Dreams in the Time of Coronavirus
Since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, many people around the world experienced increased amounts of stress, isolation and anxiety. As a result, researchers observed changes in sleeping habits and dreaming patterns, and a surge of more vivid and unusual dreams and nightmares. Interested in this phenomenon, I asked people to share their dreams while quarantined during the coronavirus pandemic. All (save one) of the multi exposure images were created in my neighborhood, while taking short walks in keeping with the requirements of social distancing and isolation.
Each photo has a caption with a real dream told by a different person.
Anastasiia, 23, female, Kremenchuk, Poltava region, Ukraine: About two days ago (after I found out about the first person who got sick with Covid-19 in my town of Kremenchuk), I had a dream that felt very realistic. I was lying quietly on my bed and was talking to my mom. After a few minutes, I suddenly felt all the symptoms of this virus, one after another. First the fever, then the cough, and after that a very severe shortness of breath. I was asphyxiated by this virus. I didn't know what to do and where to run. I understood that now my family is in danger and if I go to the hospital then other patients will also be there at that moment. I felt a terrible responsibility for many lives simultaneously. And because of this great stress, my shortness of breath only increased. Everything around me was weighing down on me. I didn't know what choice to make: die now or put others at risk. I think that I had this dream because I learned that the first woman who got sick in my town went to the hospital and hid that her daughter had recently arrived from Poland. She was put in the hospital in a ward with people who had pneumonia, and even before that she was sent on a public bus to do an X-ray ... it is so rough.ii
Daria, 36, female, Kyiv, Ukraine: I had a dream that people, all wearing masks, were all walking in a huge crowd, since public transportation doesn’t operate. They were trying to start a revolution and overthrow the government. All of them were silent, with more and more new people joining the crowd. They were all wearing medical masks made of black fabric. It was very similar to the movie “V for Vendetta”.
Marichka, 34, female, Kyiv, Ukraine: During the quarantine, I live in a village near a church. The church in the village is Russian. The priest in the village is called Father Separatist. In the evening, I asked my neighbors whether they would bless their Easter cakes at the church, because I wanted to take pictures. People said yes. I set my alarm for 5am, because it usually happens at dawn. Then I fell asleep and dreamed all night that I can’t manage to get to church. It was one of those very unpleasant dreams where you are looking for pants but not finding them. And then I looked out the window, and the priest and the choir were already leaving the church to meet the people with candles in their baskets. I ran to grab my camera but couldn’t find it. I looked out of the window again, and the bells were ringing already, which means they started to bless. Then I tried to find a mask since I remembered I can’t go there without a mask. Finally I ran to the church, the sun was already shining, and the children's choirs were already leaving that small village church. They were very well dressed. And I noticed that the leaders of the church choirs were quickly trying to get away, so that I couldn’t photograph anything. It was as if they knew that they sinned by gathering so many people during a pandemic, but it was clear that they and the priest were satisfied with themselves, and I was very upset that I did not have time to take a picture and I have no evidence of their religious crime. In the end, when my alarm clock rang and I woke up, I looked out of the window but there was nobody near the church and the door was closed.
Daria, 25, female, Utrecht, Netherlands: Recently, I’ve been having dreams where there is coercion, escape, and violence. I found myself in unwanted situations, running away from dangerous people and falling into traps. One day I screamed in my dream. My boyfriend was scared and tried to calm me down. He touched me and I pushed him in my sleep and shouted, "Don't touch me!" Around this time, I dreamed of a disgusting man wearing shoes with long, narrow toe boxes trying to touch me.
Veronika, 29, female, Kyiv, Ukraine: Since the beginning of quarantine and the travel ban, I started to dream often that I was in a rush to go somewhere. I was always on my way to the airport, but at the last moment I missed my plane or I didn't have the necessary documents to board. One day I dreamt that I was riding on a tram, with many people around. I knew I needed to go to the airport, but then I realized that I had neither my luggage nor documents. But it was too late, a crowd of people trapped me in a tram going straight to the terminal. People carried me out and there I was at the terminal. The queue carried me further and further to the border, and I had no documents. I was terribly worried. I was late for the plane, and then I woke up.
Tetiana, 62, female, Khomutyntsi village, Vinnytsia region, Ukraine: My friend and I were somewhere at a resort in western Ukraine and we had tickets for a concert by Sviatoslav Vakarchuk [a famous Ukrainian rock musician]. We packed our things and tried to get to the town where the concert would happen. We arrived and it was empty: there was no public transportation, the streets were completely empty. We saw some police officers and asked them how to get to the venue so we wouldn’t be late for the concert, but the police told us that there is no transportation at all.
Olena, 30, female, Vyshgorod, Kyiv region, Ukraine: I dreamed about my ex boyfriend, whom I have not seen since the start of the war. We talked in the dream, about everything. In the last dream, we were in an indoor pool. I swam while he sat on a deck chair. I woke up feeling like I was suffocating, after seeing in the dream that I was drowning. I think this is because the quarantine situation is very similar to the situation in Donetsk in the spring of 2014, when everything was closed and we were afraid to walk around. Back then it was possible to run away, but now there is nowhere to run.
Tetiana, 36, female, London, UK: My dream is about returning home. This dream often haunts me after my father died while I was in the US. I didn't have time to say goodbye to him. And, apparently, worrying about it, I often see him in my dreams. A few days ago, I had a dream that I was going to my neighborhood Southern Borshchagivka, the district in Kyiv where I grew up. I was walking near the 12th department store that for some reason had been converted to a movie theater. And this was so unusual - a movie theater in our department store? My father always met me in this area and then we would go to our nine story apartment building together. I was already thinking about how to buy tickets so we could go and watch a movie together when I realized that everything is closed due to pandemic. The door was locked and I was trying to find where I could buy the last ticket, and I didn’t want to believe that the show was canceled due to some virus.
Steven (changed name), 41, male, Kyiv, Ukraine: I dreamt that my brother and sister and I were watching our parents’ house from above and a car came and parked in the yard that was a 1970s Peugeot but not a really existing one, something similar to the 604 but somehow wider and more glamorous and sinister looking, maybe it was like a coupé version of the 604. It was white, and we knew that in that car were people who wanted to kill our parents, but our parents seemed very relaxed, they were lying on the sofa reading books, watching TV, drinking wine, having a nice time, and whoever was in the car didn't get out of the car, it just stayed there, parked in their yard.
Daria, 36, female, Kyiv, Ukraine: I had a dream that the new generation decided not to give birth to children anymore, so that people would die out in a civilized beautiful way - not from wars and epidemics, just from old age. They will live for themselves, not for procreation, and the main mission of these people is to put the Earth and its ecology back in order. They refuse to exploit resources, they reject greedy consumption, and this generation decided not to reproduce so the Earth will remain with its nature and animals. The cycle of rebirth will be completed.
