Ever had intense vivid dreams while you had a fever, it may have been a fever dream.
Meaning of fever dreams.
Fever dreams are dreams that happen when you are not feeling well, or when your body is developing a fever. The reason why you have them is that you are fighting with high temperatures and this might disrupt the brain’s normal cognitive processes and causes fever dreams.
When do they occur?
Often fever dreams occur when you have a high body temperature, which is anything higher than 2 degrees above your normal temperature. You might get fever dreams when your body is responding to:
- Virus
- Bacterial infection
- Heatstroke
- Medicines or antibiotics
Fever dreams often only occur in the Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, this occurs every 90 minutes of sleep in later sleep stages. In the REM stage, your brain is more active and often more vivid dreams occur, or when your body is not feeling well it can cause a fever dream.
What are fever dreams like?
Fever dreams are vivid dreams and often are described as negative. The cause they describe it as negatively is because fever dreams are often defined as emotionally intense, vivid, weird, or scary. The fever dreams can cause weird negative fantasy dreams you can’t imagine.
Fever dreams can also cause hallucinations, irritability, and confusion.
In my own experience fever dreams causes trips that I describe as the same as drugs. Often when I wake up from fever dreams I am sweating or I already feel that I am going to be sick or not feeling well.
Why do we get fever dreams?
There are no facts about why we are getting fever dreams, but there are some theories. The first theory is that high temperatures disrupt the brain’s processes in REM sleep and cause strange vivid fever dreams.
The second theory is that during the REM stage of sleep, your body has a harder time controlling your body due to the fever and this may add a strained process, which can lead to intense negative dreams.
Can you prevent fever dreams?
You can not prevent a fever dream from happening. It can not be stopped cause it happens. After all, you are not feeling well or not going to feel well. You may want to try controlling the fever with plenty of rest or by drinking a lot of water.
Lucid fever dreams.
You may also experience a fever lucid dream. This is where you have a lucid dream while you are having a fever. These are intense vivid dreams where you are in control of the dream state. In this dream, you may experience the same effects as fever dreams such as vivid, weird, scary, or emotionally intense, but also you can experience the feeling of being sick in the dream or the urge to do something in this dream state.
Final thoughts
Fever dreams are intense dreams that are often presented as bad but are amazing interesting dreams you should remember and tell others about. I recommend writing in a dream journal and record these dreams.
