Why can we smell/taste things in dreams?

I’ve been having amazing dream experiences of late. I think it’s due to the fact that I’ve been having two B-complex supplements (for Vitamin B6) before I go to bed. Anyway, I’ve had quite a few LD’s recently (yay!) and in one of them, I was inside my house, and I opened the fridge and picked up the carton of chocolate custard and started drinking it like it was chocolate milk - straight from the carton! And I could taste it. Like, I could really taste it. It was actually a lot stronger and thicker than the real thing. The only thing I can remember about it was like it was very difficult to swallow. My dream-self thought “Maybe this is so difficult to swallow because I’m trying to swallow in real life.” I’m not too sure how accurate this is, however, it shows that I’m becoming a lot more aware and logical in my dreams, which I’m guessing is a good thing.

A few nights ago, I was in an LD where I was walking down the street and saw a group of this guys from my school eating pizza together. I have a huge crush on one of them, and thought, “Hey, I’m dreaming, so even if I go up to him and start kissing the hell out of him, it won’t matter!” Hehe, my sub-concious rules, although, the whole time I was making out with him I was still like “Hmm, should I really be doing this? What if it makes everything weird?”, which is pretty stupid considering I WAS DREAMING! Anyway, the whole time I was sitting with those guys, I could smell the pizza. It smelt the same way that a pizza smells in real life.

I find this fascinating - how much our sense are actually related to the world around us, or related to what is going on inside our head. Anyway, for anyone who can answer my question, I’d really appreciate it. Also, if you wish to share any dream-tasting experiences, I’m all hears. :smile:

Yeah it is really facinating.

I’ll have times when all I do is go to a store and test taste food. Its pretty funny cause some time the clerk yealls at e that I can’t do that and I’ll just laugh.

You know you can use all your senes in dreams and some others as well :content:

If you look around there is a topic about this somewere on here.

Well. I haven’t really smelt or tasted things a lot in my dreams, but a recent thing I noticed in a very lucid dream was the following.

I was attempting to create a fireball. I tried to throw it from my hand, but nothing appeared nor fled. Just a small poof of flames. Next, I tried to create a fireball in my hand before throwing it. So I created the small poof of flame and threw it to my other hand.

It hurt like hell! I didn’t think it would hurt so bad because I’m dreaming, but it was a very vivid dream, so I think my all senses worked as IRL.

After I had burnt my hand, I created ice to cool it down. The water which melted from the ice was also the same as in RL.

It’s really amazing how you feel, smell or taste in these dreams! It’s so real.

Yeah, 4 or 5 LD’s ago I dreamt I was eating so much food but since it was a dream, I never got full and I kept eating and eating. Mostly greek cookies and bread and other high starch food. :tongue: It tasted exactly the way it does in RL.

Are the past senses stimulations ‘‘recorded’’ then? or it just a pseudo-sense making a suggestion only.

I think it’s a bit of both. If you know what pizza smells like or what water feels like, your mind can easily recreate the experience.

Even if it’s something you’ve never experienced beofre, your mind will recreate what it thanks the experience is like. For example, in my ND last night I had ate a fried giant isopod. :tongue:

Fortunately, I’ve never eaten isopod in real life. However, in the dream, my mind created what it assumed a fried isopod would taste like, very similar to crab and little spicy. This may not be what it tastes like in real life, but my subconscious was still able to generate a flavor based on existing knowledge and guesswork.

I think that it’s just your brain sending signals that it got burned. You get burnt in your dream, the brain sends the signals and then you think you got burnt.

Of course, I could be wrong and it’s something totally different. I’m no scientist.

yeah you’re right, it’s amazing what you’re mind can do. :happy:

Thank you guys. :smile: The stuff you said was really interesting. I think I have actually experienced pain in dreams - I remember in my childhood, I would have a recurrent nightmare were I would be lying in bed with my arm hanging over the side, and suddenly there would be another hand or another force pushing my fingers backwards. Does that make sense? Anywho, I did actually feel pain because of it - it was terrifying.

Thats funny I don’t feel pain in my dreams. I think its becasue I won’t allow myself to.

You’re right,because you don’t allow it.
I remember my recent dreams having dangerous events, i always escape the danger.

I think why we can taste and smell in dreams is the same reason why we can see and hear in dreams. I don’t see how they’d be any different…our mind creates our dream experiences according to our learned schemas. if you see pizza, then you’ll naturally experience the scent that you know is associated with pizza.

It is really amazing how accurate the senses can be in dreams. Last night I had a dream in which I was eating ice cream, and it tasted sweet and cold and soft and just like tasty vanilla ice cream should taste. But then, about a moment later, I took another bite and all of a sudden it tasted AWFUL! It was bitter and sour and tasted like lemon juice mixed with rancid milk – no kidding! It was SO disgusting, and I spit it out instantly. I don’t know why it switched flavors so abruptly, but it amazed me how realistic both flavors tasted. The second one made me wish it hadn’t been so realistic… :yuck:

The weird thing, though, is that I don’t think I’ve EVER tasted anything that horrible in real life. I don’t know how my subconscious just created it. Think it’s possible to mix two different taste memories into something else…?

I can’t wait till I have a LD, then… COOKIES!!

Now to impart sacred knowledge:
Bitterness is a way of the brain telling a purely instinctive (eg. caveman) human that the substance could be poisonous. Sourness is the same kind of thing, except it tells you it could be a little off…

Wait a second, so my brain was trying to tell me that vanilla ice cream is poison???

I’m confused! :confused:

For me, senses in dreams are not very special at all, since the dream is generated by our brain, like our senses, why shouldn’t they be accurate?

I have no answer to this question but find it fascinating as well. The last thing I remember tasting in a dream was actually in a dream I had last night. Unfortunately, that thing I tasted was Raid, f-ing flying cockroach in my dream, I’ll get it yet! I’m not even kidding, it was horrible.

The last thing I remembered to taste in my dreams was some mint buble gum. that was a week ago. And tonight I did not taste it but I was eating pizza with coffe as a dip, and then in the next dream I had some odd named dish in a restaurant that happened to be what we in english know as a tuna sandwich, and it was at $20! I felt scamed, and wanted to eat dessert but all were at $10.

Why don’t we make an experiment? buy some never before tasted food, the more unknown the better, and then eat it in your dreams. Then eat it in real life (of course, if the dream flavor makes sense) and compare!

The last thing I tasted in a dream was something never before tasted. I was going to this odd school in my dream, and one of the bonuses of this school was that they’d bring you tea in the morning, but they had some very odd types of tea. The second day there, shortly before I woke up, the tea was made with melted butter and cheese, and tasted very odd, although not quite unpleasant. I don’t think I’d ever drink it in real life, since in real life I suspect it would not make a good drink.