Corona-isolation and fear are behind strange dreams, experts explain the meaning of the most common ones
While you may think you don't have any dreams yourself, the opposite is true. Everyone dreams. But the quality of sleep is important - the better we sleep, the less likely we are to remember our dreams. Since the quality of sleep is now much more disrupted than usual by stress and nervous tension, it is clear that people sleep less well and are much more likely to remember what they dreamt. And unfortunately, these are not "rosy dreams" - virtually all concerns about their own health and the health of their loved ones, as well as about their work or finances, for example, are reflected in dreams and often turn them into "nightmares".
"At night, we dream about what we cannot think about and what we cannot feel during the day. And right now, many literally unthinkable things are happening in our everyday reality," says clinical psychologist Emily Anahalt, adding that many people also feel helpless or even guilty about the deaths of all those who are exposed to danger, for example in hospitals, nursing homes and even in shops. "Our emotions have nowhere to go - so where do they go? They appear in our dreams, masked by symbols and metaphor," she added.
Those who have ever been interested in human dreams know that dream symbolism is, moreover, quite universal - which is why there are also dreamers to interpret it. And so, even in the coronavirus era, people dream fundamentally very similar things. Which are they and what do they mean?
Deadly public a(tra)ctions
People nowadays are much more likely to go to public places in their dreams where they cannot actually go. Unfortunately, even then, the coronavirus subtext does not disappear. "Every day I have a dream like this, I'm in Vegas, in a movie theater, at a party...and my kids are running around and touching everything," is one of many dreams with a similar theme. "We're having a party and all of a sudden we have a lot of guests, one time it's a birthday party, another time it's a wedding, the ending is always the same - I scream that everyone has to leave or they'll die," another dreamer varies a similar theme.
Experts agree that similar dreams are dreamt by people who are worried about how the coronavirus will affect humanity in a mass perspective. They thematise life and death - which is why birthday parties (symbolic of the countdown to death) or weddings (where, for a change, "till death do us part" is heard) are not infrequently featured in dreams.Similarly, dreams in which amusement parks appear refer to childhood, a time of carelessness - suggesting that people miss the freedoms they took for granted as children.
Pop Culture Dreams - "Fighting for Survival"
Some people dream that they are participants in a survival contest on a desert island, while others experience the Hunger Games or find themselves in the plot of The Walking Dead. However, survival can also be fought for outside the framework of film and TV series - some are fleeing a tsunami, others are facing a tornado. All of this clearly symbolizes the rolling destruction.
"The world as we knew it has come to an end, just as it did in The Walking Dead - even COVID-19 raises many questions, and the dreams that feature scenarios thematising the struggle for survival serve to build hope, preparedness and stability," says psychologist Singh Bais. Those who dream along similar lines are then also subconsciously seeking a 'cure' for the mounting problems.
There is no food!
"In my dream, Stormtroopers were breaking into houses and collecting everyone's supply of Pepsi - for it was a necessary ingredient to create a vaccine for COVID-19," says one dreamer. And others join in with variations of quarantine stays in homes where not a crust remains. They simply ran out of food.
"The fact that someone is collecting different types of food from people reflects the fear that humanity will suddenly not have the things they want and need in life," describes Carla Marie Manly, author of The Joy of Fear. And if Stormtroopers or anyone who takes your food or drink appears in your dreams, this condition reflects irritation with many government restrictions that may seem excessive and invasive to some.
The corona-dreamers could then still hook scenarios involving various mysterious figures emerging from the shadows (=the elusiveness of disease) or contrasts between the theatre stage and the auditorium - specifically, such dreams refer to the fact that the present state is more "show" than real life, and the one who dreams such things is waiting for the curtain to fall and the nightmare to end. This is what even those who do not dream of a "normal world" believe...
