‘Dreams are like a friend who can see something you can’t’
Since the start of the pandemic, many have noticed strange changes in the nature of their nightly dreams
WOMEN’S health practitioner and dream specialist Delphi Ellis explains why better understanding our dreams may help us through lockdown.
How is the pandemic affecting our dreams?
According to the Lyon Neuroscience Centre, dream recall has been up 35% since the pandemic started.
One of the reasons may be that we’re staying in bed a little longer in the mornings because of lockdown, say if we don’t have an early morning commute. If we’re sleeping in more, we could be dreaming for longer, so more likely to remember them.
Are our dreams reflecting how we feel about the pandemic?
In many ways yes, because that’s often what dreams do; they talk to us about what’s on our mind or how we may be feeling.
So if you’re anxious about the pandemic and the impact of it, it makes sense you’d dream about it.
Are pandemic-related dreams helpful?
From my perspective all dreams are helpful because they’ll often be telling you something that’s been bothering you, or maybe even offering a solution to a problem you’re having — it’s one reason we sometimes say “sleep on it”.
Some people might be having really bad dreams — nightmares — and so they might not think they’re helpful at all, especially if they’re getting in the way of sleep. But often if we take time to explore what the dream is saying in a way that feels safe, it can help.
If nightmares are affecting your sleep quality, it’s good to let your doctor know in case they can also help.
Could you give some examples of common dreams being experienced? Are there any dream metaphors unique to the pandemic?
One dream I’ve heard people talk about is dreaming about flies or insects. Traditionally, before the pandemic, we might have thought of flies as pests, so they might have represented someone who annoys us.
But since the outbreak, if we think in metaphor, an insect is also a ‘bug’, which is also another name for a virus.
So if people have been attacked by flies in their dream, they may naturally be worried about catching Covid.
Another dream people have said they’ve had is that there’s something going on with their hands.
Again, before the pandemic, dreaming of your hands may have been something to do with work, but with so much emphasis on hand hygiene it makes sense if our attention is on them when we sleep.
How would a better understanding of dreaming help us live through the pandemic?
I often say dreams are like a friend who can see something you can’t. If you pay attention to your dreams, they might provide insights that can help you navigate life. But like any friend, you don’t have to take their advice.
A helpful way to make your dreams work for you is to keep a dream diary; this can help you spot patterns in your dreaming.
You might find you have a certain dream around an anniversary of an event, or every time you see a certain person, and this can help you make sense of it.
What are the misconceptions — if there are any — around dreams and dreaming?
Some people say they never dream, but we know that we all do, every night — it’s just that we don’t remember them. There’s lots of reasons people don’t recall their dreams: one is that, as children, someone may have been told their dreams don’t mean anything, especially if they had a nightmare when they were little.
But the most recent research by Mark Blagrove and others at Swansea University suggests that just talking about our dreams can be an important way to connect with others about what’s on our minds.