A writer recently wrote in to “ASK AMY” in the LA Times about their anxious, strange and vivid dreams since the pandemic began. Amy responded by referencing the work of renowned Harvard Medical School dream researcher Deidre Barrett whose newest book is titled Pandemic Dreams. The book has been described as a collection of vivid Covid-19-related dreams accompanied by her advice for practical exercises to control stress and anxiety while asleep. Amy commented that she was surprised to learn that “you might be able to control more of your dream content.”
Hypnotherapy also holds the view that yes, you can direct and control what you dream about to some extent. Don’t forget, however, that dreams serve a very important function in mental health and you may or may not need to direct and control your dream experiences.
In an excerpt from Pandemic Dreams we read that “Since the COVID-19 pandemic swept around the world, and we began to shelter-in-place, people have reported unusually active dream lives. We’re remembering more dreams than usual, and those dreams are especially vivid and bizarre. The virus itself is the star of many – literally or in one of its metaphoric guises.”
Below are 3 techniques you can use to help with Pandemic Dream experiences. If you are curious but not worried about your dreams consider item #1 before jumping into dream direction and control activities. If your dreams are contributing to and exacerbating your level of stress and anxiety consider items #2 and #3.
1. Gain an understanding of the purpose and natural function of dreaming and dreams.
Everything that happens in our world during the day remains in the 10% of our mind that is our conscious mind. At night, as we sleep, all that information is “downloaded” into our subconscious mind. Dreams are an important tool to clear our mind and ready it for the next day’s input, similar to a computer restart.
2. Learn to direct the content of your dreams by programming your subconscious mind just before you go to sleep at night.
Accessing the subconscious mind and implanting ideas for what you do want to dream about is best done just before for you go to sleep when the conscious mind is ready to turn control over to your subconscious for the night. “Tonight, I will dream about ……”
3. Train yourself to enter lucid dreaming and use the power of lucid dreaming to adjust and modify your dream experience as it is underway.
In a regular dream you don’t know that you are dreaming. A lucid dream is a dream during which you are aware that you are dreaming while in the dream. That awareness empowers you to exercise some control of the dream by doing things like recognizing and eliminating negative symbols or directly confronting fears without concern for you safety because its only a dream.
If you find yourself having pandemic dreams that disturb you, you might want more information. I am offering a free, online group hypnosis session every other Wednesday from 10-11 am pst. Our next session will be on November 18.You can register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpf--rrDkiHdHHxRgKaamvgHt5fbvj2ADR