Blind Dreams

[Fzero]

Is it possible for a blind person to have a dream?

[Nightcrawler]

Is it possible for a blind person to have a dream?

why wouldnt they just because they cant see does not mean they cant dream.

[Archaemic]

Dreams are not 100% vision, you know.

[madsoul]

yes, im sure they have dreams in terms of images. Atleast people who have lost there eye sight a long time after they where born. Blind from birth however... Who knows

[Fzero]

I didn't mean it as in they just fall asleep and then thats all, I meant that do they see things.

[leejames04]

In theory yes, In England they have audio description on most tv channels giving those that are blind or visually impaired an idea of what is happening. So in theory those that are visually impaired can create images through sound and thus have visual dreams.

[PeterPetrelli]

I dont think people blind from birth can dream visually, and I think even if you turn blind at say, 20, after years your dreams slowly starts to lose visuals, and then it becomes completely auditory. Thats what I've heard.

[Ciaran_]

I dont think people blind from birth can dream visually, and I think even if you turn blind at say, 20, after years your dreams slowly starts to lose visuals, and then it becomes completely auditory. Thats what I've heard.

Why not? Being blind from birth does not some how disable you imagination, they would still imagine images but they would probably have no grounding in real life like our dreams.

[Nightcrawler]

Why not? Being blind from birth does not some how disable you imagination, they would still imagine images but they would probably have no grounding in real life like our dreams.

this is why
Do blind people dream? If they do, can they "see" in their dreams?

-Anjali Sharma (age 14)
Leaside High, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

answer
I considered answering your question myself, but decided that you might prefer an answer straight from the source. So I passed your question on to my friend, Laurie, who has been blind since she was fairly young. Here’s what she had to say:

" Yes, blind people do dream. What they see in their dreams depends on how much they could ever see. If someone has been totally blind since birth, they only have auditory dreams. If someone such as I, has had a measure of sight, then that person dreams with that measure of sight. I still dream as though I can see, colors included. For people I’ve met since, their faces are just blurs or how I imagine they look. To me, someone like my mother looks forever 30. "

Thanks Laurie!

-Tamara

When you said that blind people can only have auditory dreams what does that mean? They hear sounds and/or voices? Can you give some examples of kinds of dreams of blind people? So in order to dream in color one needs sight? Do we store light that the eyes take in during daylight to be transformed into images while asleep to make dreams or do we produce the light inside the brain through the brain’s own circuitry?

-Barbara
oakland park, florida

Answer: Barbara -

An "auditory dream" is a dream with only sounds and no images. Basically, the dreams of someone who’s been blind from birth are just like the dreams that you have - just without the pictures.

People’s dreams are based on the things they experience in their lives. That is to say that in a way, our dreams are based on our memories. So a person who has never experienced "seeing" will not dream using sight. This is just like how you do not dream with sonar images, as humans can not use sonar. Perhaps animals like bats, if they do dream (I don’t know if they do or not) dream in sonar. ;)

As for your last question, the images that we see in our dreams aren’t real light - they’re signals within our brains that we experience the same way we would experience light. So light is neither stored nor produced. You could say that our minds "play tricks on us" to make us think we’re seeing light when it’s not really there.

-Tamara

[crzyaznkdxd]

i dont know how to respond, except, interesting read.

[Da_MerV]

In theory yes, In England they have audio description on most tv channels giving those that are blind or visually impaired an idea of what is happening. So in theory those that are visually impaired can create images through sound and thus have visual dreams.

someone who has never seen could not create such visual dreams. i am colorblind, this would be like asking if i could dream in full color. i have no idea what thats like. to put it into better perspective, can you dream in ultraviolet or xray?

[reaperchad]

So, simply put you dream as how you have/had seen life?

[Da_MerV]

So, simply put you dream as how you have/had seen life?

dont you?