Worryingly, there’s no sign of a fall as we get deeper into 2021. This is a sign of the stress that the pandemic continues to put us under, and suggests sleeping issues will be with us for as long as it takes to get back to normal.

Along with being unable to sleep, we also found that people are reporting nightmares 42% more in the twelve months after 11 March 2020 compared to the twelve months before.

And, again, there are no signs of this changing anytime soon.

We wanted to take a closer look at the data. We listed 18 common themes and things people have nightmares about, and found out which ones were the most cited since the pandemic started.

Deaths, exams, and falling took the top three spots, just as they did before the pandemic. In fact, the order of the rankings has not changed much since Covid-19 arrived on the scene.

We can get a better idea of the effect of the pandemic by looking at how much each theme increased. Covid-19 nightmares obviously increased the most by a huge margin, rising by over 3000%, so we’ve excluded that from our table below.

Nightmares about social media saw a massive rise, as did being trapped. Neither of these present much of a surprise.

With lockdowns and restrictions cutting down our list of entertainment options, social media offered us something to do and usage went up by as much as 51% for some in the US due to Covid-19. Meanwhile, those same restrictions have made many people feel trapped in the real world.

The bottom of the table offers some very interesting insights too. Being lost, being late, and flying saw the lowest increases, all of which were far below the 42% increase in nightmare reporting overall.

These three themes all have something in common: they’re concerns curtailed by the pandemic. How can you get lost when you’re staying indoors? How can you be late when appointments take place on your laptop? How can you worry about flying when there are no flights to take?

Those with anxieties around these issues may be some of the few people getting a good night’s sleep these days.

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The Brandwatch React team