Did you dream about work more often? Pandemic is most likely to blame

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Experts explain why our dreams change during difficult times and what they mean.

If you've been dreaming of a workplace fire on a regular basis lately, you're not alone. According to Laurie Loewenberg, a twenty-year-old dream analyst and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, dreams are now very common in which a fire engulfs an office and a fire quickly flares up and spreads, just like a virus.

Although the interpretation of dreams is not an exact science, the more frequent and vivid dreams that are characteristic of a particular time have a psychological explanation.

Crises usually stir up dreams. When our thoughts during our waking hours become more dramatic, more emotional and tense, it affects dreams as well.

Deirdre Barrett is a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of Pandemic Dreams

In such a case, a person as a whole sees more dreams, but especially disturbing ones. Back in March, Barrett began conducting a survey on vivid dreams of the covid era. She noticed that most dreams about work have a negative connotation.

For example, people often dream that they are losing their jobs or working in hazardous conditions. One of the survey participants, who delivers food to the hospital, constantly dreams that the hospital is flooded, a certain monster is sneaking along the corridors, and she herself is just trying to fulfill her duties at this time. Barrett also noted the recurring nightmares of medical professionals about respirators that fail in all sorts of ways.

And in the dreams of remote employees, Zoom is often featured. A survey participant said that in her nightmare she sees a call with her boss at Zoom. Communication with him in real life brings so much stress to her, and she is so afraid of losing her job that it has permeated her dreams.

There are other common scenarios: you are naked at the workplace, you cannot cope with the task in any way, or you often see one of your colleagues in a dream. You may also dream that you are having sex with your boss. This does not mean at all that you dream of repeating this in reality. According to Loewenberg, one possible explanation is that you are attracted to some characteristics in the work of a leader. And it's worth considering in which areas of life you can apply leadership qualities, for example, act more decisively or more actively.

Sometimes dreams help us solve real problems. Scientists have demonstrated this in one experiment. First, the participants were asked to complete a 3D maze on a computer as quickly as possible. Then one part of them went to doze, and the other stayed awake. On the next completion of the assignment, those who slept and saw a maze in a dream showed significantly better results than those who did not sleep or did not dream.

In addition, dreams help us prepare for adversity. According to Finnish neuroscientist Antti Revonsuo, negative dreams are so common because they are part of our body's biological defense mechanism. Revonsuo called this dream feature a threat simulation.

Take this common dream: you come to take an exam and find that you have forgotten your pen. During sleep, the brain scrolls through exam-related anxieties. And in real life, in a stressful situation, you will no longer be so scared, because you experienced it while you were sleeping. In addition, after such a nightmare, you may decide to work harder or put all your things the day before so that you will definitely not forget anything.

So even if you dream that a disaster is happening at work, try to look at it from a different angle. Think about whether what happened in your dream is realistic, and imagine how what you see at night can help you during the day.

If you want to better understand your dreams, start keeping a journal. Write down what worried you during the day and what you dreamed at night. If a story is repeated frequently, notice the underlying emotion in that dream. Maybe there you are afraid, angry, sad, or stressed. Think about what is causing this feeling in your daytime life and how to deal with it.