A selection of the dreams that have been submitted, organised by commonly cited theme.
The dream content is on the left and the dreamers associations on the right.
The dream (second time in two nights) centres on the peculiarly shaped handle of a Flymo. Instead of scenes of gardening tho, I find that this ‘framework’ has risen up to a height of about 2m and I’m precariously balanced on top. The body of the Flymo has disappeared and instead what remains is now on wheels and moving down a sloping street/road. It feels like it’s only a matter of time before I crash.
Initially the idea of ‘scything down’ struck me, but that part of the device didn’t feature for long. General precariousness is what remains. That said, I recall dreams from my youth of being on motorbikes that I couldn’t really control and hurtling towards parked vans.
Edinburgh, UK
04.04.2020
I dreamt that I was walking a group of P1 children between venues when I lost a group of them. They walked off towards a park and despite searching I couldn’t catch up and find them.
Loss of Control.
Removal from structure and increased anxiety.
Musselburgh, UK
25.03.2020
A few nights ago I dreamt about visiting a friend in Berlin. It started off at home- glasgow- in my bedroom which was also my office. My colleagues were also there, just working in my bedroom as though it was any old open plan office. Suddenly we were all by the sea and I was wandering into the water carrying all my work stuff- folders, papers and my phone. There was a huge wave which pulled me under, at the same time I had some feeling of guilt, like all of this was my fault. I desperately tried to keep my phone out of the water, keen to save it and let myself go under. From there I ended up going to visit my friend in Berlin (something I’d planned to do pre-lockdown). We met, hugged and she led a big group of us through the streets to find a pub. When we got there we were told to wait outside so huddled together in a small space with our drinks. Again, a huge wave appeared and swept us all up. We were okay but the waves kept coming and nobody but me was panicking. Out of nowhere I spotted lots of little St Christopher medals (patron saint of travellers)and tried to save them from the waves. That’s it. I woke up.
I read this dream as mainly being about the lack of control I’m feeling over the situation we find ourselves in. Suddenly my colleagues are invading my home space- there’s so little work/home separation now. There are also definitely feelings of guilt and something there about my catholic upbringing…also maybe these feelings of wanting to travel and be with friends but also feeling guilty about that as I know I’m in a position of privilege where I am.
Glasgow, UK
01.05.2020
Last night I dreamt I was unwittingly part of a set up that led to a crime. It involved me driving a van into warehouse full of second hand furniture with the actual perpetrator/victim inside. I ran away into the street but got caught, unlike the others. I was wearing large, brightly coloured trousers. Me and two other women were searched by quite a nice police woman but then I was thrown in prison. I got separated from my new friends but found the prison had a really nice swimming pool. It was huge. My friend Lauren, who is a doctor, was there and pulled a silly grumpy face at me and splashed me. It then turned out there was a sort of club night in this giant, mixed prison. There was a comedy club and I took a flyer and asked if they ever did improv (this is something I do a lot). There were multiple multicolour keys that each prisoner had to had and there was some kind of trading involved. And then it ended in a dream that has become recurring dream for me this past year: all the toilets are either blocked or don’t have a door/privacy or just gross. This last thing as I say has been a recurring theme for a while now. The prison thing isn’t but I found it scary and intimidating. Then I woke up.
My life has been put on hold. There are some decisions I don’t want to make. I worry about people like my friend who is a doctor. I feel guilty that I’m not more useful but also feel I’ve been doing a lot by being self-isolating longer than the government asked and took unpaid leave to do so.
London, UK
25.03.2020
I was travelling on the top deck of a bus with my friend sitting in the row behind me. I realised at the last minute that I needed to get off, stood up, and out of habit gave my friend a hug to say bye. She got really angry and I realised I’d forgotten all about social distancing.
I don’t think my psyche is being very subtle here! This is about me processing social distancing, also worrying about the strain the crisis puts on relationships that are important to me. Also interesting that I’m on a bus, since travel is a big taboo at the moment. I think I’m craving movement.
