People who have nightmares typically are immediately awakened by them and have strong recall of the dream, often with anxiety that can linger, Rubman says. These showed clusters of COVID-related dream content around specific topics, including fear of getting the virus, frustration over social distancing and sheltering at home, and forgetting to take steps to avoid the virus.īad dreams can be disturbing, but the definition of nightmares is more intense “dreams with vivid and disturbing content,” according to the National Sleep Foundation. As the number of COVID-19 cases has increased, a Harvard researcher reports receiving thousands of responses to an online dream survey she created. The researchers concluded this arose from increased emotional arousal after the trauma. At least one small study after 9/11 showed a significant increase in something called “central image intensity” (the central image is considered the emotional focus of a dream). What’s more, doctors aren’t surprised to hear reports of anxiety-related dreams about COVID-19. “It’s important to realize that this is part of human nature and to know you are not alone.” “People say they feel alone in having so many strange dreams, but it is a significant phenomenon, and it’s happening with some frequency during the pandemic,” she says. Susan Rubman, PhD, a Yale Medicine psychologist and sleep specialist, agrees, noting that these dreams and nightmares are surprisingly common. “Some think it’s a way for us to work out our daily stresses or preoccupations during the day.”
“Nightmares and bad dreams, in general, have not been shown to be unhealthy,” she says. People are reporting strange, intense, colorful, and vivid dreams-and many are having disturbing nightmares related to COVID-19.īut Christine Won, MD, a Yale Medicine sleep specialist, who has noticed an uptick in patients reporting recurrent or stressful dreams, provides reassurance that this is no cause for concern.
Apparently, it has even invaded our dreams. Newfoundlanders know it as the "Old Hag." In China, it's the "ghost pressing down on you." And in Mexico, it's known by the idiom "subirse el muerto," or "the dead climb on top of you."Įven today, some researchers suspect that tales of alien abduction may be explained by episodes of sleep paralysis.Whether the cause is stress related to working from home, wearing masks, lack of day care, or limited access to health care, COVID-19-related anxiety has spilled into nearly every aspect of our lives. That sensation has given sleep paralysis a place in folklore worldwide. And these hallucinations, when they occur with sleep paralysis, are no picnic people commonly report sensing an evil presence, along with a feeling of being crushed or choked. In one 1999 study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, 75 percent of college students who'd experienced sleep paralysis reported simultaneous hallucinations. "But you just can't."Įven worse, sleep paralysis often coincides with number 7 on our list: hallucinations. "You know you're awake and you want to move," Kline said. Sometimes, though, the paralysis persists even after the person wakes up. This temporary paralysis keeps us from acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves. During REM sleep, dream activity ramps up and the voluntary muscles of the body become immobile.
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