Vivid Covid dreams explained as study shows lockdown led to nightmares of claustrophobia

Unusual themes, images and sensations crept into our lockdown sleep cycles. Now scientists believe they know why, reports Tom Batchelor

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Vivid ‘Quarandreams’ – the strange thoughts, images and sensations that occurred for many during their lockdown sleep cycles – became a much-talked about phenomenon of the Covid crisis, and now scientists believe they know the root cause.

Experts at University College London analysed 850 dreams – and nightmares – experienced during successive quarantine periods and concluded that many of these unsettling dreams were triggered by a feeling of claustrophobia or feeling trapped.

They found that some of these disturbing sensations were also caused by a feeling of a lack of control.

Dreaming about family was commonly reported in the study, with many separated from loved ones for several months under coronavirus restrictions in place in the UK and around the world.

Researchers used information submitted through the Lockdown Dreams project over a 12-month period from the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Common dreams included being stuck in a house unable to leave, or conversely needing to stay inside to avoid something happening outside their home.

The UCL team said stressful and threatening situations commonly featured, such as making a perilous journey, or escaping from danger.

In one example given by the researchers, the dreamer was suddenly the passenger in a car with no driver, forced to reach across to steer the speeding car around pedestrians.

Dreamers’ pasts, including their hometowns and childhood houses, also frequently featured.

Many also dreamt of meeting friends and family, sometimes connecting with them via screens as they were being forced to do in waking life.

The team also said there was evidence of anxiety about breaking pandemic rules. One dream described the panic of having to make a face mask in order to be allowed to sit an exam.

Other dreamers recounted – often with horror, but sometimes with delight – that they were suddenly in the midst of an unscheduled party.

There were also dreams that featured embarrassing incidents, such as the dreamer realising that their mask was inadequate or missing in a crowded public place.

Researchers said that could be “understood in terms of anxiety about contagion, but also perhaps as expressing wishes to break rules and defy the new norms being imposed”.

Many dreamt of meeting friends and family, sometimes connecting with them via screens (Getty Images)

Dr Liz Allison, director at the psychoanalysis unit at UCL, told The Independent: “These animations, and our project more widely, aims to address the curiosity about what our dreaming minds have been producing in these unusual, constrained and highly stressful situations and introduce more people to psychoanalytic concepts.

“This includes the idea that our capacity to dream is essential to allow us to be fully awake to the experiences we have when we are not asleep - and that sometimes another person’s mind is needed to help us to think about experiences that feel unthinkable.

“Many of our dreamers expressed the wish that by sharing their dreams with us they would enable something to be understood – something that felt important to them, even though they were not sure why.”

The study, which included responses mainly from the UK but also Canada, the US and 17 other countries, is still in its preliminary stages. The team said it aimed to publish the final report later this year.