Berlin, Germany
21.03.2020
I dreamt that I met some teens who pranked a school. It was a thing people were doing. They would change the signs, break in and move things around. We almost got caught. But it was dark and the person who thought they saw me I guess just got freaked out. It was senseless. I met one of the teens on a train. He hit on me and had four dogs with him. I, of course, entertained the teen just so that I could pat some cute dogs. There was a moment when a cute dog was in the school with us and made sure I was comfortable as I waited for the guy to finish up. The dog got me some tinsel from an Xmas decoration to rest my head on. Then one of the girls came in and said they were going to a club. So we decided to leave. As I was putting my shoes on, I told the teen that I had a really good time. He leaned down and pecked me on the lips. I thought that was cute. At the same moment, his friends were coming in and saw. I found out he had a girlfriend. Her and her girlfriends started verbally abusing me and I tried to defend myself by being condescending to these teens. They pointed it out and that I was in fact the immature one. They said I put value to words that mean nothing… like, the word friends, kind and pathetic… I don’t remember saying those three words to them. I woke up at that point. Trying to decipher this and take in that moment when I realised they were “right”. I just remembered that before I went into this part of the dream, I had another one before. It was also distressing at some point. Realise that my dreams are often familiar and include people I know and scenarios that are somewhat aligned to my life. They then turn very distressful quite quickly.
Distress and disruption to joys of life
Berlin, Germany
29.03.2020
Grass in my bed, I kept hoovering but it wouldn’t go away, and people were having a party in my flat and pooing in my loo
Getting angry at the people I love about small things, being unable to get rid of dirt
London, UK
12.03.2020
I think I was in Denmark. I think I dreamed about you because I knew you were collecting dreams. It was my birthday, my 30th (which I won’t be able to celebrate really because of all this), and I suddenly realised I hadn’t made any plans but you said you were throwing me a party and Anna was going to be there and some other folk, I can’t remember who. We got lost on the way to your house for the party and accidentally ended up in a kind of underground chamber – have you ever been to the cafe underneath st martin in the fields in London in trafalgar square? it was like that. It was a Buddhist temple though and then all these buddhists started to come in, so we were leaving but then I saw Billie was there sitting at the end of a row – she was a monk! I think I was thinking about her because I spoke to her a couple weeks ago and she said she couldn’t smell anything but wasn’t ill… and now that has been recognised as a symptom of a covid19 carrier, but we didn’t know then? – and I was like Billie! when did you become a buddhist? and she said she’d always been a buddhist monk and how didn’t I know that about her given that we’d been friends for the last 12 years?
missing friends, missing travel, missing my own birthday, finding out things after the fact, when it’s too late
Bristol, UK
27.03.2020
Dreamt I was part of an elite group of social distancers, best at walking >2m away from others. Then saw a poster of myself in a room full of balloons and people and discovered I was actually a spy for a network of illicit quarantine-flouting party organisers, headed up by Mortimer Village Fete. After each party they’d wipe my memory and send me back into the stay-at-home world.
Seems plausible.
Lisbon, Portugal
06.04.2020
I was at a big house in the countryside where there was a party with loads of friends from different parts of my life. I’d had a psychic vision that a terrifying man would be coming to stab as many people as possible at 3am, and that we were all in danger. I tried to tell as many people as possible so we could prepare/escape, but people kept getting angry at me and telling me that I was ruining the party. I managed to persuade some people and they escaped. At 3am the man came and started killing people and then I woke up.
Now I’ve typed it out it seems like the dream is very closely a metaphor for the coronavirus and my anxieties around it.
Bristol, UK
06.04.2020
I have a beard and there were loads of little bugs in it. Like lice but they were red and filled with blood. I was combing my beard and they just kept coming and coming. They were crawling up my face and in my nose.
Loss of control. A situation out of control. Spreading
Edinburgh, UK
24.03.2020
I was in a toilet cubicle at a nightclub, with Alice. I think we were having sex. The door was orange and covered in band stickers and graffiti. There was a red beetle crawling on the door. It was cute. Then we realised it had a camera in it and it was a kind of surveillance device. We ignored it
Lockdown freakout. I turned location services off on my phone yesterday. I know it’s good they are enforcing us staying at home but I am terrified by the amount of police on the streets, and scared of being tracked by the government.
Bristol, UK
29.03.2020
So night #1. Bumble guy sends me a message, when I open it a huge metallic blue spider with bulbous legs jumps on me. Lot’s that I don’t remember happens, but importantly the horrible spider is ever present, following me around, clenched on my body. I finally manage to get it off me by trapping it inside my favourite jumper. The remainder of the dream seemed like an eternity: I am flushing the spider in a toilet to the sound of “Shiny Happy People” by REM. But I am also still firmly holding my jumper by its sleeve, distressed at the thought of having it flushed away with the spider into the abyss.
