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What is A fever Dream?
Had a fever when you were sick? If so, you might know what is a fever dream. When you have particular very very intense dreams when you are sick, there are high chances of having a fever dream. It is a term used to elaborate vivid dreams people have when their body temperature was elevated.
Our dreams fascinate us, particularly the bizarre ones —these dreams with no link to real life. Dreams are supposed to be stimulated by our thoughts, interests, experiences, and some day-to-day activities.
For many people having such dreams, these can be highly unpleasant and disturbing. Let’s see what is a fever dream and its possible causes of occurrence.
What is a fever dream?
A dream is basically a sequence of reflections, thoughts, images, and feelings you have while you are sleeping. Experts assume you have your most powerful dreams through the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the sleep cycle.
Though experts do not understand exactly why you visualize dreams when you are asleep, certain determinants such as your daily activities, foods items being eaten, and health circumstances might have an impact on your sleep visions.
Let’s determine why these dreams occur and when do they occur.
When do fever dreams occur?
A fever dream might occur when the body temperature is elevated than normal.
A normal body temperature varies, normally within 97 and 99°F. Anything elevated than 2 degrees over the regular temperature has been recognized as a fever. You all understand how your body behaves when you develop a fever.
You might catch a fever it is because the body is reacting to the following:
- a viral or bacterial infection
- heat exhaustion
- an immunization
- a tumor
- certain inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis
- medicines, such as antibiotics.
What does a fever dream feel like?
Most people report fever dreams as a disturbing experience. In fact, in one study conducted in the year 2016, about 94 % of participants reported their fever dreams to be negative.
Though a fever dream is understood in medical literature, experimental studies on this phenomenon are still limited. Researchers need more studies to determine what happens and why it happens during high body temperature.
In another small study conducted in the year 2013, experts surveyed a few participants’ fever signs and symptoms. Outcomes revealed 11 percent of those people described fever dreams.
People usually report a fever dream as being emotionally intense, causing troubles, unusual, or scary. These dreams might also involve fewer social interaction situations than your normal dreams.
In the 2013 study mentioned above, one participant stated that their thoughts in the dreams would migrate “back and forth within a very challenging situation or incident and a very uncomfortable circumstance.”
A recent study conducted online observed 164 people, 100 of these people described a fresh fever dream. The writers discovered that fever dreams were highly bizarre and negatively toned. They also involved more associates to health and temperature as compared to normal dreams.
The reason behind getting fever dreams
Researchers and scientists are not able to determine the exact reason that causes fever dreams but there are some suggested theories that one might know to get a good idea.
One such theory is that when the temp of the body turns high it disrupts the normal function of brain cells and disrupts the cognitive processes. The authors who wrote about a study in 2020 mentioned that the basic idea behind fever dreams is that the over-heated brain does not function properly and causes more bizarre dreams.
When you are in the REM stage of the sleep cycle, the most vivid dreams occur. At this stage, the body tends to have a difficult time controlling the internal temperature. When you develop fever, it adds to this already high temper or started the process, which further causes unpleasant dreams called fever dreams.
Not only dreams, but fever may also even trigger waking hallucinations, confusion, and irritability. Hallucinations refer to seeing things that do not really exist at that moment.
What fever dreams feel like
You will be able to answer what is a fever dream but to be specific how this dream looks like? Know that all the fever dreams are quite vivid and there is bad news- a large number of people who experienced fever dreams states that they found the dreams to be highly upsetting.
When you have a fever dream, the emotions you experience are extremely intense and bizarre. You will witness more harrowing circumstances than normal dreams.
They may interrupt sleeping and have some things i common, they are:
1. Heat and fire
Plenty of times you will notice that dreams induced during fever may include things like melting objects, forest fires, or heat waves. This might occur because your brain is aware of the elevated body temperature during fever so you get quite similar dreams.
