Je näher wir dem Tod kommen, desto emotionaler und symbolischer werden unsere Träume. Unheilbar kranke Menschen werden in ihren Träumen häufig mit verlorenen Angehörigen wiedervereint und haben Visionen von Türen, Treppen und Licht, die ihnen helfen sollen, den Sterbeprozess zu akzeptieren
As we approach death, our dreams become more emotional and symbolic
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People in palliative care who are nearing death often have vivid dreams of deceased loved ones and symbols of transition. Doctors and health workers who care for them say that these dreams often bring comfort to patients and make them less afraid of dying.
These dreams “offer psychological relief and meaning to people facing the end of life,” writes Elisa Rabitti of the local palliative care network in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Rabitti led a team that surveyed 239 local palliative care doctors, nurses, psychologists and other health professionals about dreams told to them by terminally ill patients.
The most common dreams and visions that occurred while people were awake involved encounters with deceased family members or pets. For example, one woman had a dream about her deceased husband in which he told her, “I’m waiting for you.” These dreams provided a sense of inner peace and helped people accept death, Rabitti and her colleagues write.
Others dreamed of doors, stairs, or light, with one describing a dream of climbing barefoot to an open door filled with white light. The authors of the study write that this may be a coping mechanism to explore and understand their impending transition from life to death.
Most often, people felt “calm” and “comforted” in relation to these end-of-life dreams and visions. Only a small fraction of them — about 10 percent — were disturbing, including one where one person saw a monster with her mother’s face dragging her down.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2026.2646873
I wonder if these dreams vary a lot over time and culture. What is described here sounds a lot like modern christian depictions. I wonder if this happened 4000 years ago in Egypt and if so what did the dreams look like? Very interesting.
Phew I’m not dying I’m just going through a rough patch
so the light at the end of the tunnel might just be your brain saying goodbye
Without access to original article and how the data was actually obtained, I think the key here lies in word ‚reported‘. Not being able to actually know the internal state of palliative patient, these experiences must necessary be first interpreted by the patient before they are relayed to the care taker, who then adds a second layer of interpretation to them. It is no surprise that these dreams are then reported to align with cultural expectations.
The brain trying to offer comfort?
To me, this seems to touch light on the time dilation people experience in these dreams. And in NDEs. Assuming obviously the brain plays a role in comforting itself, time just completely dilates and they would not ever be able to know they’re gone
More on this in this article
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308904931_Your_Natural_Afterlife_the_Non-Supernatural_Alternative_to_Nothingness