Tero Vesalainen/iStock(NEW YORK) — As if the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t affecting enough aspects of our lives during the day, now it’s even invading our minds when we sleep.
A new survey commissioned by Sleep Standards finds that out of 1,000 Americans polled aged 18 and older, a remarkable 87.3% reported having “unusual dreams” since the pandemic began, with 16.7% of respondents also reporting their dreams during quarantine have become more vivid.
So what kind of dreams are we having? Most of them, 48.8%, involve a job or work situation. About 42% of dreams are sexual or romantic in nature, while 30% involve social distancing and isolation, or an ex partner. Twenty-four percent reported having dreams involving demons, zombies and spirits or that were otherwise supernatural in nature, with just over 19% reporting dreams about sick people, hospitals or patients.
Speaking of those folks who dreamed about their exes, 21.2% admitted to having those dreams while sleeping with their current partner, with more women than men having those dreams by a nearly two-to-one margin: 64.4% of women compared to 35.6% of men.
Interestingly, the survey finds those who get seven hours or more of sleep daily overwhelmingly experience more vivid dreams than those who sleep four hours or fewer, 60.6% to a mere 2.4%.
What does it all mean? We’ll leave that to the experts to decide. In the meantime, sleep tight!
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