Fever = Lots of REM?

Quest for Lucidity
1

I’m at home sick today and have been sleeping and waking up periodically for hours. It could all be in my head, but it feels like I am having a LOT more REM. Some of the dreams I don’t remember much of, but it feels like it lasted forever and that I don’t remember it all. A lot of these dreams are almost like stories with no pictures, but a lot of them are full of color and very vivid too. Anyone else ever noticed that when they have a fever REM gos into overdrive?

2

well
from my own experience
when i, for any reason, sleep and wake up periodically for some time, the borderline between the sleeping state and the awaking state becomes much thinner, therefore allowing me to recall my dreams much stronger and better and therefore they might look longer. Anyway, I’m not sure if your fever has anything to do with it. you can probably get some answers if youll try searching google for information about REM , sleep, dreaming, fever etc…
hope this helps
cheers
Ariel

3

well it would make sense…i find that when im sick (mostly due to drinking too much :tongue:) i find that i definately go into REM overdrive and my dreams are really vivid but aside from drinking I remember when I was a kid and used to get fevers. I would sometimes become Delusional or something like that but I definately remember some sort of crazy dreams…painful ones actually lol.

4

It probably isn’t related directly to your fever as much as it is to the fact that your fever is changing your sleep cycle. :smile: I’ll be sure to see how being sick (and taking a lot of naps, rather than sleeping a solid block of hours daily) changes my LD habits next time I fall ill. :razz:

5

I agree with Irene Caffeine’s idea. While fevers/sickness can very easily impact the content of your dreams, I think that the feeling of added REM is related to the fact that when you’re sick, you sleep a LOT more than normal (or at least I do).

…on the other hand, it could be that a fever simply keeps you a little more awake. With the constant discomfort, I could see how it could turn ordinary sleep into more of a nap-like state where you drop straight into REM instead of progressing normally.

6

You probably are sleeping more, additionally (at least for me anyway) you tend to sleep less well and as a result this helps you wake up more often from REM enabling you to remember more dreams.