Covid-19 Dreams

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people around the world reported vivid, strange, and often anxious “pandemic dreams.” Some pictured the virus directly; others turned it into metaphor—a storm, a wild animal, a monster, or an invisible threat. Others were almost comic, putting our unusual new routines into perspective.

With more “quarantine sleep,” many people also found themselves recalling more dreams than usual—and discovering that paying attention to them offered real opportunities for insight and growth, from simple dream journaling to lucid dreaming.

IASD members were at the center of the conversation, publishing research, collecting thousands of dreams, and speaking with media worldwide about what our dreams were telling us.

Archive: This page collects IASD's Covid-19 dream research and media coverage from 2020–2021. Surveys listed here have closed. Links go to outside websites; some older stories may have moved.

Published Research

In September 2020, IASD's journal Dreaming (published by the American Psychological Association) released a special section of four Covid-19 dream studies. Together they found that pandemic dreams were more anxious and negative—and that women's dreams were affected more strongly than men's.

“All of these studies support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming: That dreams are consistent with our waking concerns… Your dreams can make you more aware of just what about the pandemic is bothering you the most—and sharing them with trusted others is a good conversation-starter for talking about these shared feelings.”

— Deirdre Barrett, PhD, editor of Dreaming, in the APA news release (September 25, 2020). She suggested women's dreams may be more affected because women were bearing more of the burden of caregiving, job loss, and other hardships.

Dreaming and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey in a U.S. Sample

Michael Schredl, PhD, and Kelly Bulkeley, PhD

A survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults (May 2020). People most affected by the pandemic—those who got sick or lost jobs—reported the strongest changes: more dream recall, more negative dreams, and more pandemic dreams.

Dreaming, 30(3), 189–198 · Read the article

Dreams about COVID-19 versus Normative Dreams: Trends by Gender

Deirdre Barrett, PhD, Harvard University

An international study of 2,888 people. Compared with pre-pandemic dreams, women's pandemic dreams showed less positive emotion and more anxiety, sadness, anger, and references to health and death. Men's dreams changed less.

Dreaming, 30(3), 216–221 · Read the article

Dreaming in the Time of COVID-19: A Quali-Quantitative Italian Study

Ilaria Iorio, PhD, Massimiliano Sommantico, PhD, and Santa Parrello, PhD, University of Naples Federico II

Dreams from 796 Italian participants (April–May 2020). One in five dreams referred directly to Covid-19. Women, and people who knew someone affected, reported more intense and negative dreams.

Dreaming, 30(3), 199–215 · Read the article

Pandemic Dreaming: The Effect of COVID-19 on Dream Imagery, a Pilot Study

Cassidy MacKay, BSc, and Teresa L. DeCicco, PhD, Trent University

Dream journals from 19 Canadian college students (February–March 2020) showed more location changes and more animal, head, food, and virus imagery—patterns similar to the dreams of people with waking anxiety.

Dreaming, 30(3), 222–234 · Read the article

Show 19 news stories about these studies

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Member Research Projects

IASD members led or collaborated on many other Covid-19 dream projects. These collections have closed.

McGill University Covid-19 Dream Study

Elizaveta Solomonova (PI), Michelle Carr, Claudia Picard-Deland, Karen Konkoly, Tore Nielsen, Antonio Zadra, Caroline Horton, Josie Malinowski, Pellerin Sikka, and Jarno Tuominen

An international online study of dreams, sleep, lucidity, and emotional experiences during social isolation.

uDreamed: Dreams Before and During Covid-19

Chris Ufere, Unconscious Cognition, Inc.

An analysis of more than 3,000 dream records from users of the uDreamed app, comparing dream content before and during the pandemic.

uDreamed: How the COVID Vaccine Affects Dreaming (2021)

Chris Ufere, Unconscious Cognition, Inc.

A survey of 311 vaccinated adults on changes in dream frequency, vividness, intensity, and bizarreness after vaccination.

Read the study (PDF)

Pandemic Dreams Collection

Deirdre Barrett, Harvard University

A worldwide online survey that gathered thousands of pandemic dreams. Barrett is also the author of the book Pandemic Dreams.

Sleep and Dream Database (SDDb)

Kelly Bulkeley

Gathered pandemic-related dreams and offered the database's analysis tools to colleagues with their own dream collections.

Pandemic Dreams Survey

Dream Research Institute (UK), Dave Billington

A questionnaire collecting dreams related to pandemic illness, including possible precognitive dreams.

