Metaphysics & Psychology

If you die in a dream, is it really possible that you could die in real life?

By T.K. Randall
November 12, 2024

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) In the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, an immortal, supernatural villain - Freddy Krueger - kills his victims in their dreams, which in the films causes them to die in real life.

While Krueger himself is clearly a work of fiction, the concept that it is possible to die because of something you experience in a dream has been explored and debated for many years.

To begin with, nightmares are very much the real deal. These disturbing dreams, which can produce strong negative emotions, can be responsible for many hours of lost sleep.

While most of us experience them only rarely, some people have nightmares on a regular basis.

The resulting lack of sleep over an extended period of time can be highly detrimental to a person's health. Some might, like in the movies, go to great lengths to try and avoid going to sleep at all.But while a chronic lack of sleep could potentially prove fatal, it's not quite the same as saying that a person has died in real life because they were killed in a dream.

So could this really happen ?

Theoretically, yes it could - if someone experienced a dream that is terrifying enough and they happen to be suffering from an underlying heart condition, it is plausible for them to be literally frightened to death by a nightmare, perhaps even one in which they are killed in their dream.

In practice, though, it is extremely unlikely that this would happen except in the most extreme of circumstances.

"Generally, the health risks of nightmares are typically indirect and are linked to the causative factors that underly nightmares," said sleep expert Professor Tiina Paunio from the University of Helsinki.

"In vulnerable individuals, for example, those with a heart disease, nightmares can indirectly contribute to death, although this is rare."

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Dreams