I am particularly calm and content right now, being happy to stay put and take stock/work on personal things I don’t usually have the time to work on. The spider could be the underlying fear and chaos that no matter how much I ignore is ever-present in the media and in the anxiety in friends voices.
Melbourne, Australia
26.03.2020
I dreamt there were warms attaching to my skin around my abdomen, at first I noticed only few but they were multiplying themselves more quickly than I could pull them off. They were full of viruses and diseases.
Fear or getting contaminated, fear of loosing control.
United Kingdom
28.04.2020
I dreamt I was part of some ancient community. We had to all have baths in these public baths which were not very clean, and I knew if I got the water in my mouth I might die but also that if I didn’t do as they said and have a bath they might kill me. I ran the bath and the water was yellow. Once we had bathed they told us we were all going to have to give some pee so they could mix all our urine and then we would each drink some to make us immune to everything everyone was immune to. I knew this was a terrible idea but was too scared of their authority to tell them. I was trying to bathe quickly but was so distracted by the colour of the water that I put conditioner on my hair first and not shampoo and I was worried they would know I hadn’t washed my hair properly, but also knew I had to get out and rejoin the group by the time they had said. At one point the bath nearly overran because I put too much water in and I knew I was touching everything that would infect me and make me ill. I was happy to wake up in my bed in 2020.
I don’t think the pandemic is doing much for my germophobia.. I think this dream pretty accurately reflects my fears about loss of control, inability to stay clean and healthy, and distrust and disgust at the way U.K. authorities are failing to deal with the situation. My anxiety dreams often involve an element of trying to complete an impossible task while running out of time, so this dream took familiar elements and overlaid a new context.
United Kingdom
06.04.2020
I am working in a hotel and it is very busy. The chef comes to find me and brings me downstairs to what feels like a big empty factory cellar with a sheet of clear plastic hanging above me. He instructs me to stay while he goes to set up a surprise for me. He says he wants it to feel like home for me. He is excited and now so am I. Minutes later the ‘surprise’ starts, music plays and the clear plastic sheet comes falling down on me, its huge but not heavy and I don”t feel scared. I feel heavy rain start and it is on top of the plastic making a noise but I’m protected underneath. I make my way out from under the plastic and into a side room – I’m getting wet from the rain now. My friends are there. Then the rain seems to stop and we are all happy, saying it was a cool thing for the chef to organise, but jokingly annoyed we are wet and are hanging our clothes on radiators to dry. We have to be careful not to put them too close or they will burn. I have to go back and work now, It is very busy upstairs, I think it is a summer party. Also I had found broken glass and need to sweep it up.
The community and gathering of people and friends in a hotel space, especially at a summer party feels very removed from my current life quarantining alone. The plastic sheet makes me think of clinical protection and rain as something potentially cleansing. I felt happy to be with my friends and excited by the chef organising this surprise for me, I am currently feeling touched by how supportive my friends and family are, even from a distance.
Berlin, Germany
23.03.2020
I was touring the country with a small group of people including the footballer Andy Robertson sleeping rough in different cities to promote homelessness. When it came to actually sleeping we had to find the nearest row of 3 stanks which were then peeled back to use as a blanket! Each morning we woke and would then hitch hike to the next city barely having an opportunity to even brush our teeth
Probably the sense of the unknown, not knowing how the night would go, how we were getting to the next place etc. Similar to the unknown situation we are in just now
Scotland, UK
09.04.2020
I was in Sweden with a random selection of friends, colleagues and family members from across the globe. It was the last day of the trip and we were all saying goodbye to each other. The tender moment was spoiled by anger as I’d run out of money but my mum refused to help me out and instead bought a £50 necklace for my colleague. I made my way back to the hotel by following google maps and met my boyfriend in our hotel room. He had developed a cough in my absence and was frantically researching his symptoms. We were due to catch a flight home and were both panicking about getting on the plane and infecting others. We were out of money and reckoned it would cost us £8,000 to quarantine in Sweden, so we were weighing up wherever we should risk travel or stay put. I had my car with me, but couldn’t find a route back to Scotland on google maps. My boyfriend called our travel insurance company to see what they would cover, but he was kept on hold so long that we missed our flight. And then I woke up.
