A study of palliative care professionals in Italy found that terminally ill patients commonly report vivid dreams and visions involving deceased loved ones or symbols of transition, which the professionals described as often providing comfort and aiding acceptance of death.
Researchers examined this phenomenon because end-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) are frequently observed in palliative settings yet remain poorly understood in terms of how professionals interpret and respond to them in daily practice. Patients sometimes hesitate to share such experiences for fear of being dismissed or labeled as confused.
Prior work, including studies from researchers in the United States, has documented that ELDVs occur in roughly 50% to 60% of hospice patients and tend to feature deceased relatives or pets. These experiences are typically distinguished from delirium or medication-induced hallucinations by their coherence and emotional significance.
Elisa Rabitti and colleagues surveyed 239 palliative care doctors, nurses, psychologists, and other health professionals in the Reggio Emilia area of Italy. Participants reported on dreams and visions that terminally ill patients had described to them. The survey gathered accounts of content, emotional impact, and how professionals viewed these experiences.
The most frequently reported dreams and visions involved encounters with deceased family members or pets, sometimes while patients were awake. One example described a woman dreaming of her late husband saying, “I’m waiting for you.” Other common themes included symbols of transition such as doors, stairways, or light—for instance, climbing barefoot toward an open door filled with white light.
Professionals indicated that these experiences most often left patients feeling peaceful and comforted, helping them achieve a sense of inner peace and accept death. About 10% were distressing, such as one report of a monster with a mother’s face. Rabitti and her colleagues wrote that the dreams “offer psychological relief and meaning to people facing end of life.”
The researchers concluded that ELDVs appear to function as a coping mechanism that allows patients to explore and make sense of their impending death, contributing to psychological relief in the final stages of life. They noted that such experiences are coherent and emotionally meaningful even when patients remain lucid.
The study has limitations. It relied on second-hand reports from health professionals rather than direct accounts from patients. The sample was drawn from one regional network in Italy, so the findings may not generalize to other cultural or healthcare contexts. The work did not measure patient outcomes quantitatively or track changes over time within individuals.
This sits within a small but growing body of research on subjective experiences near death, including earlier work by Christopher Kerr at Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo. Kerr has reported that dreams about deceased loved ones become more frequent as death approaches and often involve people who provided love and security in life. He has described dying as involving “progressive sleep” that can make dreams more vivid. In one case he observed, a woman who had lost a stillborn child experienced comforting visions that allowed her to revisit unresolved grief.
The Italian study does not claim that ELDVs cause reduced fear of death or that they occur in all patients; it reports professionals’ observations of patterns in the accounts shared with them. It also does not equate these experiences with any specific neurological mechanism or spiritual interpretation.
Reference:
End-of-life dreams and visions in palliative care: Perspectives, interpretations and practices from Italian professionals. Elisa Rabitti and colleagues. Death Studies, 2026. DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2646873.
