their daytime experiences.

To conclude- a few tips to deal with possibly negative dreams. Keep in mind that dreams occur for a reason. You can keep a dream journal- you never know, sometimes even unpleasant dreams can help you in the long run. However, if you want to avoid negative dreams, Barrett (2020) stated that visualizing a favourite place or person before you go to sleep drastically increases the chances of one having a similar dream, and makes it less likely that you will have an anxiety dream. Maintaining a consistent bedtime routine- engaging in calming activities such as soaking up in a warm bath, reading a book-can be helpful.

References

Cartwright, R. D. (2010) The twenty-four-hour mind: The role of sleep and dreaming in our emotional lives. Oxford University Press.

Selterman, D. (2020, May 8). What’s Going on With People’s Dreams During Quarantine? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-resistance-hypothesis/202005/what-s-going-people-s-dreams-during-quarantine

Walsh, C. (2020, May 14). What Pandemic Dreams may come. The Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/harvard-researcher-says-dreams-indicative-of-virus-fears/