Is it possible to die in your dreams

Are you having a hard time finding happiness right now? So if you are trying to quit drinking, if you are trying to eat better, if you are trying to change careers, what part of yourself or what part of your own life are you killing off, ending? What were you like? What were you dealing with? Instead of being scared, this is a perfect time to think about what changes you might be going through in your life.

Instead, just ask yourself, what change or ending is happening in my life right now? Read more about dreams on the Cut, including why you dream about your teeth falling out.

Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription. Account Profile. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Mental Health. Interpretations and meaning Can dreams predict death? What can dreams about seeing a person dead mean about you? Can you predict a tragedy in your dream? What do dreams of someone falling to their death mean? Types of dreams about death. Can you avoid or prevent dreams involving death? How dreams work. Read this next.

Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph. Why Do We Dream? Medically reviewed by Debra Sullivan, Ph. How Long Do Dreams Last? Medically reviewed by Raj Dasgupta, MD. Dying in a dream is a stressful event, which causes your brain to release adrenaline. You can't sleep and have an adrenaline rush at the same time so you wake up.

Once you awaken from a nightmare it may then take a little time to come down from this elevated state, preventing you from being able to get back to sleep as easily or quickly. Our forgetfulness is generally attributed to neurochemical conditions in the brain that occur during REM sleep, a phase of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and dreaming.

But that may not be the whole story. Perhaps the most compelling explanation is the absence of the hormone norepinephrine in the cerebral cortex, a brain region that plays a key role in memory, thought, language and consciousness.

A study published in in the American Journal of Psychiatry supports the theory that the presence of norepinephrine enhances memory in humans, although its role in learning and recall remains controversial.

Certain brain chemicals necessary for converting short-term memories into long-term ones are suppressed during REM sleep. Unless a dream is particularly vivid and if one wakes during or immediately after it, the content of the dream is not remembered".

Hobson, J. American Journal of Psychiatry 12 : — Sign up to join this community. And dreaming about death is often a way to process the fear of the unknown. Morbid dreams can show up when we are in the middle of a job transition, a divorce, an identity crisis, or any other kind of major shift.

In , we are all going through a transformation on some level. We are all connected, so on some level, we are all affected. Generally speaking, dreaming about death is likely a sign that you are in a period of change, but here's how to further interpret this type of dream based on the details.

If you've ever had a dream of a loved one dying, you know how utterly upsetting they can feel. You wake up wondering if it's a premonition, a warning of an accident—you name it. Once this panic is activated, it becomes extremely hard to be objective.

So the first thing I would do if I dream of someone I know dying would be to ask myself if I am afraid of losing that person. If the answer is yes, this dream may have served as a wake-up call about how much this relationship means to me.

This can be a very scary dream or a very tranquil dream, depending on its quality. I've heard of people who have dreamed that they've died and been met by spirits , angels, ancestors, or guides and experience peace. I've also heard from people who dream of painful deaths that occur under scary circumstances.

So it's complex, and ultimately the only person who can decode the meaning behind this dream is you. But here is an example of how I would approach a dream like this:. Let's say I had a dream that I died in the water, drowned when I fell into the sea. If I felt peace and calm in my dream and like my spirit was at rest, I might come to the conclusion that this dream was about a past life.

If I had the same dream but I struggled for air, felt alone and in despair, this would obviously be a bad death. In this case, I would try to remember some more details of the dream. What was the scenario that caused me to fall overboard? Was I pushed?