Pandemic Anxiety Dreams Are Getting Worse

Since the beginning of the pandemic, people have been reporting more vivid and bizarre nightmares. “Now dreams are shifting to postapocalypse scenarios, with dark premonitions of endless quarantines and lonely, collapsed societies,” writes Robert Roy Britt in Elemental. He reports:

In early spring, most pandemic nightmares involved catching the virus — dreaming of a fever or cough and knowing it was Covid-19 — or apocalyptic metaphors ranging from tsunamis and hurricanes to attacks by bugs or invisible monsters, explains Deirdre Barrett, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and author of the new book Pandemic Dreams. Over time, fresh fears fueled dreams linked to lockdowns, homeschooling, and loss of work, Barrett finds in an ongoing global survey.

Read about the findings below.

‘Trapped in Boxes That Are Getting Smaller’: Why Your Anxiety Dreams Are Getting Worse