I had been reading about how Sweden are coping with the pandemic and how they have not yet imposed lockdown measures, so I think that has a lot to do with the setting of my dream. I have family and friends living in different parts of the world, and we do feel united in that we are living a shared experience, but I also worry about when I will be able to see them next. I guess we are all concerned about money, job security and the future economy, so I guess that’s we’re the financial stresses come in to play. I am also a key worker and I am finding myself overthinking scenarios in my head- what if I am carrying the virus and don’t even know about it?
Edinburgh, UK
09.04.2020
I was in rural area, driving along broken roads towards the nearest airport that was 2 hours away. There was only a single airline that flew out of the airport and the car was being driven by my aunt (who doesn’t know how to drive in real life). My hometown was another 2 hours in the direction opposite to the airport and the roads to all these towns were carved between forest areas
A sense of wanting to escape/ leave the current place since the drive to the airport was the focus
Gurgaon,India
28.04.2020
I’m travelling with my gf. Our home looks like 2-storeyed London bus. Inside it’s like usual home. A group of youngsters are outside and one day I notice one of them inside our house. I don’t manage to say anything but I suspect that he stole something. But somehow I’m calm since we are not in our home country and I trust the police here. Another scene at home where other guests are present and we do some exercise. At one point gravitation disappears and we start to levitate on our pillows (from first floor to the second).Then I find myself in some gallery-like space. White walls, many people with champagne glasses. And I see how police officer escorts one of the youngsters I saw outside my home (not the one I witnessed inside the home). I’m glad since I’m sure that whatever was stolen it will get back to us safely. I’m trying to leave a message to a receptionist (?) at the gallery but other visitors are constantly approaching her to ask something. I want to leave my contacts so that in case police finds something that was stolen in our house it could be taken back to us. When I finally start to talk to her – another person approaches her and starts to ask their question. I wake up without leaving my message. Feeling of light disappointment as if I didn’t manage to do what I wanted to do. arghhh
Main association is travelling, longing for new places.
Kyiv, Ukraine
22.04.2020
I think I was at an airport. Lots of foreign people were milling around with neck pillows and those eye masks you get on long-haul flights. One of the shops was an organic food store owned by Anthoni from Queer Eye, who I love! He helped me shop there and talked me through everything: there were delicious artisanal spreads and lovely fruit and veg! Everything was pretty expensive but I knew it was worth it and I could afford it. Anthoni was holding a baby in his arms and I think his girlfriend was nearby, which is weird because he is obviously gay in real life.
This dream made me so happy and I associate it with comfort! I’ve been cooking a lot more at home and eating really well recently, although I still have massive anxiety about going to the shops. The travel aspect going on in the background was slightly stressful, but generally it was a good dream.
Berlin, Germany
22.03.2020
Last night I dreamt I was looking for a cafe that was open. I wanted a lovely cup of coffee made by a barista. I found a cafe that was open, but for some reason they kept delaying making my coffee. They were apologetic and sweet about it, eventually they made it and it was awful. I left and wandered around outside the cafe, which was situated in a large estate. In the gardens of the estate there grew enormous Australian native bush flowers. They towered over me and grew so densely I felt so small amongst them.
They are twofold. Obviously my bougie need for a good cup of coffee, and not being able to get one reveals my vulnerability as a modern human. But the image of being amongst Australian native wildflowers towering over me, the most resilient of ancient plants, and feeling small and vulnerable in comparison. To me, this dream reveals to me how vulnerable I feel in the face of this virus, which is really just an aspect of Nature.
