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What’s Up With the Recurring Quarantine Nightmares?
Bad dreams seem to be on the rise. But what you’re experiencing at night may depend on how you’re living right now.
In my recent dreams, I often find myself in filthy, broken-down bathrooms with stall walls that are too short and doors that don’t lock. I try to find a place to pee in private, but I never can. Other people can see me using the bathroom. I am panicked and embarrassed.
The dream has happened enough times that I started poking around to find out whether others were experiencing especially vivid bad dreams right now. In my search, I came across the blog I Dream of Covid — run by Bay Area resident Erin Gravley, who was interested in seeing how the current pandemic would affect dreams — which allows people across the globe to submit descriptions of their pandemic dreams. Since its first post on March 13, the site has amassed more than 130 reports, many of which depict the same kind of distress I’ve been experiencing while asleep.
Unpleasant and strange as these bad dreams might be for those of us having them, sleep experts aren’t surprised. “In a situation like the current one with Covid-19, with an increase in background stress, it makes sense that we might experience more disturbing dreams,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD…
