Have you ever had a very weird dream when you were sick or were about to be sick? Well, it isn’t that uncommon and has a very logical explonation, it’s even in the name.
When you are sick or ill your body is working to fight off the disease, espessially when you’re asleep. And when your body is doing its best to fight off whatever is harming you, your brain activity increases and that affects your REM sleep, aka the sleep stage in which you have dreams. And because your brain activity is higher, the dreams are more vivid. When you have a fever, your immune system releases a chemical named ‘cytokines’, which causes you to have weird or anxious dreams.
Feeling sick is usually intense and stressful, dreams help us process things, so this will also cause negative dreams or nightmares.
To lower the chances of you getting scary dreams when you’re sick, try and stay cool and manage the fever. If you’re sick without a very high fever you can try and relex or unwind before bed by reading or meditating.
Well, the more you know.