The big sleep: Study reveals what you dream about right before you die
New research reveals that common visions arise in the days before death.Researchers from Azienda USL–IRCCS di Reggio Emilia surveyed 239 Italian palliative care professionals, hospice volunteers, nurses, and psychologists about the end–of–life dreams and visions (ELDVs) their terminally ill patients had shared with them.Results published in the journal Death Studies show that certain themes and images emerge in the final stage of life.“‘[ELDVs] carry an important relational potential,” the team explained.“Talking about ELDVs allows patients to approach otherwise unspeakable topics through a symbolic mode of expression, bypassing the obstacles of rational language, which can instead trigger defensive reactions such as denial.”A dream is a sequence of images, thoughts, emotions, and sensations that our mind generates while we sleep. All of us dream every night.Dreaming is believed to help us process our emotions, store memories, strengthen neural connections, reduce stress, solve problems, and think creatively.Vivid dreams happen most often during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, when the brain is particularly active.Some people, especially women, said they were able to recall their dreams more often during the COVID-19 pandemic, which researchers attributed to greater stress, depression, and sleep disruptions.In this sense, we could extrapolate that terminal illness triggers the kind of stress, depression, and sleep disruptions that could intensify dream recall.
Indeed, many of those on the brink of death reported vivid dreams of being reunited with departed loved ones.Others experienced visions associated with liminality and transition, such as bright light, doorways, and staircases.
Researchers maintain that dream images may function as a kind of psychological relief for the soon-to-be departed, and that comforting dreams of lost loved ones in particular could be viewed as psychospiritual coping mechanisms“‘One professional reco...