Intensive care patients often go through phases of unconsciousness (coma, anesthesia) and delirium (dreams and hallucinations caused by treatments and the illness) during their stay in the ICU. After intensive care, their memories are patchy and blurred, mixed with vivid recollections of their ICU dreams.

Writing diaries is an initiative practiced by some intensive care units with the aim of helping the patient reclaim their story and regain control of their life after their stay in the ICU. It is usually a collaborative text, written by both relatives and clinicians, that recounts the patient's daily life, focusing on any events during the hospitalization that may leave both mental and physical traces. These events are placed in the broader familial and social context to help the patient make sense of a period they will live through the consequences of without having any memory of it.