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Why and how our dreams are affected by our daily lives has long fascinated scientists, and a new study sheds light on how the spread of COVID-19 – and ongoing changes in our habits – is affecting what we dream.
Anger and sadness have become more common in dreams as the pandemic progresses, the study found, and there are stronger links to themes like contamination and cleansing as we deal with the spread of the virus.
While it is already thought that dreams are a natural continuation of what is happening during the time we are awake, this new research offers scientists some interesting insights into how social distancing and hand washing may be more on our minds than dreams than in catching COVID-19.
“These findings confirm the hypothesis that pandemic dreams reflect mental suffering, fear of contagion and major changes in daily habits that directly impact socialization,” the researchers write in their paper, which was published in PLOS One.
The team looked at a total of 239 dream reports submitted by 67 different people in Brazil, both before and after the imposition of blockades in March and April, when the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold.
There was a statistically significant increase in the number of words related to anger and sadness in pandemic dreams and an increase in words related to contamination and cleanliness (the word “bathroom” would qualify, for example).
Pandemic dreams also featured multiple words in general, although there was no substantial difference in the number of words relating to illness, health, death, or life. The number of words relating to positive and negative emotions also remained roughly the same.
The comparison of the dream report “reflects a collective traumatic experience, as often happens during plagues, wars and natural disasters,” the researchers write in their paper.
The focus on changing daily habits around blockages, rather than worries about illness or death, may be due to the fact that dream reports were collected at the start of the first wave of the pandemic, the study authors suggest. (only one study participant reported being diagnosed with COVID-19).
It’s no real surprise that our night dreams are changing while our daily lives are changing – scientists have long accepted that dreams are a way for our brains to process our experiences and emotions – but it’s interesting to see these changes. in specific detail as we all experience similar disruptions in the way we live.
The coronavirus pandemic has also seen an increase in the number of people having vivid dreams, something experts say could be caused by disrupted sleep schedules – or simply having a lot more to process and deal with at the end of each day.
“Overall, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that dreams during the block period reflect the wakefulness challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers write in their paper.
The research was published in PLOS One.
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