In the Covid-19 agenda, we all inevitably listen to ourselves a little. Nowadays, many people talk about having disrupted sleep patterns or having interesting dreams. While our daily lives have changed so much, it is actually very natural that our sleep is also affected by this situation. It didn't take long for our increased appetite to catch our attention, and we were quick to notice and make sense of it. Changes in sleep, another of our physical needs, remained a little more in the background. It seems as if night sleep and daytime sleep should be completely independent of each other.
Our life has slowed down in many senses, but our imagination has not been able to keep up with it, it still continues to work in the same gear. What if there is no stimulus to feed our imagination? For many people, the days are very similar, and opportunities for socialization are limited. Many people complain about inactivity, on the one hand, our perception of the future is limited to vague expressions such as "let these things pass" and it is not possible to make long-term plans. Like what I mentioned, everything that goes through our minds during the day is cleared away when we sleep. If there is not enough material to process from daytime life, it is thought that dreams reach out to older sources, places that have not had the opportunity to be accessed. It's like cleaning every corner of the cupboards at home during the quarantine period.
Nothing happens in our daily lives. Emotions are mixed. We oscillate between the side that is anxious and bored and the side that is hopeful and clinging to life despite everything. Our mood can change frequently. These emotions need processing. It is known that one of the functions of dreaming is to digest our emotions. In the REM phase of sleep, our eyes move rapidly and we dream. Brain activity in the REM phase gives us an idea about dreams. Memorable and emotionally charged, strange and colorful dreams are associated with high levels of activity in areas that manage emotions and memory. (1) It is normal to have complex dreams when there are complex emotions mentioned above. Emotions that we are not aware of when we are awake can sometimes appear in dreams.
Research conducted with the dreams of people who survived traumatic events shows that traumatic experiences appear in dreams in two ways. is showing. The first is dreams in which the traumatic event is experienced again, sometimes with alternative endings. There are many people who have dreams directly related to the coronavirus. Traumatic experiences can sometimes, in a more subtle way, turn into a symbol that replaces the trauma in unreal dreams. In an ongoing study, it was seen that participants attributed their fear of the virus to other metaphorical elements such as insects, zombies, natural disasters, unknown persons, monsters and mass murderers with guns. (2) The words of psychologist Deirdre Barrett, who conducted the research, summarize the situation: "I think the fact that the virus is invisible is the reason why it can turn into so many different things."
The studies mentioned above say that one common feature of these dreams is how strange they seem to people. Because of this strangeness, they can be perceived as a problem that needs to be solved. However, it seems that our brain is trying to help us sleep and put our emotions in their place.
Whatever the reason, having nightmares can be quite disturbing. Suggestions for dealing with disturbing dreams:
-It may be good to make what is happening a little more concrete by writing down your dreams. It may be easier to cope with a verbal story rather than vaguely remembered distressing images.
-Try to think about what you want to change in your dream. If you are fighting a monster in your dream, concretely imagine how you will get out of the situation. In fact, take advantage of the fact that dreams can be unreal. Would it be helpful to take a monster repellent with you and reduce the monster to the size of an ant?
The vaccine for coronavirus has not been found yet, but remember that everything is possible in dreams. :)
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