John Mulaney and Stephen Colbert analyse each other's dreams on The Late Show

Many people have reported experiencing more dreams than usual during lockdown

John Mulaney and Stephen Colbert spent a segment of The Late Show analysing one another’s dreams.

After Mulaney revealed he had experienced a particularly vivid dream, Colbert asked if his guest would interpret his own to start things off.

“I dreamed that I had to do my show, but I had to do it someplace where no one could find me,” Colbert said, mentioning that “no one” included the police.

“Some part of you is conflicted about performing and cashing in — I'm kidding — about working during a time like this,” Mulaney suggested. “The cops are your inner moral conscience. Perhaps maybe a superego.”

“You want to hide from the part of yourself that says, 'Why am I making my children join a union and be my PAs?'”

“Why must the show go on?” Colbert joked.

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Mulaney then explained that his dream had begun with him in an interview about Rob Reiner, whom he said he doesn’t actually know in real life.

He began worrying he’d said something wrong and was then frightened upon seeing Reiner at a reception.

“He mentions the first two things of the three things that I said. He does not [mention] the one I'm nervous about,” Mulaney said.

In the dream, Reiner asked Mulaney to come and see the “cherry blossoms”, so they drove together in Reiner’s car. Mulaney revealed he had a feeling he wasn’t able to leave, as though he was in quarantine.

Reiner then gave him the same kind of pill Mulaney gives to his dog for acid reflux, and told him to “wake up”, at which point the dream ended and Mulaney did indeed wake up.

“The first thing about the dream that it gets right is that Rob Reiner is very demanding,” Colbert said.

“He'll ask you to do all kinds of things, and you do it for him, and he's like 'Eh.'”

He suggested the dream was likely brought about from concern that he had angered someone he has respect for.

“I'm sure it's about my parents, but I'll give Rob Reiner a call,” Mulaney said.

Many people have reported experiencing a sudden increase in vivid dreams during lockdown.

When you go to sleep, your brain carries out actions including processing the day’s information, consolidating memory and regulating your emotions, Professor Colin Espie, professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford, explains to The Independent.

Your dreams are a “window into the fact that the brain is busy processing emotion”, he states, which is why it is likely dreams will appear more vivid when you are in a heightened emotional state.

“What you’ll probably notice in your dreams just now is they’re a little bit more vivid and probably more emotional in tone. That just reflects the way that we are at the moment,” Professor Espie says.