Fever dream
{{Short description|Type of dream during illness}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{other uses|Fever dream (disambiguation)}}
A fever dream is a type of dream that transpires during fever or febrile illness, when the body experiences a significant elevation in body temperature beyond normal variation. These dreams are known for their bizarre or surreal experiences. While common in children, these dream occurrences can happen to people of any age. Fever dreams also have significant overlap with delirium and hallucinations.
Early accounts
A second century account from Greek author and orator Aelius Aristides tells of his accounts with fevered dreams and divine visions.{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Sidney |date=1 May 1972 |title=Aristedes: A Second Century Case Report |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003331827271436X |journal=Psychosomatics |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=200–202 |doi=10.1016/S0033-3182(72)71436-X |pmid=4136542 |issn=0033-3182}} During one of his travels between Greece and Rome, Aristides becomes ill with what has been speculated to be chronic infection of the upper respiratory system and pneumonia. Aristides experiences feverish symptoms and, in his dreams, believed he was being sent messages by the god of medicine, Asclepius. These dream messages include poisoned figs, which Aristides interprets as instructions to continue fasting, guidance on long walks and plunges in rivers and the sea. These practices greatly improve his condition which allows him to travel to the temple of Asclepius at Pergamum.
Early medical study
Fever dreams have been a fringe subject of psychological interest since a least the end of the nineteenth century. Scottish pathologist Joseph Coats wrote of his and other's experiences fever induced delirium, noting highly realistic hallucinations during dreaming and also the belief of the hallucination's reality persisting briefly even after waking from the dream.{{Cite journal |last1=Coats |first1=Joseph |last2=Gairdner |first2=W. T. |date=October 1892 |title=Sleep, Dreams, and Delirium: With an Account of His Experiences in the Delirium of Typhus Fever |journal=Glasgow Medical Journal |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=241–262 |issn=0367-4800 |pmc=5936364 |pmid=30435716}} Coats further muses on connections between fevered hallucination and clinical insanity, that an individual might appear reasonable or awake, but still harbors a delusion that is "ineradicable" from their mind.
Nature
An adult's fever dreams may include dream content they have not experienced since childhood, occasionally traumatic or violent in nature.{{Cite journal |last=Vauhkonen |first=Kauko |date=January 1990 |title=On the Initial Stage of Psychic Experience |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01062301.1990.10592234 |journal=The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=16–31 |doi=10.1080/01062301.1990.10592234 |issn=0106-2301}}{{Cite journal |last1=Ames |first1=Nancy J. |last2=Peng |first2=Claudia |last3=Powers |first3=John H. |last4=Leidy |first4=Nancy Kline |last5=Miller-Davis |first5=Claiborne |last6=Rosenberg |first6=Alice |last7=VanRaden |first7=Mark |last8=Wallen |first8=Gwenyth R. |date=December 2013 |title=Beyond Intuition: Patient Fever Symptom Experience |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.02.012 |journal=Journal of Pain and Symptom Management |volume=46 |issue=6 |pages=807–816 |doi=10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.02.012 |pmid=23742739 |pmc=3830719 |issn=0885-3924}} A common reoccurring theme in fever dreams is the presence of death, either of the experiencing dreamer or friend or family member. Another common experience is temperature awareness, specifically high temperatures, leading some researchers to consider a link between physical states or experiences and subconscious experiences.{{Cite journal |last1=Schredl |first1=Michael |last2=Erlacher |first2=Daniel |date=28 January 2020 |title=Fever Dreams: An Online Study |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=11 |page=53 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00053 |doi-access=free |pmid=32047464 |pmc=6997236 |issn=1664-1078}}{{Cite journal |last1=Bódizs |first1=Róbert |last2=Simor |first2=Péter |last3=Csóka |first3=Szilvia |last4=Bérdi |first4=Márk |last5=Kopp |first5=Mária S. |date=1 June 2008 |title=Dreaming and health promotion: A theoretical proposal and some epidemiological establishments |url=http://semmelweis.hu/ejmh/2008/06/10/dreaming-and-health-promotion/ |journal=European Journal of Mental Health |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=35–62 |doi=10.1556/EJMH.3.2008.1.3 |issn=1788-4934}} Additionally, research has indicated that subjects experiencing fever or febrile illness are significantly more likely to report negative dream experiences than positive.
Psychoanalysis
There has been little research devoted to the psychoanalysis or interpretation of fever dreams, likely due to the limitations of recalling dreams during such specific episodes such as fever, as well as the practice falling out of favor in the psychological community. Though, author and psychiatrist Kauko Vauhkonen posits that in some cases fever dreams can provide insight to the "initial psychic awakening" of the individual and be used to unpack or relive subconscious trauma developed in early childhood.