Dreams: A surprising sleep hack for stressful times

What was already an epidemic of sleep loss before we were faced with a global pandemic, has become an even greater problem. These days, people are tossing and turning in bed over fears for their health, their livelihood, and the future. But when we lose out on sleep, we lose something else too: We miss out on the riches of our dreams.

Paradoxically, dreams are one reason people have trouble sleeping. Nightmare sufferers might avoid sleep to avoid having scary dreams, and even people who just have disturbing or even mystifying dreams might think of sleep as undesirable because they think their dreams are. All of this makes us put off bedtime, often without knowing quite why we’re resisting turning off the lights and tucking in for the night.

But dreams are a source of wisdom and guidance that can help us through these dark and difficult times. Dreams have been proven to help with emotional regulation, problem-solving, and healing from grief, among many other benefits. And since many inventions and innovations have come to people in their dreams (everything from the electric sewing machine to the Beatles’ song “Yesterday” and the idea for Google) there’s reason to believe that we might dream up answers to our personal challenges and even the global crisis we’re now facing.