By Yasemin Nicola Sakay Updated 2023 Medical News Today

• The coronavirus pandemic has affected our sleep quality and patterns, and our dreams can reflect this impact.
• A study in Italy analyzed people’s dreams during and after lockdown to see if there were any changes.
• In both periods, individuals reported disturbed sleep, negative emotions, and pandemic-related nightmares.
• The researchers found that people had richer and more lucid dreams during lockdown but more dreams post-lockdown.
• The study adds to existing research showing the link between emotionally intense life events, stress, and sleep.

All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our coronavirus hub for the most recent information on COVID-19.

Whether it’s a feeling of being trapped, overall frustration, anxiety, or living in an alternate reality, the coronavirus pandemic has awakened interesting and uncomfortable feelings in many. The recurring cycle of curfews, lockdowns, and reopenings have also become added burdens on mental health.

One of the ways the human body has tried to cope with this flood of overwhelming emotions and containment measures has been through dreams.

Many people who had almost nonexistent or rather dull dream worlds pre-pandemic started to report richer, longer and more frequent, bizarre, and vivid dreams.

Meanwhile, more individuals reported feeling negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and loneliness during sleep.

Researchers from Italy have investigated the impact of lockdown as a factor, and their findings appear in the Journal of Sleep ResearchTrusted Source.

Dreams and well-being

Dr. Serena Scarpelli and her team from the Sapienza University in Rome were observing an interesting trend on social media in 2020, one in which people were sharing reports of their dreams on these platforms, right from the beginning of the first lockdown.

In these reports, individuals claimed to have been experiencing more dreams, which were increasingly more bizarre and vivid. That was when the researchers decided to investigate this “pandemic dreams” phenomenon in a systematic way.

Dr. Scarpelli told Medical News Today that sleep quality and dream activity were important indices of a person’s well-being.

“Just think, for example, that the presence of nightmares is a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We are seeing this in all the pandemic studies, and monitoring dream variables over time will certainly give us more information,” she said.

Recent studies published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep have also suggested isolation may influence psychological distress. However, it did not affect sleep quality in the symptoms researchers measured.

What did the study find?

The study looked into 90 subjects aged 19-41 years, a majority of which were women, and asked them to fill out sleep-dream diaries in the morning and answer online surveys over 2 consecutive weeks.

The first week was while Italy was still in full lockdown, and the second was when its government eased restrictions.

Italy was the first country to confirm a coronavirus case outside of China, where it first emerged. The country saw infections rise in a matter of months, leaving its unprepared health system overwhelmed.

Italy went into a nationwide lockdown between March and May. Web surveys conducted during this period showed that over half of the population reported poorer sleep, more sleep disturbances, and taking hypnotic medication to remedy this.

In light of previous research, the Italian researchers hypothesized that just as lockdowns affected the quality and quantity of our dreams, so would the easing of such strict measures.

Here is a breakdown of their findings.

Lockdown vs. post-lockdown dreams

As people’s sleeping patterns changed during lockdown, such as from getting up later and not having to commute to work, dreams also changed.

Sleeping for longer also increases REM sleep — the stage of sleep involving heightened brain activity, which could lead to more vivid dreams.

According to the data that the researchers collected, Italians awoke more at night, had more trouble falling asleep, recalled more dreams, and had lucid dreams more often during lockdown.

Overall, people reported poorer sleep quality, while over 50% of the participants showed anxiety and PTSD symptoms during sleep.

Bad sleep, or waking up throughout the night, can also cause more lucid dreams, studies have found.

During lockdowns, lucid dreams acted as a coping mechanism to help people deal with the reality of confinement, the researchers said.

However, in the post-lockdown period, individuals had more dreams, including those being in crowded places.

Women vs. men

The authors highlighted that, like other studies of this nature, the low number of male participants makes it unrepresentative of the whole population.

Indeed, 80% of the subjects in this study were women.

Dr. Scarpelli and her team found that, compared to men, women recalled more dreams and experienced more negative emotions during sleep.

However, she added:

“I believe that COVID-19 has impacted both men and women identically. However, it must be remembered that some trait factors influence dream activity, and gender and age are among them.”

Dream contents

Apart from classics, such as teeth falling out, being nude in public, and falling, people saw more pandemic-related dreams in lockdown, including contracting a viral infection, having breathing problems, and suffocating.

The post-lockdown period, in contrast, individuals saw more dreams about being in large crowds or traveling. This could have associations with the easing of restrictions surrounding these areas and fears about returning to pre-pandemic normals, the researchers said.

Similar studies have compared dreams experienced during the pandemic and before the first outbreak.

A study conducted in Canada observed 5,000 people and their sleeping habits. Researchers found three trends with sleep: individuals either spent “extended time in bed” or “reduced time in bed” or had “delayed sleep.”

They also noticed changes in sleeping medication use during the pandemic, compared to pre-outbreak estimates.