London, UK
25.03.2020
I was back in my childhood home with my sister, it’s an area we have both deeply loved throughout our lives and remains a place of peace and solace in adulthood, partly because it seems to remain unchanged in an ever-changing world. It was a beautiful day and we decided to go for a walk to one of our favourite spots; a hill which looks out to the Western Isles of Scotland and down to Northern Ireland. In order to get there you walk through a beautiful wood, which used to home a castle and huge walled garden, now ruins, but still full of natural life; wild raspberries, bluebells, ancient Scots pines, deer, rabbits and pheasants are now its only inhabitants. As we began to ascend the hill, I started to feel an ominous presence behind us, and realised we were not alone, two dark shadows lurked behind us in the distance. Suddenly, I felt panic, and at the same time, this familiar ground, that I trusted to stay beneath me as it has done a thousand times before, began to open up, and at once my sister and I were on the edge of a huge chasm which was so deep we could not see the bottom, only darkness. I began to lose footing and looked behind me to see my sister struggling to hold on as the ground shifted beneath us, pushing us further toward the edge and tipping into the darkness. At the same time, the presence of strangers was close by, I looked up behind us and could see two dark figures, I couldn’t make out anything beyond the darkness of their presence, but I knew they were not helpers. I held on with panic and confusion and my sister and I managed to scramble to slightly safer ground, but we knew it wasn’t safe; the darkness of the chasm felt as though it was trying to pull us towards it, and we each had to fight to stay stable. The feeling of helplessness and not being able to protect my sister as we scrambled to safety was overwhelming and terrifying. As we reached level ground, the figures disappeared and we were left standing at the edge of this deep, black tear in our beloved homeland, holding on to each other and feeling an unfamiliar fear in a landscape which had only ever been a refuge to us until this point.
I suppose there are some constants which I take for granted in my life; health, economic stability, living in a developed country with an excellent healthcare system, things I could not envision changing dramatically regardless of government or environmental changes. But now, with this pandemic, everything is shifted. My health and the health of my loved ones is under threat, I already know one person who has died from contracting the virus. Several people I know have been laid off, the stable job I got to support my self employed work is under threat, my husband is a healthcare worker and there isn’t enough PPE so I’m scared for him, there is just so much fear and uncertainty right now, and we can’t see an end yet. It literally feels like the ground is opening up beneath us and we are all scrambling to get a steady footing on unfamiliar territory.
Glasgow, Scotland
27.03.2020
A few nights ago I dreamt about visiting a friend in Berlin. It started off at home- glasgow- in my bedroom which was also my office. My colleagues were also there, just working in my bedroom as though it was any old open plan office. Suddenly we were all by the sea and I was wandering into the water carrying all my work stuff- folders, papers and my phone. There was a huge wave which pulled me under, at the same time I had some feeling of guilt, like all of this was my fault. I desperately tried to keep my phone out of the water, keen to save it and let myself go under. From there I ended up going to visit my friend in Berlin (something I’d planned to do pre-lockdown). We met, hugged and she led a big group of us through the streets to find a pub. When we got there we were told to wait outside so huddled together in a small space with our drinks. Again, a huge wave appeared and swept us all up. We were okay but the waves kept coming and nobody but me was panicking. Out of nowhere I spotted lots of little St Christopher medals (patron saint of travellers)and tried to save them from the waves. That’s it. I woke up.
I read this dream as mainly being about the lack of control I’m feeling over the situation we find ourselves in. Suddenly my colleagues are invading my home space- there’s so little work/home separation now. There are also definitely feelings of guilt and something there about my catholic upbringing…also maybe these feelings of wanting to travel and be with friends but also feeling guilty about that as I know I’m in a position of privilege where I am.
Glasgow
01.05.2020
I dreamed about frantically eating salami at my desk at work, and hiding the wrappers underneath letters and files. No one was around but I had the feeling I was going to be caught out somehow. I felt guilty. (By day, I’m a vegetarian).
Could be related to all the bulk buying of food that’s going on, or fear of gaining weight during quarantine.
Berlin
08.04.2020
I was talking with my father that is dead, he wanted to help me.
Need help
Italy
24.04.2020
It was the end of the afternoon, and we were leaving. I tried to catch my father’s eye as I turned away down the starts. I searched them out with the usual mix of assertion and supplication, but his eyes were locked on my wife.
Life goes on, perhaps passivity intensifies these psychological dreams.
Berlin
27.03.2020
I dreamed I had two facial tattoos done, one on each cheek. They were ornate & delicate. I showed them to my father, who said he’d quite liked them. This felt like acceptance.
Separated from my family. I treasure authenticity and connection; which I lack from my extended family and at this time I am sheltering my elderly parents somewhat from reality. I am facing the possibility of never seeing them again and the dream signifies a complete acceptance which I have never felt..
Bristol
30.03.2020
Dreaming in the time of Corona 