Why do we have weird dreams when we’re sick?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you’re sick, it’s important to get plenty of rest to help your body heal. But it can be hard to sleep when your brain keeps showing you bizarre fever dreams (Like being chased by a giant fireball! Or swimming in nacho cheese!) Why do we have strange dreams when we’re sick, anyway? We asked dream researcher Michael Schredl to help us find the answer.

Got any burning questions? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll search feverishly for the right answer!

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um.
0:11.7	Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios.
0:17.1	Ow! I'm Herbie Habanero, internationally renowned jazz musician.
0:25.2	I'm a special kind of musician. You see, whenever someone's sick, I'm in charge of playing
0:32.3	off-the-wall, groovy background music inside the strange dreams they have.
0:38.3	You know, fever dreams.
0:40.3	Those weird, vivid dreams you have when you're sick.
0:44.3	Like just last night, I was in the brain of this kid who had the flu.
0:48.3	He was just passed out, sleeping like a lot.
0:52.3	Adorable.
0:53.3	So I hopped my way into his brain and what in open, bam, pow.
0:58.4	He was dreaming about the video game Mario Kart.
1:02.0	Pretty standard stuff.
1:04.5	But I like things a little funkier than that.
1:08.7	So I gave a little...
1:10.5	And then another little touch of
1:12.4	just to shake things up a bit.
1:17.5	And what do you know?
1:18.9	Pop! His bike turns into a big red mushroom
1:22.1	and then pop pop!
1:24.1	His hands are mushrooms.
1:26.3	How are you going to steer a mushroom bike with mushroom hands?
	...

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