In March 2020, as many countries found themselves dragged into lockdown, doctors around the world reported an increase in vivid dreams. “As the pandemic took hold, people all over the world were experiencing anxiety dreams. We haven’t seen that kind of widespread dream phenomena since the two world wars,” says Dr Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and author of The Source (Penguin, 2020) a book that combines the thinking behind the law of attraction with proven science.
Now, a year on, it’s happening again. “Initially I thought this resurgence was related to the easing of lockdown and the prospect of socialising again, but it’s actually down to the anniversary of the outbreak of the pandemic. Anniversaries have huge psychological significance and right now, we’re experiencing unprecedented emotions that we just don’t know how to process.”
Anxiety is a trigger for sleep disturbances
We can’t help but be fascinated by dreams, those of our own and others. As a sleepwalker, my interest in my dreams is born of practicality because I know that anxiety is a trigger for my nighttime activities. I’ve tried to climb through mirrors thinking they were tunnels and tried to force myself behind my wardrobe where I was expected to deliver a presentation.
More alarmingly, I once almost hurled myself over a third-floor balcony and even suffered a pretty nasty electric shock when I removed a bulb from a lamp and replaced it with my finger in an effort to defuse it. Unlike many sleepwalkers, however, I often have a slight awareness of what I’m doing, while I’m doing it, as my rational-self battles with the anxiety-induced dream I’m acting out, but I’m powerless to stop it. The problem has only gotten worse in lockdown.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is one of five stages the brain goes through while we sleep. We enter this dream phase within 90 minutes of drifting off and it repeats every 90 minutes throughout the night. But why do we dream? What possible purpose can it serve? “We dream because it's part of our emotional and psychological processing, and how we lay down new memories and learnings,” explains Dr Swart.
“Anxiety dreams during Covid-19 are our brain’s way of protecting us from taking unnecessary risks and ensuring our survival,” she continues. “During times of uncertainty, our brain recognises that something terrible is going on, something out of our control. The part of the brain that connects emotion and memory, called the amygdala, and the hippocampus where our memories are stored, get together and dredge up all of our worst memories. It does this because it wants to make us scared of something — in this case, of going outside and possibly contracting coronavirus. Your brain’s primary goal is to keep you safe.”
While we can appreciate our brain’s efforts to keep us safe, persistent anxiety dreams can take an emotional and physical toll. I’m sure most of us are familiar with waking in the middle of the night from a particularly anxious dream, heart thudding wildly, and feeling hesitant to fall back to sleep.
Getting into the right frame of mind for a restful, anxiety-free night’s sleep requires some effort but is totally worth it. Dr Swart says, “Think of it as priming your brain for sleep. You could try something like yoga nidra before bed, which involves progressive relaxation by focusing on areas of your body, from your toes all the way to the top of your head. Most of the time, you’re asleep before you get all the way through it.”
Create a peaceful sleeping environment
If you find anxiety to be a nightmare trigger, Dr Swart suggests doing something relaxing before sleep, like reading or listening to the radio. “You want to ensure that your last stimulus before bed doesn’t feel threatening,” she explains. “Don’t check your emails, minimise your screen time and exposure to blue light [from phone, TV and laptop screens]. Caffeine and sugar drive anxiety so minimise those during the day too, even if it’s first thing in the morning. I always say that your sleep hygiene starts when you wake up.”
Binaural beats are becoming an increasingly popular tool for reducing anxiety before bedtime. They are made up of two separate tones with different frequencies. When you listen to them on headphones, one ear hears one tone and the other ear gets the second. Your brain receives a single tone composed of the difference between the two distinct frequencies.
When you hear them, you won’t even be aware of the work your brain is doing, you will instead just hear a pleasant sound. Studies suggest that the tone processed by your brain can help boost relaxation, lower anxiety and ease you into a peaceful sleep. “The science is equivocal but there is some evidence they help to reduce anxiety and they certainly seem to work for some people,” explains Dr Swart. “The wavelength of each ‘beat’ can create delta or theta brainwaves, which are part of the sleep process.”
What is lucid dreaming and how can you do it?
But, what if you could take control of your dream and change the narrative from one that creates stress, to one that creates joy? If you have watched Netflix’s Behind Her Eyes, you should be familiar with the idea of lucid dreaming. “A lucid dream is one where we are actively aware that we are dreaming as the dream is happening,” explains Charlie Morley, a lucid dreaming teacher. “In a fully lucid dream, you’re not half awake, half asleep, and you're not having an out of body experience. You are sound asleep, in REM, paralysed and out for the count, but part of the brain has reactivated, allowing you to become fully ‘conscious’ in your unconscious mind.” It sounds like science fiction, but it’s scientifically proven.
According to Morley, half of us will experience a lucid dream at some point in our lives, but only 25 per cent of us have them regularly, mainly women. In a lucid dream, you can do anything: talk with a loved one who has passed away, fly or swim to the bottom of the ocean. The only limitation is your own imagination. Aside from obviously being a lovely way to spend your dream time, Morley credits lucid dreaming with better learning and memory recall, and physical and psychological healing.
So, can we become practised at it, and is lucid dreaming a way to relieve anxiety dreams? Morley thinks so and hosts workshops aimed at training our minds on how to lucid dream. He recommends “documenting your dreams by setting an intention to remember your dreams before going to bed. This is the first step to becoming conscious in your dreams. Before you fall asleep, say to yourself, ‘Tonight I will remember my dreams. I have excellent dream recall.’ As with all skills, some people may find it easier than others, but essentially it’s open to everyone if they have a strong motivation to become lucid.”
So, as we look to exiting lockdown and reaching the end of Covid-19 restrictions, can we fully control the anxiety-ridden dreams that some of us are experiencing through relaxing routines before bed, binaural beats and lucid dreaming? The experts certainly seem to think so — and if it means having a peaceful, restful night’s sleep, then we’re all for trying.
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