Last night, I was in Ho Chi Minh City desperately trying to hail a taxi to take me to the airport. No one would stop, so I decided to run there instead. My best friend was killed at her Bachelorette party and I urgently needed to get back home to tell her fiancé. Meanwhile, all of my teeth started to fall out, but I obviously didn’t have time to go to the dentist.
Spoiler alert: it was a dream. But it was so vividly real, I woke up exhausted.
Even stranger, my bestie messaged me the next day saying SHE had had a dream about ME, too.
Now, I know talking about your dreams is infuriatingly boring (unless they involve Brad Pitt and George Clooney fighting for your attention), but to be honest, I’ve been sitting at home for three weeks so I don’t have much else to talk about.
And it turns out, I’m not the only one checking I still have all my teeth when I wake up. A heap of us are having wild dreams. For example…
And this absolute nightmare…
Luckily for us, there is such a thing as a “professional dream analyst.” Her name is Lauri Lowenberg, and she says having vivid dreams in the time of a pandemic is totally understandable.
“The more intense, bizarre and stressful the dream, the more likely you are to remember it and stressful times breed stressful dreams,” she told GQ Magazine in the UK. “This virus and the quarantine is top of the mind for most of us, as it affects us psychologically and has changed our behaviour and routines. That stream of consciousness we have during the day is now filled with thoughts of fear, frustration and stress that continue into the night and into our dreams.”
Plus, many of us also have the luxury of lying in bed a little longer because we’re working from home, so our “dream recall” is easier to tap into. And we’re also having more sleep (because there’s not much else to do), meaning we’re more likely to have REM sleep, which is where vivid dreams occur. Makes sense, yeah.
If you’re sick of waking up exhausted from fighting bears all night, this Metro UK article has some tips…
#1 Stick to a routine – don’t work from your bed and try to go to sleep at the same time every night
#2 Stop scrolling – have a no-screen rule for a couple of hours before bed
#3 Get a weighted blanket – for the best sleep of your life in a cosy cocoon
#4 Exercise (ugh) – Such a cliché, but apparently 30-minutes of high-intensity exercise a day can improve your sleep quality by 65 per cent.
Or, ignore all of that and enjoy your night-time adventures.
Please consider this a free pass to talk about your dreams for the remainder of lockdown. Happy dreaming xoxo
