Anyone else have COVID anxiety dreams?

[piratepwnsninja]

Not so much about having it, but for awhile now, in my dreams, my brain is acutely aware and brings attention to times when masks aren't being worn, which puts me in a panicked state in my dreams.

The dream could be super pedestrian, like shopping at the mall and oh this was cool, there are some fantastical stores here I've never seen, such as a cotton candy store with over 100 flavors of cotton candy! (Don't ask me, I'm 40 and my brain is weird) but anyway, I go in and suddenly nightmare as nobody has a mask and I just noticed it!

But last night I was on ANOTHER PLANET TRYING TO SAVE IT FROM DYING and, we are in a meeting of the minds, figuring out just how to save the planet, and my brain is all "hey, look, nobody is wearing a mask." Fucking thanks, brain.

I can't be the only one experiencing this, right?

 

[Protoman200X]

Some of the dreams that I have are much more morbid than fantastical, but the general theme through them include such hits as "I use my mum's kitchen to prepare Christmas dinner & she failed to mention she had symptoms" to "My sweetheart was going to get terribly ill and die and it was all my fault."

 

[Oliver James]

Made a thread about dreams being more prevalent during these times, but I don't think anyone has brought something like yours OP. Mine have been more vivid and they play longer like feature-lengths.

 

[Alpheus]

I have them quite frequently myself.

 

[Mukrab]

No. Tbh outside of having to wear masks nothing this year was too much outside the norm for me to even think about that stuff.

 

[Deleted member 44129]

All the time.

 

[addik]

I've had dreams where I forgot my mask at home and I just be so chill about it in my dreams. I always wake up feeling grateful it didn't happen.

Kind of related, but in the neighborhood I live in, I am neighbors with a lot of local actors and actresses and I see them sometimes walking around with masks. But when I see them in movies/shows without masks (and when I am hours into my binge watching), I kind of panic a bit sometimes and have to remind myself I'm watching a movie starring them lol.

 

[Pink Tape]

Yeah, I had one the other day. I was waiting in line at a fast food place and no one was wearing masks which freaked me out. Then it cut to me wearing a mask and waiting in line and a Karen was complaining loudly about wearing a mask, pretended to throw up, and leave.

 

[Pall Mall]

I'll always be somewhere crowded and suddenly realize no one is wearing a mask and hard panic. You're not alone in that regard for sure.

 

[Prax]

I actually only had a covid/pandemic related dream back when it was still more of a rumour of SARS returning to China (maybe in Feb or early March before the lockdown in North America).

The dream had fantastical elements but I distinctly remember it had plague or Spanish Flu implications, and a mother was scrying/making predictions off the eyeball of her son. The prediction showed dark tendrils slowly spreading over the world, with the African continent being the last place engulfed.

I woke up anxious about the meaning, and now look at where we are..

 

[Danby]

I had one in a crowded museum with a bunch of really detailed bug faced masks, but then my in-dream wife came up to me and pointed out that I should be wearing a mask.

Maskless dream is the new naked dream.

 

[Fancy Clown]

The "being in a cool store/museum and then I realize I'm surrounded by people without masks and I forgot my mask" is a fairly common one I've had during all this. I recently had one where I dreamt I was in the hospital with COVID and my toes were turning black. It's odd though because when I'm awake though I'm super careful about COVID I don't feel like I'm that stressed about it? Maybe the dreams are how I deal with it.

 

[Host Samurai]

I've surprisingly only had one dream that I remember that wearing masks were a thing. There was topic on NPR a few months ago that was about dreams during the pandemic.

 

[Neoriceisgood]

I've had at least a couple where I end up accidentally inside a crowd without a mask on.

 

[verygooster]

Yup. Usually the pandemic in my brain is projected as something like a zombie apocalypse or any sort of like on The Simpsons "Oh there's that gas that turns people inside out!" kind of deal. It's fucked.

 

[DarkSora]

I'm recovering from it now and will probably have anxiety dreams about it for months to come.

Fucking scary stuff.

 

[The Albatross]

I've started to have the "Oh shit where is my mask...?" dreams, which are a variant on the dream that I have most often which is that I'm in high school/college and have no idea where my class is and it's the last day of the semester and I realize I haven't attended class all year and I'm going to fail. I've been having this dream on and off going on 15+ years now. But now that similar feeling is that I can't find my mask and I'm in the middle of a group of people and I need to get somewhere but also need to find my mask and it's just *gone*.

This also has a whole other meaning for people with severe COVID who were medicated, there's some nightmare fuel dreams related to COVID intubation.

 

[kagete]

Yeah same. I hope things get better for all of us so these nightmares can stop.

 

[Fancy Clown]

I've started to have the "Oh shit where is my mask...?" dreams, which are a variant on the dream that I have most often which is that I'm in high school/college and have no idea where my class is and it's the last day of the semester and I realize I haven't attended class all year and I'm going to fail. I've been having this dream on and off going on 15+ years now. But now that similar feeling is that I can't find my mask and I'm in the middle of a group of people and I need to get somewhere but also need to find my mask and it's just *gone*.

