I dreamt about the office the other day. I was back in the building and a celebrity was due to visit.

My colleague and I made a frantic beeline for the auditorium where she was to speak, but we found to our dismay that there were no seats available any more. People were already seated in what looked like chairs placed at a distance from one another. As I looked around for a spot, I began to contemplate what she would talk about and what questions the audience would ask her.

When I woke up the next morning, I remembered the dream clearly - something that does not happen often. It was rather logical as well, given that I was thinking of lucid questions to ask the guest. Does that mean I was working in my sleep? There was some element of the pandemic in it - the distance between the seats.

I am not sure what to make of it as it is not often that I dream or remember what I dreamt. But my sleep pattern has taken a hit since work from home began and I may be sleeping more lightly than usual. Even if I have an early morning start for work the next day, I find I cannot fall asleep till I have exhausted my eyes and fingers playing a game or reading an e-book - usually a mystery.

It would seem that being at home, with no need to travel to work, would give people more time to catch up on and improve the quality of their sleep. But the number of hashtags such as #cantsleep, #pandemicdreams and #coronadreams trending on social media suggests otherwise.

Indeed staying at home, working from home and lockdowns are having an impact on people's sleep and dreams. Researchers around the world are collecting these dreams via Twitter or online surveys to study them, as changed sleeping habits amid the pandemic seems to have resulted in people having a better memory of their dreams.

Bizarre, emotional and vivid dreams tend to increase after crises, says Dr Deirdre Barrett, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School's department of psychiatry, who has studied the dreams of survivors of the Sept 11 attacks.

She is now collecting dreams amid the pandemic via an online survey, and has noticed a number of them are about being infected with the virus, or being attacked by a swarm of bugs and insects, or being caught in a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a tsunami.

"I think a somewhat higher proportion of these dreams are metaphoric, because we don't have one clear image that automatically goes with the Covid-19 pandemic. And yet the dreaming mind is so visual that when it's feeling anxious and worried, it seeks to represent that with an appropriate visual image," she told The Harvard Gazette.

Some people are dreaming about sanitisers, masks, toilet paper and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Twitter user Lisa Muftic @lisa_muftic shared her dream on the social media platform: "Recurring #pandemicdreams: Step onto campus in the fall and I'm handed uni-issued PPE gear - a plastic grocery bag (and not the boujie Target kind) - and told 'good luck'."

Church Curmudgeon @ChrchCurmudgeon tweeted his dream about toilet paper: "I just had a dream about 7 empty toilet paper rolls eating 7 full toilet paper rolls."

Twitter user T. @tammssssss twe's dream was about the last safe place on earth: "I found the only refuge left on earth... in a quarry that housed the world's last polar bear #andtheniwokeup #pandemicdreams #saywhat."

Dr Rose Gibson, a research officer at the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at Massey University in New Zealand, says that while some dreams can be confusing or distressing, dreaming is normal and considered helpful in processing our waking situation.

However, if your dreams are bothering you, then getting good-quality sleep may be the key.

Sleep, however, may be elusive with our waking situation currently being what it is. "Anxiety floods our bodies with stress hormones, which can prompt us to stay up late, toss and turn, or lie unhappily awake," according to sleephelp.org, a sleep-health education site which surveyed nearly 1,000 people about the quality of their sleep during Covid-19.

Routine is important to getting good sleep, Professor Kevin Morgan, a psychologist from Loughborough University, told the BBC. "Routine is the guardian of good sleep. It protects our sleep," he said.

Researchers say taking a quick nap in the middle of the day can also disturb the regular sleep pattern, especially if it is not something we are used to doing in our regular pre-pandemic lives.

Not taking worries to bed, listening to some autonomous sensory meridian response videos, and doing some mindfulness colouring could help relax our minds. Tips and tricks to a better night's sleep being shared online include Get By #WithMe: Sleep Better, a YouTube playlist that has some 515,000 views.

Lulling your mind into thinking all is normal may not be easy, but it could be the way to get your sleep and dreams back on track.