Of all the strange things to come out of the last ten weeks, the tendency towards vivid and often dramatic dreams is the one most likely to be playing on our minds!
These dreams, for many, are taking on a ‘filmic’ quality, seeing us live out experiences in our minds eye that we might ordinarily associate with some of Hollywood’s best movies.
It’s almost as though the more mundane our real lives have become, the more our mind is going overdrive at night to compensate for the lack of excitement.
Social media has nicknamed these dreams “quarandreams”, and it’s a phenomenon that’s apparently owing to a few potential factors.
Among these, lockdown stress, heightened emotionality and changing sleep patterns are thought to be most to blame for changing our ‘sleep architecture’. With more of us sleeping for longer periods, and not being woken up artificially, we’re experiencing more complete sleep cycles and REM sleep.
A group of postgraduate psychoanalysis students in London are currently analysing how the Covid-19 crisis is being experienced “unconsciously”, and it is clear that for many of us, fear is manifesting more and more through our dreams. It’s no wonder that searches for ‘nightmares’, as a result, are on an upward trajectory.
The good news is, these strange dreams probably won’t last, especially as all the signs point towards an easing of the lockdown measures behind the phenomenon.
And the bad news? Well, it’s potentially the same. All the excitement that has been a hallmark of many people’s quarandreams... it’s also probably not going to last, which begs the question of course - how mundane is sleep going to be now, when it doesn’t come with superhero powers, a celebrity spouse, or a wild goat for a pet? (#very)
Photo credit: Bottle Moments