Appliance of Science: Pandemic dreaming
The current pandemic of the novel virus, Covid-19, has certainly created a lot of stressful, emotional and unique experiences for most of us.
From loss of social connection to much graver losses, there is one thing that seems to be on the increase… weird and disturbing dreams. Many of us are reporting an increase in dreams, specifically a rise in bad or weird dreams.
I’m very aware of this myself, not just because people have asked me why this might be happening, but because I too have experienced them every night for the past month. Why all the bad dreams and is there any science to explain them?
One of the earliest theories to explain these bad dreams was the dramatic change in our lifestyles. Most of us are used to waking to the sound of an alarm, often a lot earlier than we would like. When we sleep, we go through different sleep cycles, one of which, the rapid eye movement (REM) phase, occurs after a stage of deep sleep, and it is when we are thought to do most of our dreaming.
Could our bad dreams simply be a result of longer sleeping patterns with more REM sleep? Now that so many are restricted to their homes, the alarm clock has, in many cases, become redundant and perhaps we are just sleeping for longer, with more obvious dreams.
This is certainly a possible explanation but it does not seem to tell the complete story.
Many studies are investigating sleep and dream alteration during the current pandemic. One such study is asking people to report their dreams and the coordinators say at least ten percent of the bad dreams described come from front-line medical staff.
Those that still rely on the alarm clock every morning and probably sleep less hours than ever before.
So, if longer sleeping hours, and thereby more REM sleeping, is not the reason for all these extra dreams then perhaps it is the opposite. Research into sleep patterns in people with elevated stress or trauma levels reports that they tend to wake more frequently.
Could this be the explanation in this instance? We could simply be remembering our dreams more accurately because we are waking more frequently. Studies have shown that people woken after a phase of REM sleep are more likely to remember the dreams they just had. It is certainly one possibility being considered, but there are other suggestions.
A recent scientific study on mice investigated the very essence of why we dream, a question that has garnered its fair share of interest for a very long time. This research discovered that the brain selectively prunes connections between neurons involved in a certain type of learning. The study suggested that we use sleep to lay down memories, but, more importantly, we also use it to forget.
Are we using our dream phases of sleep to forget the stresses and worries we feel in these threatening times?
Another very recent study looked at which areas of the brain are active when we have bad dreams.
This study reported activity in two specific regions of the brain during fearful dreams, areas connected with the control of emotions. It also reported that, once the individuals awake, these areas responded to fear-inducing situations much more effectively.
Perhaps our bad dreams are serving a very important function, making us better able to cope with this pandemic.
