I’ve been working in quite a stressful profession, so sleep is something that's always been kind of hard to come by, in terms of good quality sleep. I've always monitored my sleep with my watch, so I know how much deep sleep I'm getting, exactly how much REM sleep I'm getting. I was a little bit skeptical about this kind of data at first, but believe in it a little bit more, and I do correlate it with my general energy levels and how I'm feeling throughout the day. I've slept a lot for the average Londoner who works in the city. I try to get seven or eight hours every night.

My dreams have become more vivid and something that I can recollect more clearly in the morning. I don't know whether I've always dreamt and just not remembered, or they haven't been very memorable. But over the past year, I've had quite vivid recollections in the morning – and just some kind of wild dreams. Whereas previously it might be just kind of boring work meetings or work scenarios, family scenarios. The changes are to do with lifestyle and freedom related issues.

I support Liverpool Football Club. Going to the pub is my way of watching Liverpool, and my social life outside of work. I had a dream regarding my local pub: Vladimir Putin actually came into the pub. It is a very strange dream. It was so vivid that—I actually write poetry in my spare time—I was able to write a piece regarding it. He came into the pub, and everybody cheered. I'm not the greatest fan of his politics and, generally him as a human being. But he’s not somebody who I pay a lot of attention to. I'm no expert, but it could be to do with maybe the lack of leadership in the UK at the moment.

It's probably the strangest dream I've had. In the last week I've had strange dreams about having Japanese manga-style cartoon haircut. A normal person with kind of cartoon hair: really crazy spikes going on and stuff. My lockdown haircut is nice and trim, so I can kind of do it at home. In this [dream the hair] was very distinct and very different. I've had lots of different hairstyles over the years, but I've never really had a dream about my own hair.

I don't [watch or read manga]. I’m not related to manga in any way, really. So, it was very strange to have that hair dream. But I think we're all having quite strange dreams at the moment. It's almost like an absence in the waking day has made it a focus of the sleeping time. Life itself is very different now. Before the pandemic, I wasn't a cyclist. Now I quite like going out on the bicycle, having a cycle around. I bought a camera, so I've been taking lots of nature photography as well. Lockdown is very different. I photographed a black swan today. All the way from Australia, apparently.

I've always wrote poetry and always shared it. I actually spoke to a friend the morning [I had the Vladimir visits the pub dream], and he was laughing his head off. He thought it was quite a funny dream to have. Then I thought it would be quite nice to write that dream in a pub sign with a cloudy background that represents a dreamy state. I created it very quickly that morning. My contract with the NHS came to an end during the pandemic, so I guess I've had a lot of spare time to focus on other areas of my life in terms of creativity. Working in data is not so creative all of the time. I've had the opportunity to pursue my own interests a little bit. I like to switch off when I'm not working, and I don't like to bring it into my evening so much. Work dreams can happen, but they're kind of a rare thing. I'm far more likely to dream about scoring a goal off Liverpool or something. For the last 35 years [I’ve dreamt about] scoring a last-minute goal in a cup final.

Occasionally I still do dream about football, but it was a very stressful period, being a Liverpool fan, because we won the league, and we won the European Championship, and it all happened without fans. Not to be able to go to Liverpool and share that experience was also kind of a negative effect of the pandemic. When live sports are a big part of your life, and you’re not able to share the massive achievement, that is quite difficult to take.