PSYCHOLOGY
How did you sleep?
Lightbulb moments
When you’re concerned for a loved one, the answer to this throwaway question can be a barometer for wellbeing, says Kimberley Wilson, a psychologist and author of ‘How To Build A Healthy Brain’
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK
Last night, I dreamed that a rocket bomb was slowing, coming downhill, heading straight for me. In the dream, I was helpless to halt the progress of this looming threat and, when I woke, I interpreted this dream as representative of my worries. And it seems I’m not the only one. In the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, everyone I spoke to was tired. I heard several reports of sleep disturbance: restlessness, early waking, nightmares. It was the same during the first year of the pandemic. These emerging yet uncontrollable threats creating a one-two punch of hypervigilance, which interrupts our sleep and creeps into our dreams.