Dahleen Glanton: Going to the Grammys with Beyoncé and Jay-Z and other weird COVID dreams

I had the weirdest dream the other night. I went to the Grammys with Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

It wasn’t the music awards show we’re used to seeing on TV. This program had a special category for “the help.” I was up for the “best maid” award, and the famous Carters were my employers.

Unfortunately, I lost to a friend whom I haven’t seen or spoken with in more than a year. But the consolation prize was a box of chocolates and cinnamon rolls.

None of it made sense — until I saw a friend’s Facebook post about the crazy dreams she’s had since taking the COVID-19 vaccine. There is absolutely no scientific data to support a connection to the vaccine, but lots of people are speculating about it on social media. Some sleep specialists said their patients have reported it too.

My friend said she has dreamed all sorts of “goofy” scenarios, but a recent one really ticked her off.

“Why the heck would I dream of taking my first ride in over a year on a crowded bus, only to find my seat filled with somebody’s food garbage and take it on myself to collect and dispose of it, after pleading with the driver to pull up at a dumpster?”

She woke up when she realized that she was on the wrong bus. In her dream, she’d forgotten that she moved a few years ago. After that, she couldn’t get back to sleep.

Others said they’ve had similar unusual dreams. But like me, they never thought of associating them with the COVID-19 vaccine until someone brought it up. Of course, it’s just as possible that these weird dreams stem from the stress of living a year in lockdown or the anxiety over things returning to normal.

One woman said most of her dreams involved “savagely insulting myself.” I can’t imagine how she possibly could be in a good mood the next day.

Another said she went to a strip club with her mom and “I cannot even tell you the rest.” She added that her mom tried to do a pole dance and she had to drag her out of the club. Then, the mafia started chasing them.

Some said their dreams involved people they haven’t seen or even thought about in years. Some dreamed they were in a crowd of people they didn’t know. Some are just terrifying.

One woman said she’s had horrific dreams of violence, anger and “people that I have long ago dismissed from my life because of treachery.” In one dream, she said, she was fighting to wake up “so I could end the nightmare.”

A former co-worker said hers mostly involved “some kind of labyrinth.” She wondered if it had something to do with the vaccine working its way through her system.

In another, she visited her old newspaper building, and it was a “warren of dirty offices with old metal desks and wooden paneling and stacks of papers.” She saw lots of old friends, which she thought was nice. But they couldn’t agree where her desk was located.

Sometimes, the dreams are prophetic. A man said he dreamed about a friend he hadn’t seen in 45 years, and within 24 hours, she sent him a friend request on Facebook. “‘Twilight Zone’ material,” he surmised.

Another man tweeted about the heroic act he performed in a dream the night after receiving his second Moderna dose. “I dreamt that I saved a small Belgian town from the Nazi’s. So now I’m a Covid Hero!”

Someone else tweeted, “Strange dreams again because I was the one who had both COVID vaccines (so) I was allowed to deliver the toilet rolls. But not ordinary toilet rolls, drug wrapping foil toilet rolls.”

I cannot pinpoint exactly when the weird dreams started after I received my second Pfizer dose two months ago. I do know, however, that they seemed to get progressively crazier before I stopped having them recently.

Now, I seem to be back to the boring stuff like freaking out about taking a final exam in college when I never attended one day of class.

There are lots of things happening in some of my weird pandemic-era dreams that a psychotherapist could have a field day with.

The friend I haven’t seen since the pandemic began is a no-brainer. I miss being around the people I used to hang out with. For someone who is constantly dieting, chocolates and cinnamon rolls are forbidden, so naturally they’d make a great consolation prize.

Maybe losing the competition is about the things I’ve had to give up during the shutdown. Maybe coming in second represents the way I chose to compensate for what was missing.

I discovered the serenity of strolling through Graceland Cemetery and looking at the elaborate headstones of famous people. I masked up and visited the grounds of landmarks that I’d never seen, such as the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette and Shri Balaji Hindu Temple in Aurora. I fell in love with the Japanese Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Perhaps I was a maid because I desperately need someone to help get my house in order. However, I have no explanation for how Beyoncé and Jay-Z ended up in my dream.

There’s more to the story, though. It began with Beyoncé helping me figure out what to wear to the show. When we settled on an outfit, I said, “I look like you, Beyoncé.” At that point Jay-Z entered the room and said sarcastically, “Yeah, right!”

Who knows what that dream really was about? One of my friends suggested that it had nothing to do with the vaccine or the pandemic at all.

“That was that cocktail you had before bed!”

That might be the most reasonable explanation.

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