To say that the pandemic has transformed our lives would be an understatement. Indeed, such a significant event has prompted various mental health difficulties, especially our sleep and dream patterns. Have you ever wondered how COVID-19 has affected your dream content? Why are some of your dreams more vivid? While you may have not considered these questions, many people have thought about them and had similar questions spurring in their minds. So, what is the relation between the pandemic and dreaming?

Irregular fluctuations in sleeping and dreaming patterns are typical; however, extreme factors such as environmental changes and traumatic experiences alter dream content or produce more nightmares. This has previously been associated with terrorist attacks, wars, and during the earlier breakout of infectious diseases (Pesonen et al., 2020). Likewise, the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has implanted worries and fears, which alters behaviors and daily life and the lens through which we view the world (Pesonen et al., 2020). Ultimately, these stress and waking concerns have been reflected in sleep-related mentation, which is defined as “the cognition (typically dreams) that is associated with the sleep state that the person was in before being awoken”.

Dream’s mirror waking day events, which has been explained by the continuity hypothesis – the content of dreams is mainly continuous with waking concepts and concerns of the dreamer. Poor physical and emotional health has been linked with dreams comprising more imagery of illness, injury, sadness, anger, and aggression (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020). Health thoughts or worries has also been related to an increase in dream imagery involving the subject of health or illness causing morning anxiety (i.e., waking up with feelings of stress and worry).

Even trauma experienced indirectly, such as the 9/11 attack in New York, influenced people’s dream imagery (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020). It was found that when comparing the dreams of individuals before and after the events of 9/11, their dream subject matter was distinctive, with those following 9/11 being symbolized by the greater intensity and negative emotion (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020).

A study conducted by MacKay and DeCicco (2020) aimed to establish if the COVID-19 pandemic has caused changed dream imagery. Specifically, the comparison between the dream content during the pandemic and before the pandemic (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020). Nineteen participants in the control group had their dreams recorded before the pandemic. Nineteen participants in the COVID-19 group were given a dream journal to record their dreams between February 24, 2020, and March 12, 2020, for two weeks. The researchers used the Hall/Van de Castle coding system to analyze dream content. It is a dream content coding system carried out by construction of a set of categories containing relevant characteristics of dream reports in a reliable and effective way. Dream categories in this study included head, extremities, torso, anatomy, animals, food, location change, COVID-19, coughing, medical, and isolation. The total virus-related imagery contained COVID-19, grocery, coughing, medical, isolation dream imagery (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020).

Results indicated that individuals in the COVID-19 group reported more location changes, animal dream imagery, and virus-related dream imagery than the control group, which have been linked to morning anxiety (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020). Interestingly, the COVID-19 group reported dreams involving more food and head dream content which can be connected with concerns regarding stocking up on food supplies, food shortages, coughing, checking temperature, and wearing masks due to the pandemic (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020).

Some limitations were when the study took place as students were stressed about their midterms. Hence that could have been the cause of their morning anxiety rather than the pandemic. The sample sizes were relatively small (N = 38) as the University was shut down because of the pandemic. There was a lack of diversity as most of the sample consisted of Caucasian females, psychology university students as participants indicating limited generalizability. Therefore, future studies could consider more immense and more diverse sample sizes to demonstrate the pandemic better and dreaming relationship and analyze dream imagery before, during, and after the pandemic to gain a more all-inclusive understanding. 

One method for easing stress revealed in dreams is dream interpretation. Dream interpretation occurs in various stages and is helpful in gaining a deeper understanding for the dreamer. The first is when the dreamer has to read their dream aloud in a group after which the group then asks questions to clarify the dream report read aloud by the dreamer. Secondly, a brief discussion occurs amongst group members other than the dreamer to infer their feelings and experiences as if it were their dream. Thirdly, these individuals’ predictions are induced about the dream, in association with their own lives to give symbolic or metaphorical meanings to dream images. Fourthly, the dreamer responds to the group members’ interpretation. Finally, the dreamer interprets their dream in terms of their waking life context for the dream, especially recent life experiences or concerns.

To sum up, as concerns and anxieties regarding the virus are persistent and influence many people during both waking and sleep, it is proposed that dream interpretation may be a favorable method to ease COVID-19-related stress (MacKay & DeCicco, 2020).