COVID-19 And Your Dreams

30 seconds

Four new studies from around the world have found an increase in anxious dreams due to COVID-19. The same phenomenon has been observed during previous crises including war, natural disasters and terrorist attacks according to Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School who also noted that dreams are consistent with our waking concerns. According to an international study that included 2,888 participants, women showed significantly lower rates of positive emotions and higher levels of anxiety, sadness, anger and references to biological processes, health and death in their pandemic dreams compared with their dreams before the pandemic.

Research also showed that men’s pandemic dreams showed slightly higher levels of negative emotions, anxiety and death than their pre-pandemic dreams, but the effects were less pronounced than they were for women.

Source:
American Psychological Association, “COVID-19 spurs anxious, upsetting dreams. Women especially affected studies show” September 25, 2020.