Something we've been doing A LOT during pandemic

Can you guess something, according to recent studies, that most of us have been doing quite more than usual in this era of social distancing?

Eating? That's probably true, but it isn't what I'm alluding to.

The same goes for using Facebook and binge-watching shows on Netflix. While these may certainly apply, I'm talking about something we hardly report doing, at least in normal times.

Give up?

I speak of dreaming, whereby a series of ideas, emotions, images, and sensations occur involuntarily in the mind during the REM phase of sleep.

Sometimes the dreams are positive, sometimes they're negative, and sometimes they make absolutely no sense -- and that's if we can remember them vividly enough to make such a characterization once we wake up!

As it turns out, the stress and anxiety precipitated by the pandemic are behind this high incidence of dreaming, not to mention an increased prevalence of insomnia.

We use dreams to cope with intense emotions, particularly negative ones.

And in this case, participants' anxiety has manifested variously in their dreams, from discovering they've done something wrong to finding themselves running from someone.

Not surprisingly, some people report having dreams in which social distancing measures have been violated -- whether someone hugs them at the store or sneezes on them in a restaurant -- thus prompting them to scream or flee in terror.

Due to the physiological arousal of the "fight or flight" system that accompanies anxiety (in opposition with the "rest and digest" system), people may wake up at night and find it majorly challenging to go back to sleep.

Waking up in the middle of the night does, however, make it easier to remember one's dreams the next day, as does this slower pace of life we've all had to adapt to.

As some people are doing less each day, their dreaming minds are mining ever deeper into their memories to find information to process.

But it's clear many of these people are having nightmares on the very scale of those reported by individuals following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Experts believe this vivid dreaming will gradually wane as the crisis begins to recede. Until then, we must do our part to stay safe and remain positive.