Initially I put it down to some blue cheese I’d eaten the evening before, but even I can’t consume that much Stilton to account for such strange dreams.

I tend to dream reasonably regularly and often remember them in the morning, but recently they’ve been far more bizarre and distinctive.

And it seems I’m not the only one suffering from lockdown dream syndrome - as I’m going to call it.

Not long after I started getting these slightly crazy nighttime stories going on in my head, I woke to a message from my sister simply asking if I’d got into the drama group or football team I’d been auditioning for. Yes, she’d been having the weird dreams too.

So is lockdown and the whole pandemic to blame? Surely that would make sense wouldn’t it?

According to the National Sleep Survey, more than a third of us are experiencing more vivid dreams than usual.

Ian Sharman from Gillingham puts his dream about an onion vending machine down to lockdown anxieties.

He said: "I rarely remember my dreams, but I've been having particularly vivid and memorable dreams lately.

"In the dream I posted about online I'd slept on the floor outside a cafe with a friend and woke up needing a shower because I was attending the Olympic Games that were being held in a local shopping mall.

"The shopping mall had changing facilities for the Olympians, and so I realised that I could take a shower there. The changing facilities were busy as they were being used by the Olympic swimming teams, but I decided to ignore them and use the showers anyway. However, I found that to access the showers I'd need a special pass that you had to buy from a vending machine, but the vending machine didn't accept money...only onions.

"Handily, right next to it there was a separate machine that dispensed onion slices in return for money. When I woke up I'd been frantically shoving onion slices in the machine so I could get a shower pass. It was really strange.”

Ian, who lives with his father and two teenage children, says his daily routine and sleeping patterns have definitely been affected by lockdown and there seems to be an ‘underlying stress’ making it hard to relax.

The comic book writer from Nelson Road, added: "It's a lot for the mind to process, so I think it's inevitable that my dreams would be stranger as a result.

“There have been a lot of other strange and vivid dreams. Like the one where I could see people's true forms when looking at them in a mirror, and in another I had lost my purple, folding tricycle and was roaming the streets searching for it.

"I don't even own a bike, let alone a purple, folding tricycle!"

While some dreams can be funny or slightly odd, other can be rather more distressing. Graham Long woke up crying.

He said: "With me, it’s been some very weird sleep patterns. I used to get five or six hours solid sleep but since the world changed and Covid-19 hit the news, work patterns changed, life changed as we know it, I have had very bad sleep, wake up in middle of night, and when I do sleep I wake up from strange dreams. They usually involve friends, family and lately in sad circumstances people suffering, people dying.

“I also initially put it down to cheese or late night coffee but when I stopped both of those it still happens. Im almost getting used to it.

"I think maybe its because previously I had a steady work pattern, then had gym four or five nights a week so I tired myself out enough to sleep properly - now all that has gone. We can't be as active as before, yes there are workouts at home but they simple aren't the same.”

Graham, who also lives in Gillingham, thinks the amount of news being consumed could also be a contributing factor.

“All we get on the news is the bad stuff - the death announcements, the worst case scenario - it's never reported positively, how many people have survived, been released from hospital. So much so, that I now limit my access to the news. Captain Tom has been the only positive thing lately God bless him.

"Not seeing or helping family is horrid too. My mother is in Dartford, 78 this year, she suffers with asthma and is on the vulnerable 12-week quarantine. She called recently all upset because it was my late father’s birthday and all cemeteries were closed and she couldn't visit. Normally we would meet for Easter, go for a meal, go to the cemetery as a family, all that has been taken away, it's all connected."

So, for the slightly science bit. One Ashford-based expert reckons this is all to be expected. Linda Bishop, founder of The Therapist Network, said: "Most of us are extremely stressed right now. So when we get triggered to stress, it alters the way the brain works and the chemicals in it.

"When we cannot process what we are feeling, our brains find other ways to do it. That can trigger some really weird dreams and nightmares. So, people having weird dreams at this time is normal.”

A little bit of insomnia also won’t help the situation. She adds: "Lack of sleep is also a trauma response. So some people will sleep more than normal, others will sleep less than normal. Both of those things could trigger different dreams because the brain is not working as it normally does.”

Have you experienced any strange dreams during lockdown? We’d love to hear about them.

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