The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a lot of weird events in the world all over. One of these weird phenomena that the psychologists are curious about now, is the occurrence of vivid and unusual dreams. Dreams have been a topic of study since the time of Freud and we have never been able to find closure when it came to dream research- it still fascinates us. Maybe, that is why the moment people started claiming to have these dreams, researchers from around the globe jumped in to grab the opportunity. More than 5 premiere institutes are currently focusing on this research with immense support from various other inter-disciplinary institutes.
By the beginning of March, a number of people started to claim that they have been seeing more vivid dreams and that the dreams are getting weirder. This was brought to the attention of research faculties through social media. There have been millions of posts in the last two months, in which people share their so-called- ‘corona dreams’. There are quite a handful of theories as to what dreams are and how we dream. One major theory associated with dreams is ‘the information processing theory’, which states that dreams are a method for our brain to make sense of the world, cope up with our hidden anxieties and urges. The worldwide phenomena during the pandemic seem to support this view.
But, is there a reason people are dreaming more. The explanation for that is relatively easy. With the lockdown and all, we just sleep more and with more ease. This quality of sleep directly translates into better retention of dreams. We don’t dream more, rather we better remember it. And being stuck in our homes, we seldom have much important information to process, so our brain looks back to our past for inspiration- which is why you may address your long lost crush or high school mathematics teacher in your dreams. There is a biological explanation to this- according to Patrick McNamara, an associate professor of neurology at Boston university school of medicine, the signals and reactions that produce dreams are similar to those triggered by psychedelic drugs. It activates the nerve receptors called serotonin 5-HT2A, which then turn off a part of the brain called the dorsal prefrontal cortex. The result is known as ‘emotional disinhibition’, a state in which emotions flood the consciousness, especially during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, when we usually dream.
There are numerous studies being conducted at institutes like the Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre in France and the Italian Institute of Sleep Medicine. But the one I found to be the most exciting is the study spearheaded by Deirdre Barrett, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of ‘The committee of sleep’. She has previously conducted a similar study with the victims of the September 11 World Trade Centre attack, which led her to the conclusion that people either directly reference or re-enact a version of the traumatic event, or the dreams are fantastical, with symbolic elements standing in for the trauma. Her current study is still a work in progress. But she has already found evidence that people either dream of them catching the virus or dying of it, or they replace their fear of the virus with a metaphoric element as the virus is invisible. She has already collected thousands of data on the topic. But if you can do contribute to the data by filling in the datasheet below.
If you are having weird dreams of the gigantic corona man chasing you or black beetles climbing up your body, know this, you are not alone.
Click on the link to be part of the study: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/B8S75CN