A means to cope with ‘collective trauma’

Dr. Scarpelli and her team also revisited the “continuity hypothesis” in their research. Rather than everyday events of minimal significance, they theorized that personal concerns and events of high emotional intensity continued to affect us while we sleep and become incorporated into our mental sleep activity.

And as dreaming and memory processes are interrelated, the study’s findings confirmed the pandemic was a “collective trauma,” manifesting as changes to dreaming, the authors said.

Although we can speak of collective trauma in a global pandemic, it is important to point out that not everyone will have the same experience or react to the same degree.

A majority of people will return to normal and their pre-pandemic routines and patterns once the pandemic is truly over, said Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., the author of Pandemic Dreams.

But she said three groups were likely to suffer negatively from the pandemic, even when it ends.

The first group of people likely to experience trauma and recurring nightmares is healthcare workers, specifically those working on the frontlines at emergency rooms and intensive care units. Second, those who experienced personal losses during the pandemic, and third, those with any sort of anxiety disorder, Barrett told MNT.

Dr. Scarpelli said the impact of lockdowns on sleep quality is incontrovertible, and those who have suffered the most, in this sense, have been those who have undergone major life changes because of the pandemic.

This could be either those who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 or individuals who have lost their jobs or loved ones, she said.

‘It is therefore possible that in the long term, we will see a split between those who will return to a sort of ‘normality’ and those who, having had greater consequences [from the pandemic in their lives], will report sleep problems for a long time.”
– Dr. Serena Scarpelli

Those who have contracted the infection may also be facing the added challenge of long COVID, which health experts define as a series of symptoms ⁠— the most common of which are fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog ⁠— that persist long after the initial infection.

“Inevitably, all these aspects can affect the quality of life of the individual and therefore also the quality of sleep and dream activity.”

Tips for better sleep

If you are having a hard time falling or staying asleep, there are a few things that experts recommend.

Reading or watching something soothing at bedtime could help you drift off quicker, but according to Barrett, it is best to avoid scary movies or anything about COVID-19.

As for physical tension in the body, deep, mindful breathing that activates abdominal muscles and progressive muscle relaxation can bring about calm.

However, if anxiety-filled dreams are the problem, Barrett recommends actively trying to have pleasant dreams.

“The best way is to think of what dreams you would like to have: Dream of a loved one, favorite vacation spot, or many people enjoy flying dreams. Or maybe you have one all-time favorite dream.”

This, or the act of suggesting yourself topics to dream about, is called “dream incubation.”

“Think of that favorite person, place, or flying. Or replay that very favorite dream in detail,” said Barrett, and added to strengthen your incubation, “repeat to yourself what you want to dream about as you drift off to sleep.”

Those not so good at visualizing people, objects, or concepts may benefit from visual stimulants and cues before they fall asleep.

“If images don’t come easily to you, place a photo or other objects related to the topic on your nightstand to view as the last thing before turning off your light,” she said.

How our dream landscapes are shifting

To inform her book Pandemic Dreams, Barrett conducted a survey with 3,700 people from around the world. They described around 9,000 dreams — all of them experienced since the start of the pandemic.

She noticed a few themes popping up more often than usual, such as dreams highlighting:

• fears and anxieties
• trauma
• solution-seeking
• post-apocalyptic or post-pandemic scenarios

“Definitely, people are reporting more dream recall, more vivid dreams, more bizarre dreams, and more anxious dreams since March,” Barrett told MNT.

“Early in the pandemic,” she added, “the best figures indicated that dreams recalled were up by 35%.”

“My survey focuses on the large numbers of these that are about the pandemic. I’m finding those dreams cluster in several categories: literal dreams of coming down with the virus, metaphoric dreams [in which] one is menaced by swarms of poisonous bugs or by a hurricane, tornado, fire, tsunami, or mob of attackers. Other dreams deal with whether one is practicing safe distancing: [Some dreamers] are out and realize they’ve forgotten their masks or gotten too close to someone, [while] others are surrounded by others who crowd too close, touch them, or cough on them.”

– Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.

According to the researcher, a lot of people’s current dreams seem to reflect fears and desires that the pandemic has accentuated.

In a dedicated article, Aspy also writes about the ways in which people’s dreams seem to have changed during the pandemic. He notes, “We’re […] seeing many reports of direct references to COVID-19 in people’s dreams.”

“People are dreaming about things like wearing face masks, getting into fights at the local supermarket, being admitted to hospital, and in extreme cases, some people are dreaming that they’re unable to breathe or that their friends and loved ones are getting sick and passing away,” he adds.

According to Barrett, many dreams seem to echo the sense of social isolation that some people have been experiencing due to physical distancing measures and other barriers that have been preventing them from connecting with friends and family.

“[Some dreams] are more focused on the issue of isolation and loneliness, either by directly portraying it as abandonment on a desert island or alternatively with lots of images of friends, extended family, or parties that one is missing,” Barrett pointed out.

However, not all of these dreams are nightmares or unpleasant. In fact, many people seem to experience in dreams what they cannot currently have in real life.

