TRANQUIL RELATIONSHIP BE TESTED WITH A TEENAGER IN THE MIX?’

shake the occasional pangs of guilt that here I was, enjoying a holiday that should have belonged to Mum and John.

What we couldn’t have predicted, of course, was that shortly after we got home, the coronavirus pandemic would turn all our worlds upside down and separate our happy households. It has made that time together all the more precious – and left us determined that we will do it again.

JANET, PRESENTER TURNED AUTHOR, SAYS: ‘Why are you using so much water?’ My eldest grandson was outside the tiny bathroom in our Tokyo apartment, acquainting himself with my daily ablutions. There was plenty he and his mother got to know about me (or were reminded of, at close quarters) over our trip: I’m hopeless with directions and geography, I’m a morning person and I’m not a big fan of Pokémon. When Sophie agreed to my suggestion that she come in John’s place, I was both excited and nervous. John and I have been to Japan a few times and love everything about it – and while we’d both been so looking forward to sharing it with Sonny, the thought of Sophie making up our little trio was equally lovely. We’ve always been close, and although I’ll admit I did ponder whether our usual tranquil relationship would be tested with a teenager thrown into the mix, I didn’t worry for a minute that we wouldn’t have fun.

What did worry me was being in charge: with several visits to Japan under my belt I was the ‘sole experienced person’, and I felt the weight of responsibility. I’ve got a terrible memory and as the trip approached I pictured us on street corners, map in hand, with me saying: ‘I’m sure it’s round here somewhere.’

In the event, two things came to my rescue in the form of John’s brilliant schedule and my daughter’s apparently inbuilt sense of direction – aided by the satnav on her phone, which she used like a missile-guidance system. When I think back on the trip I picture her, phone in hand, taking us down delightful back routes and past amazing sights. Of course, the other saviour was Japan itself. Sophie and Sonny were dazzled by the sheer energy, and it was a joy to see. They loved the shops

Sophie with Sonny: ‘It’s

easy to let teenagers

get lost in the wash, so having this time was wonderful,’

she says (I defy anyone not to go mad in Tokyu Hands, an eight-floored department store that sells just about anything you can think of and plenty of things you couldn’t) and also the myriad quirky, utterly beguiling small places you find on every side street.

Then there’s the food: all three of us are fans of Japanese cuisine and not averse to trying new things. So it was that you could find us eating sea urchins at breakfast, straight from the shell, or sitting down to hot, red-bean-filled buns and cold coffee, fishing for dark-skinned eggs in bowls of steaming ramen and marvelling at the precision and deliciousness of the traditional multi-course Japanese dinner kaiseki.

Of course, it wasn’t just the destination that made this trip so special. Sophie and Sonny don’t live far away and we’re often in and out of each other’s houses, but this was the first time for years I’d spent all day, uninterrupted, with either of them… not to mention evenings and first thing in the mornings. It was better and more rewarding than I could have imagined.

Naturally, Sonny teased me about my funny ways (doesn’t everyone splash their face about 100 times when they wash?) and tolerated mine and his mum’s inability to walk past a clothes shop without popping in – although I think he developed an appreciation of our ability to enter, look around and exit without breaking our stride or conversation. In turn, I gazed at countless plastic manga and anime characters and brushed up on Pokémon and Nintendo. Sonny’s a cool 15-year-old and he doesn’t exactly share how he’s feeling all the time, so it was a treat to see him so enthusiastic and relaxed.

It was a treat, too, to spend time with my daughter away from her usual hectic domestic and professional schedule. While she and I speak all the time and go out together a lot, I loved seeing her in a new environment, and in particular witnessing how well she and Sonny get on. It wasn’t easy for me to leave John behind, but Sophie and Sonny really looked after me. Our trip confirmed something I’d suspected all along – these two loving, special people are just as good to be with 6,000 miles away as they are back home.

SONNY SAYS: My Japan trip was amazing. It was so different that it almost feels like it was a dream – especially since it had been a dream of mine. I used to pester my mum and dad all the time about visiting, and we were going to go for their 40th birthday, but due to little Mickey being born we couldn’t make it work. I prefer how it turned out because our family is big, so travelling with them can get stressful at times. I really enjoyed our trip even if my grandpa couldn’t come.

It was in January that I noticed something strange – an influx of calls and emails from China. Lots of people were finding their sleep disturbed by intense and often frightening dreams. Many of those getting in touch had rarely, if ever, remembered their dreams before. But with the coronavirus rampant, they couldn’t escape them. Then, as COVID-19 spread, I began hearing from people in Italy, the US, South America and the UK. Clients both old and new were reporting dreams and nightmares which were more distressing than anything they’d ever experienced before.

In my 40-year career as a dream psychologist I’ve analysed more than 300,000 dreams, but never have I encountered so many that are so vivid and turbulent, nor on such a wide scale.

With more people off work or no longer having to commute, alarm clocks have been switched off. This means waking up more naturally, and because dreams come in the final stage of any sleep cycle, we are remembering them more clearly.

Some people claim they don’t dream but that’s not true, everyone dreams – on average for around two hours a night. What these people are really saying is that they don’t remember their dreams. When you wake to an alarm, the dream phase is interrupted. It’s like walking from one room to another very suddenly, and this change of awareness means that dream memories fade quickly.

Our lockdown dreams are so vivid because it has put many of us in a heightened state of anxiety: there is no vaccine yet, we have