Are You Dreaming?

5 minute read time

For many of us, Covid-19 feels as if we’re living in an alternate reality. Nothing is normal, with few things certain. As humans, we’re adaptable but ultimately conditioned to routine and when this is thrown askew with something so drastic like a worldwide pandemic, our natural state is altered, both during our waking times and, as it turns out, while we’re sleeping.

Our dream states have been ultimately altered; how much we dream, what we remember, and the nature of our dreams themselves. It was apparent from the first lockdown. Society quite unexpectedly experienced what experts are calling a “dream surge”; a global increase in the reporting of vivid, bizarre dreams, many of which are concerned with coronavirus and social distancing.

I’ve dreamt about the isolation most of all; the stretching of time, the lack of human contact and more somberly, the death of many loved ones. I wake and instantly recall the details, the anxiety, the fear – and unlike dreaming pre-Covid, the usual glow or haze in which usually dreams fade away seems to be missing - our subconscious is on high alert.

The reasoning, according to Scientific American is due to the extraordinary nature of the pandemic. “While widespread changes in dreaming had been reported in the U.S. following extraordinary events such as the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, a surge of this magnitude had never been documented. This upwelling of dreams is the first to occur globally and the first to happen in the era of social media, so it means there is, at least, an opportunity to study these dreams in a way we’ve not been able to before.”

Psychologist Allison Keating agrees that the pandemic has brought about “tsunami dreams,” which, during Covid, are unfortunately a part of our new normal. And it all goes back to anxiety and our daily stressors impacting our sleeping thoughts.

“I've been hearing a lot of the usual kind of anxiety dreams, where people are back sitting their Leaving Cert, where they're trying to remember their English poetry, and they're not prepared. People are having a lot of tsunami dreams. It's such a classic dream where we literally feel the weight of it. These are really lucid dreams. So they feel so intense and real and terrifying,” she says.

“It's that sense of knowing the waves are coming and seeing them coming. And then waiting for an attack, and though most people never actually get to the point where they're under because they’ve woken up, it does encapsulate how people are feeling. It's this constant sense of impending doom. And it keeps us crashing on top of us.“

“People feel like they're drowning physically, mentally and emotionally, with exhaustion. Never having time to do what needs to be done. In particular, I think it's been very, very difficult for people for the last few weeks, and I think what's happened is everyone is so exhausted, that their nighttime is reflecting the chaos of their daytime.”

“People are also having very disturbed sleep or interrupted sleep, they're waking up early, they are classic anxiety signs.”

In terms of what we can do to help the especially lucid episodes, Allison says it comes down to small changes made during the day.

“Ask what can you actually let go of, what can you unsubscribe from in your life – and I feel like it's not catch-up TV anymore, it’s a catch-up of life. And maybe we can catch up. I think that's what the dreams are about - the sense of being constantly chased, or constantly on. And so I would look to your daytime. Everyone knows all the basic sleep hygiene factors they are supposed to engage in, from no coffee after 3 pm etc, but it's actually taking a step back and saying, ‘this is too much, I feel overwhelmed.’ Identify the areas you feel overwhelmed in. And ask what can you reduce, or not engage in at all?”

“Can you go back to work? Or can you speak with them if it’s too much? Because I think people are trying to keep up this high level of productivity at work and with the mixture of productivity and this kind of toxic presenteeism that people are having from working from home is heightened, if they're homeschooling and trying to run a home. So the mental load is huge.

“And inevitably, that is going to show up in our night, in terms of our dreams and our nightscape, of which, unfortunately, there is no escape at the moment, I think that's really, really difficult. So we have to actually prioritise our sleep. And the only way we do that is by changing the quality of our day. And they're small things in the form of a D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Rest) challenge, whereby you take time, every single day, and it could just be to have a cup of tea or a break with some quiet time. Our homes are very noisy at the moment, so if everybody's there, you just need some quiet time. Your brain needs quiet time to process. And that's what's happening with the nightmares – your brain is trying to process what's happening during the day.”

So that explains it. Pass the chamomile tea…

Jennifer McShane, March 2021