Health care workers are reportedly having dreams reminiscent of combat veterans and 9/11 responders

(Image credit: iStock.)

published 28 April 2020

Dreams are getting a lot of attention during the coronavirus pandemic, which isn't surprising considering experts believe there has rarely ever been "collective dreaming" on such a broad scale, The Associated Press reports.

It's even less surprising that health care workers are bearing the brunt of the nightmares. Many people, no matter their profession, have reported having what are considered lower-level anxiety dreams during the pandemic, but "health care providers are the ones who look like a trauma population," said Deirdre Barret, a Harvard University professor who is surveying dreamers across the world (she has collected 6,000 dream samples from about 2,400 people.)

Barrett has previously studied dreams of survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as well as those of British prisoners of war in World War II. The samples she's collected from health care workers battling the coronavirus, she said, are reminiscent of both groups. "They all have the theme that 'I am responsible for saving this person's life and I'm not succeeding and this person is about to die,'" she said. "And when they dream about their child or parent getting it, for the care providers there's always the next step in the dream where they realize ... 'I gave it to them.'" Read more at The Associated Press.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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