Dreams in which “the person is cured of the virus or discovers a cure for all mankind” have also been quite widespread in this period, Barrett told MNT.

“There is much more anxiety in these dreams than [one would witness in] a comparison group of dreams from more normal times, but most of them are not nightmares for the average person,” she went on.

Essential workers and those who have experienced ill health during the pandemic seem to be the most likely to have disturbing dreams, according to the results of Barrett’s survey.

“Healthcare workers on the front lines during the local surges are having classic traumatic nightmares, and people who are sick with [the coronavirus] report classic fever dreams,” she told us.

Stressful times lead to more vivid dreams

Why have people’s dreams become more intense, more vivid, or more bizarre? What are the factors that explain these shifts?

Both Barrett and Aspy point to the role that experiencing highly stressful or traumatic events plays in the nature of our nighttime dreams.

“Any big life change tends to stir up one’s dream life and result in more and more vivid dreams,” Barrett said. She added: “My research after 9/11 found an increase in vividness and anxiety in dreams. The shelter-at-home situation was another big life change beyond the virus threat.”

In his article, Aspy also speaks of the impact of the “day residue” on nightly dreams. “This is simply the phenomenon where we often dream about the kinds of things that we think about and do during the day,” he explains.

This means that the high exposure to a sense of anxiety, as well as the information overload about the pandemic through different kinds of media, are bound to influence what people dream at night.

“Also, one of the biggest variables in number of dreams, vividness of dreams, length of recalled dreams, etc., is hours of sleep,” Barrett told MNT. She went on to explain:

“Many [people] who are chronically sleep-deprived due to working long hours and/or an intense social life began catching up on sleep during lockdown, but after the initial week of shopping, figuring out safety precautions, etc. A rebound of lost sleep means an even bigger rebound of lost dream time.”

“We go into REM [random eye movement sleep] every 90 minutes, but each REM period lasts longer than the one before it,” she noted. “If you sleep 4 hours instead of 8, you aren’t getting half your sleep time, you’re getting a quarter of it.”

“Likewise, when you do catch-up sleeping, you are especially catching up on dreaming and have some of the longest REM periods ever — and most vivid dreams,” Barrett said.

Try ‘dream incubation’ to prevent anxious dreams

People can sometimes experience lucid dreams. These are dreams in which the sleeper is aware that they are asleep and dreaming.

Aspy is an expert on the science of lucid dreams. He has also extensively researched strategies that can help a person train to experience lucid dreams.

Given the changes that many people have been experiencing in their regular dreams, MNT asked Aspy if he had had any reports of changes in people’s lucid dreaming patterns.

“Although I’m not aware of any studies that have looked at effects on lucid dreaming during [the] COVID-19 lockdown, I would expect that people would be having more lucid dreams as a side effect of having more stressful dreams about the pandemic,” he told us.

“When we’re stressed, we tend to have more intense and unpleasant dreams, and this, in turn, can increase the chance of becoming aware that you’re dreaming. This is because you’re more activated and aware of what’s happening around you when you’re stressed, and so it’s easier to notice the kinds of anomalies within dreams that tip you off to the fact that you’re dreaming.”

– Denholm Aspy, Ph.D.

Aspy also explained that lucid dreaming techniques could come in handy at this time. He suggested that they could help people have less anxious dreams and, therefore, better sleep.

In his article, he suggests a technique called “dream incubation.” This involves self-suggestion before going to sleep.

“I would say that after dinner time, avoid the news and don’t think about COVID-19. Instead, think about the kinds of things you’d like to dream about,” he writes.

“You can also do things like watching adventure films or reading fiction books about the sorts of dreams that, ideally, you would like to have,” he advises.

Barrett also told MNT that “dream incubation” can be a helpful way to prevent anxious dreams and go to sleep with a positive mindset.

“If someone is bothered by a lot of anxiety dreams, the best way is to think of what dreams you would like to have: dream of loved one, favorite vacation spot, or many people enjoy flying dreams,” she advised.

“If you’re a good visualizer, imagine yourself soaring aloft. If images don’t come easily to you, place a photo or other objects related to the topic on your nightstand to view as the last thing before turning off your light. Repeat to yourself what you want to dream about as you drift off to sleep. The technique makes for a pleasant experience as you’re falling asleep and greatly raises the odds that your dreaming mind will honor your request.”

– Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.

“In one of my research studies, college students trying to dream on a particular topic were successful 50% of the time, but since some of the failures included no dream recall, the success at simply not having anxious dreams should be even higher,” she added, referring to a study that she and her colleagues published in Dreaming in 1993.

According to Aspy, learning to lucid dream might also be helpful for those who would like to gain more control over their nighttime experiences.

“One [reason for this],” he said, “is that many of us have more time on our hands and are looking for new hobbies and activities during lockdown.”

“Another is that learning lucid dreaming not only allows you to have new and interesting experiences that you can’t have during lockdown, such as experiences of exploring new places and going on new adventures, but [it] can also help you directly influence your dreams, manage stressful dreams in real time, and change nightmares into more pleasant dreams.”