This also has a whole other meaning for people with severe COVID who were medicated, there's some nightmare fuel dreams related to COVID intubation.

Click to shrink...

God I have that same school dream as well and it's fucking horrible lol

 

[The Albatross]

God I have that same school dream as well and it's fucking horrible lol

Click to shrink...

Yeah thiis is supposedly one of the most common anxiety dreams. It's... like an indication that something else in your life is creating anxiety for you. What's weird is that I'm not an anxious person, and so these dreams might be the outlet for some of my nascent, underlying anxiety.

The dreams are so similar every time, and usually by the end of the dream I start thinking "shit I'm going to lose my job I won't have a college degree..." and then I start to think rationally like, "... wait you won't lose your job you've been working for 15 years ... ... wait you graduated from college 15 years ago... oh this is that dream again..." and then I wake up.

 

[Wreckord Collection]

I had them very frequently from August to mid-November (two or three a week). Still have them, just not as frequently (once a week or so?).

 

[HeySeuss]

No because I don't let it consume my life. If you're dreaming about covid stuff there's a high possibility that you stress about it too much. Dreams are often your subconscious manifestations trying to deal with issues in your day to day life.

Outside of wearing a mask and social distancing my life is essentially unchanged. I realize that some people are high risk due to health problems but I don't worry about what I can't control. I take proper precautions but I know that it might not be enough. I had it already but it's been more than 90 days ago so I can get it again.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Yeah thiis is supposedly one of the most common anxiety dreams. It's... like an indication that something else in your life is creating anxiety for you. What's weird is that I'm not an anxious person, and so these dreams might be the outlet for some of my nascent, underlying anxiety.

The dreams are so similar every time, and usually by the end of the dream I start thinking "shit I'm going to lose my job I won't have a college degree..." and then I start to think rationally like, "... wait you won't lose your job you've been working for 15 years ... ... wait you graduated from college 15 years ago... oh this is that dream again..." and then I wake up.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm a pretty low stress person as well so that might have something to do with the dreams. I never logically/lucidly think my way out of them though, I'm just the mercy of pure anxiety as I find a packet full of absurd math equations (my major didn't even have anything to do with math!) in my backpack that I realize I was supposed to finish or study for the class I completely forgot to attend as I fruitlessly search for the classroom in labyrinthine halls until I wake up or the dream switches to something more fun.

The COVID dreams are more insidious though because they seamlessly blend into my normal dreams. I have a lot of cool travel related dreams where I'm exploring some foreign city, but now I'll be doing that until I realize I've wandered into a building where nobody has a mask on and I can't find my way out.

 

[Rockets]

Just had a dream I went to a movie theater with friends and started freaking out when I noticed nobody was wearing masks. I didn't have a mask on me either so I asked a theater employee for a spare. He gave me one made out of jean jacket fabric, which was suffocating the hell out of me and had me sweating bullets. Didn't help that the movie we were watching was a no commentary let's play of Dark Souls 2.

So yeah, you're not alone OP

 

[sirap]

I've had 2-3, which is surprisingly low given how anxious I get every night. 9 months of being terrified that it'll get my family :/

 

[MrNelson]

I've had a few.

They're all just variations on me being somewhere in public and I suddenly realize my mask has disappeared off my face.

 

[TaySan]

Only one i was in a gas station and i forgot to put on my mask.XD

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I've had a few.

They're all just variations on me being somewhere in public and I suddenly realize my mask has disappeared off my face.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I forgot to mention that in mine, I also inevitably realize that I don't have a mask.

 

[Cyanity]

Not specifially about COVID, but the anxiety from the general state of things lately has given me some wild and messed-up dreams.

 

[CaptNink]

I have the "in a crowded place and no mask" dream regularly now.

 

[Zissou]

Like a couple others have mentioned, I get the "I've been doing stuff near other people only to realize no one is wearing masks and freak out" dream a lot.

 

[Curler]

No because I don't let it consume my life. If you're dreaming about covid stuff there's a high possibility that you stress about it too much. Dreams are often your subconscious manifestations trying to deal with issues in your day to day life.

Click to shrink...

Not necessarily. That's like the equivalent to saying "going to school decades ago still consumes your mind, why else would you dream about missing tests/classes/forgetting locker combos still?"

I actually made this same topic months ago, and I've been keeping myself busy with working on projects at home which have been WAY more on my mind than COVID/mask stuff. I dream consistently about anything/everything, and the whole forgetting a mask thing happened quite a bit. I have only left the house a handful of times this whole year, so why would forgetting a mask bother me if I barely even go out?

If anything, I see this as a new version of the anxiety dream where you forget to wear pants or whatever; masks are the new norm, and even in dreams it's something you should be wearing but forgot (like pants). Anxiety-based, sure.

 

[Lakeside]

I've had dreams that I was visiting vulnerable people and didn't have my mask on.

 

[julia crawford]

No but i do have stabbing anxiety dreams.

Maybe unrelated.

 

[Inyourprime]

No, I don't. Living in a small town where practically 1/3 of the people you run into don't wear masks has made me very paranoid to go into public spaces. But, no, no dreams like that.