Since the start of the pandemic, many people around the world have noticed uncanny changes in the nature of their nightly dreams. They report having stranger, more unsettling, and more vivid dreams. We have spoken to two dream experts to better understand this phenomenon.
Share on PinterestMany people report experiencing strange and vivid ‘corona dreams.’
“I was being held hostage by a nasty man with a gun, and the only thing my loved ones were worried about was the fact that I hadn’t been able to prepare their dinner.”
“I had [a dream] where I was stranded at sea with thousands of planes exploding overhead in a red sky, with debris falling all around me.”
“[I dream] about adventure in distant lands, exploring [and] meeting new people whom I’ve never seen [before]. I wake up feeling saddened that I’ll never see them again.”
These are just a few of the examples that Medical News Today readers gave when we asked them what kinds of dreams they had been having since the start of the pandemic.
Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, many countries around the world have taken stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus. These have included regional and nationwide lockdowns and travel restrictions.
People have been reporting the impact that the pandemic and resulting measures have had on their mental health and general well-being, but other effects have surfaced as well.
One of the most unusual phenomena that people have reported during the pandemic is a change in the nature or intensity of their nighttime dreams.
More and more people have been noticing that, in recent months, their dreams appear to have become stranger than usual, or that they have taken on a more vivid quality.
Indeed, this phenomenon has become widespread enough for it to have gained nicknames such as “quarandreams” or “corona dreams.”
So, what is going on? To learn more, MNT interviewed two experts on dreams and dreaming: Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., and Denholm Aspy, Ph.D.
Barrett is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Hi Sue! I don’t have a question about dreams and Covid, because I really haven’t had any surprisingly. I read the Bible a lot and pray before bedtime and maybe that is what’s keeping them away.
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