Sleeping and Dreaming Under Covid-19

Brigitte Holzinger, Institute for Consciousness and Dream Research (Austria)

A survey on sleep and dreams during Covid-19, plus contributions on dreaming and nightmares to the international ICOSS sleep survey.

Dreams in the Time of Corona

Art Funkhouser and Maria Kotli

Tracked three international projects on collective and archetypal pandemic dreams, including a Polish-led dream-collection project in Central and Eastern Europe.

Other Dream Collections

Jordi Borràs-García (Spain) and Merel Hak (Netherlands)

Collected pandemic dreams to share and discuss in live sessions and dream groups.

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IASD Members in the Media

Interviews, articles, and podcasts featuring IASD members, 2020.

Deirdre Barrett, PhD (USA)

Psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, past President of IASD and of the Society for Psychological Hypnosis, and Editor-in-Chief of Dreaming. Author of The Committee of Sleep and Pandemic Dreams, and editor of Trauma and Dreams. She gave over 40 media interviews in the first months of the pandemic.

Pandemic dream artwork by Deirdre Barrett
(artwork by Deirdre Barrett)
Show 42 more interviews

Mark Blagrove, PhD (UK)

Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sleep Laboratory at Swansea University. Past IASD President, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and part of the DreamsID (Dreams Illustrated and Discussed) art-science collaboration.

Jordi Borràs-García (Spain)

Psychologist and founder of mondesomnis, a platform sharing the benefits of attending to our dreams. Creator of Dream Integration Training, the first Spanish-language training dedicated to dreamwork in psychotherapy. During the pandemic he also hosted weekly Spanish-language sessions on Instagram Live where people could share and reflect on their dreams. (Links are in Catalan or Spanish.)

Kelly Bulkeley, PhD (USA) and Michael Schredl, PhD (Germany)

Bulkeley is a psychologist of religion, Director of the Sleep and Dream Database, Senior Editor of Dreaming, and a past IASD President. His books include Lucrecia the Dreamer (2018), Big Dreams (2016), and Dreaming in the World's Religions (2008). Schredl has worked in the Sleep Laboratory of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim since 1990 and edits the International Journal of Dream Research.

Clare Johnson, PhD (UK and Germany)

Past IASD President and author of six books, including Llewellyn's Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming and The Art of Lucid Dreaming, and leader of Lucid Dreaming Ocean Retreats in Portugal. In this podcast, author Theresa Cheung interviews her about lockdown dreams, nightmares, how lucid dreaming can help transform fear, and dreams of the deceased.

Angel Morgan, PhD (USA)

Founder of Dreambridge, Global PhD professor at Sofia University, and IASD President. Author of Dreamer's Powerful Tiger, a lucid dreaming book for children and parents, and contributor to Sleep Monsters and Superheroes: Empowering Children with Creative Dreamplay.

Lana Nasser (Jordan / Netherlands)

Performance artist originally from Jordan, now living and working in the Netherlands.

Katja Valli, PhD (Finland)

Senior Researcher at the University of Turku and Associate Professor at the University of Skövde, Sweden. Co-editor of Dreams: Understanding Biology, Psychology, and Culture. Her research focuses on simulation theories of the evolutionary function of dreaming.

More IASD Voices

Brigitte Holzinger (Austria)

Lecturer, author, and coach who studied psychology at the University of Vienna and Stanford University. She specializes in sleep, sleep disorders, nightmares, lucid dreaming, and Gestalt therapy, and created the DreamSenseMemory app (German and English).

Co-author, “Dealing with sleep problems during home confinement due to the COVID-19 outbreak”, Journal of Sleep Research, 2020.

Robert J. Hoss, MS (USA)

Director and past President of IASD, Director of the DreamScience Foundation, and faculty trainer for the Haden Institute. Author of Dream Language and Dream to Freedom, and author/editor of Dreams That Change Our Lives and Dreams: Understanding Biology, Psychology, and Culture.

Discussed pandemic dreams on the Dream Power Radio podcast, and on KSQD's The Dream Journal shared the dreams that steadied him while canceling the 2020 IASD conference.

Pandemic dream artwork by Bob Hoss
(artwork by Bob Hoss)

Linda Yael Schiller, MSW, LICSW (USA)

Dreamworker, psychotherapist, professor emeritus at Boston University School of Social Work, and author of Modern Dreamwork: New Tools for Decoding Your Soul's Wisdom.

Wrote “Why Dreams & Nightmares Are So Vivid During the Coronavirus Pandemic” and other pandemic articles for YourTango, plus posts on her blog, Awake to Your Dreams.

Thanks also go to Art Funkhouser, who managed IASD's Dreamlinks list and shared dream articles from around the world throughout the pandemic.

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