2. Intimating and stressful situations
Some people having fever dreams reported drams like childhood nightmares returning suddenly to them in adulthood as well. Many people also mentioned feeling endangered in their recent fever dreams.
You may even experience anxiety about accidents, deaths, personal phobias, and violence in such dreams. negative emotions like fear, sadness and scary health-related issues are highly common in a fever dream.
3. Fantastical elements
Fever dreams may also involve bizarreness like distorted sensory perceptions, alien creatures, and an altogether different environment from real life.
4. They have a higher dream recall value
Another important thing to mention about fever dreams is that they have a high dream recall value or frequency which means you are more likely to remember the dream than your regular dreams. This may be due to unpleasantness in the dreams or their high intensities. It may also be because these dreams usually disrupt the REM sleep cycle with greater frequency. When sleep disrupts during dreams, you are more likely to recall the dream with ease.
5. Others
Sometimes, the fever dreams may result in end up feeling vertigo or claustrophobic. There may be repetitive events and actions in such dreams which you are afraid of or stressed about. You may even see spatial distortions, giant insects, oversized arms wrapping you, etc.
Is there a way to prevent fever dreams?
Now that you know what is a fever dream, you may be thinking is there a way that can stop these dreams from happening again. There isn’t a foolproof method or way that one can incorporate to prevent fever dreams completely but controlling your body temp, might be useful as it is the reason why fever dreams occur (at least a suggested reason theoretically).
If you develop fever, make sure you:
- Drink a lot of fluids.
- Get plenty f rest.
- Eat only food items that are digested easily.
- Bath in lukewarm water.
- Take any fever-reducing medicine like aspirin, Advil, or acetaminophen.
Is there a similarity between fever dreams and lucid dreams?
There are few common symptoms between fever dreams and lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are certain dreams that occur when the person knows they are dreaming. There are some mysteries regarding dreams that exist ad the researchers do not know them yet.
People who have fever creams with lucid dreams can recall every detail of that dream. Both dreams occur when the person reaches the REM stage of their sleep cycle.
But, unlike fever dreams, a lucid dream is not linked to the high temp of the body and they are not always negative or unpleasant as fever dreams most probably are.
In addition to this, lucid dreams can be sometimes controlled, which means a person might train himself or herself to have those dreams.
Some FAQs on what is a fever dream
1. Are fever dreams an indication of something serious about to happen?
Since fever dreams may happen for nothing stronger than just a common cold, they should not be a sign of some serious or prevailing illness in and of themselves. However, if you are having persistent fever or sickness, there might be some other issue going on. The common rule is if you are having mild signs like a low-grade fever or just a stuffy nose that last longer than a week or two, you must see a doctor.
2. Do animals also have fever dreams?
If you have a pet dog or cat or any other pet and you are thinking if they too have fever dreams or not, know that they do have dreams but the likeliness of fever dreams to occur is still not known. However, since pets do have complicated and vivid dreams, and they are also quite related to humans in plenty of other ways, it would not be unreasonable to assume they may encounter fever dreams while they are weak.
3. Is it bad to sleep when you have a high fever?
Not at all, a fever is nothing like a concussion. In fact, if you are sick, getting enough sleep is a part of getting healthier or better over time. resting is important as it helps to boost the immune system and helps you get better faster. Again, it lets your body devote energy to heal itself rather than studying, exercising, or working.
The Bottom Line
You now know what is a fever dream. Fever dreams are highly mysterious and occur when your body temperature is higher than usual. They are mostly described as stressful and disturbing experiences to have. Although, there is no guarantee that you can prevent such dreams completely from happening next time, treating the fever or lowing body temp might help control such vivid dreams.
If you are having disturbing dreams too frequently, the best way to prevent such dreams is to avoid being sick. You can practice washing your hands regularly, eating healthy, and avoid touching your face.
Once the body temperature goes back to normal or falls completely, the fever dreams you are seeing will also fade away and you will start having usually dreams or no dreams at all.
This was everything about what is a fever dream.
