Why do we have weird dreams when we’re sick?
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Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered, "Is there life on other planets?" From Disney and Pixar. Welcome to the communiverse. Allow me to adjust your gravity. Oh, I'm fine. Gravity off. Are not alone. Are you gonna eat me? Ew! What kind of alien are you? Disney and Pixar's Elio, rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. Only in theaters June 20th. Tickets available now.

From the brains behind Brains On, this is The Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Herbie Habanero, internationally renowned jazz musician. I'm a special kind of musician, you see.

Whenever someone's sick, I'm in charge of playing off-the-wall, groovy background music inside the strange dreams they have. You know, fever dreams. Those weird, vivid dreams you have when you're sick. Like just last night, I was in the brain of this kid who had the flu. He was just passed out, sleeping like a log. Adorable. So I hopped my way into his brain and what do you know, bing, bam, pow.

He was dreaming about the video game Mario Kart. Pretty standard stuff. But I like things a little funkier than that. So I gave a little... And then another little touch of... Just to shake things up a bit. And what do you know? Pop! His bike turns into a big red mushroom. And then...

His hands are mushrooms. How are you gonna steer a mushroom bike with mushroom hands? Luckily, he steered right off the road into a big fluffy pile of mushrooms. Awoo!

It was some of my best work. After that gig, I started to wonder, how come people have such weird dreams when they're sick anyway? That's the same question my friends Everett, Forrest, and Rosemary had. Let's ask an expert who knows a thing or two about dreams.

The brain is always working and always doing something, whether we are awake or whether we are asleep. My name is Michael Schredl. My main area is dream research. I'm the research head of the Sleep Laboratory in the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.

The brain is always active, so it's not that someone is switching the brain off and on. The definition of dreaming is experiences that occur during sleep. And when we are sick, especially when we have fever, then this biological machine, the brain,

is a little bit overheated. So it's not functioning properly if you have some kind of a little bit higher fever. And of course, this transposes into dreams. If the brain is not working properly, the dreams get more bizarre and unusual, also more negatively toned. So they're really weird, more bizarre than typical normal weird dreams, even weirder.

In our studies, we have also looked at temperature perception that was higher in fever dreams. And we have this example of a fireball chasing the dreamer. Even in the dream, it was very hot. Many people forget their dreams quite easily. It's beneficial because if your memory for dreams is as good as your memories for waking life events, you would have a really chaotic life.

Because you never know, did I dream I did this or did I really did it? Um, um, um... Squibble-a-do-bo-boo! Hot dog! The reason your dreams get weird when you're sick is because your brain's too hot. And it's not because of me, Herbie Habanero, bringing the heat. It's actually your sick body getting hot from a fever. Woo!

Now, fevers aren't all bad. When you're sick, your body churns up the heat to help kill the germs or viruses inside you. They can't grow as well when it's too toasty. Ha ha! Take that, germs! But some parts of our body, like our brains, don't do so well in the heat. Having a fever, especially a high fever, can make it hard to think when you're awake.

And when you're asleep, it can mess up your dreams, making them strange, vivid, bizarre. All right, I gotta run. A kid on the other side of town is sick and I've got some plans for a truly wild fever dream. Three words, Sasquatch Tea Party. Peace out. Bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye.

If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to learn more about why we get sick, check out the Brains On podcast where we have a whole episode all about the immune system. Whoa, get down!

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Squibble and dibble, see you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then. Oh, check out these hot riffs.