Weird

Vivid Quarantine Dreams Seem To Be A Thing—A “Certified Dream Analyst” Weighs In

Are you having the weirdest dreams of your life while you’re stuck in perpetual self-isolation as the world as we know it shuts down for the foreseeable future? Well, you’re not alone (except for literally, in isolation).

People on Twitter have been chatting about how vivid and wild their dreams have gotten ever since the coronavirus outbreak hit.

According to a dream expert, stress is to blame.

“When we are going through a stressful time in our life, our dreams will be a metaphor for the stress and magnify it,” self-described Certified Dream Expert Lauri Loewenberg told Grazia.

Stress? Are we all stressed? Gosh, I can’t imagine what would make us all be SO COLLECTIVELY STRESSED that our dreams seem more realistic than the current monotony of our indoor day-to-day lives.

But it also isn’t exactly that simple.

Michael Nadroff, a director in Mississippi State University’s psychology program, told Time that the greater levels of anxiety many people are experiencing also can cause us to wake up more frequently during the night and stay awake for longer periods of time when we do, which would make us more likely to remember more of our dreams, and in greater detail, than we would if we slept through the night.

It’s easy to see how people’s brains are jumping into some of these dreams.

Other dreams seem way more random, but all of our brains are just clearly working overtime while we doze.

But there are ways to try to stop the dreams, if they’re troubling you.

Loewenberg says that de-stressing and getting rid of negative thoughts before you sleep can help your dreams become more peaceful.

She suggests journaling about things that are bothering you before bed.

“In the writing process, include the positive outcome you would like to see as well as something you can actively do to reach that outcome,” she advised. “This allows you to sort out all those jumbles stressful thoughts and it gets them out of your head and onto paper.”

Or, if you can, just enjoy your wacky dreams while they last. Reality isn’t that great right now, so maybe visiting imaginary worlds where you can touch people and buy groceries without dying is worth a couple restless nights.

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Rachel Kiley