Senses in dreams.

No, i have no sense of hearing in my dreams. People will say something to me- but its a dream, I know what they are saying already as they say it. I remember what they are saying as dialog… In the dream i dont actually see the text but somehow in my mind when i wake up i do. (speaking about normal dreams here). In all my LD’s i’ve never been able to communicate with anyone, they won’t talk to me or I can’t hear them. I can’t hear anything what so ever. I’ve tried clapping, tried breaking things… im deaf.

Hmm. I pretty much have all of my senses in LDs, and NDs too. Maybe that’s something to work on then, Illusion? Perhaps you could try to focus on a sound… like if there was a thunder storm, you could expect to hear the sound of thunder. Try to hear sounds that are familiar to you.

That might be hard though, if you’ve never heard sound in dreams. You could always just go the psychic route and talk to people telepathically :peek: But it’s a good goal to work towards, hm?

I have never experienced this my self so, it might be hard to give you an exact answer. I am curious as to how many LD ‘s you have had. I am also wondering how your other senses are. From what you described I assume you can see but, how clear is your vision. How are your other senses touch, taste, smell.

Next time you are in a LD try rubbing your hands together and really try and focus on making your dream more vivid and see what happens.

Happy Dreaming

I’ve never heard or recalled much sound from my dreams

here’s a topic I made a while ago about it

you should try talking to your self :razz:. you see you can hear your thoughts and you know what you will be sayin, nd seeing that it is you that is causing your self not to hear you have 2 b the one to break it. Talk to your self and try and make teh entire dream hear you… and talk back

In away this could be an advantage for you. If you don’t hear sound in your dreams that might be a good dream sign for you. Once in the LD you can find a way to around the sound issue or find a way to “activate” your hearing.

Is it possible Illusion, that the reason that you do not talk or hear sounds in your dreams is because you communicate via mental telepathy and by sight.

Since we are not actually using our physical body vocal cords when we dream, it stands to reason that we are communicating by mental telepathy, and it is perhaps also possible that those who say they can talk and hear in their dreams are only dreaming it because they believe they are doing it when in reality they are not. Hope this makes a little sense. :smile:

You could have a point. When I see someone’s slips moving to talk to me I expect to hear sound. Like wise, if I throw something in a dream I would expect to hear a crash and so I do. There are no physical laws in dreams that dictates how sound works. So in a LD it should be possible to hear or not hear sound just by changing your expectations.

Agent: It’s a good theory, but I’m going to have to object. :smile:

Let’s look at how senses work for a moment. Just as an example, take vision. There are 2 main components that work together to produce vision as we experience it. Firstly, the device that receives raw data from the outside world - which we call eyes. The function of the eye is to detect the collision of photons (light particles) and send information regarding this event (2-dimensional position of the photon’s collision with the retina, and frequency to determine color) through the nervous system to the relevant part(s) of the brain which translates it, and ultimately produces the image that you subjectively “see”.

The other senses all conform to a similar structure. Starting with the sensory device itself, then the transfer of information via the nervous system, and finally it’s arrival at the dedicated component of the brain which uses this information to generate the appropriate sensation.

When you’re in REM sleep, this model is still operational, but it changes slightly. The sensory device itself (such as the eye, in the case of the above example) is no longer the only thing providing stimulus for the brain’s receptor to interpret. The part of the brain which builds the image is still 100% operational (and only “turns off” in other stages of sleep) - but now it’s receiving information from other parts of the mind as well. Naturally you can still receive input from the eye, it’s just no longer the exclusive provider of this information. In short, the images you see in a dream feel as real as anything you experience in real life, because unlike waking imagination, REM makes proper use of your visual processor.

Sounds in a dream are just as real as sounds in waking life, because the same part of the brain is in use. You can witness this as one of the stages of hypnagogia. As your body falls asleep, if you can remain conscious you’ll start to notice the above process occurring. As your imagination and memory take over the sensory components of your brain, you’ll begin to see, hear and feel things that aren’t actually there. Technically you’re imagining it, but during this opportune moment, your imagination finally has direct access to the relevant part of your brain, resulting in realistic sensory interpretation.

If I told you to imagine the sound of a car, right now, you could probably do it. However, you wouldn’t actually hear it, because right now the only things that can directly access your auditory processor are your ears. This restriction is removed while in REM sleep, and your imagination begins producing actual sounds with absolutely no dependence on stimulus from the ears, or waking life at all.

At least, that’s my understanding. :content:

In my dreams, only vision is permanent.
Other senses turn on and off. So I can have any combination of working senses… Like sight and touch and so on…
Most time DCs use telepathy to communicate with me.

Agent1142- Yes I suppose it’s possible that i use telepathy to talk to people. I can recall having thoughts- but not the sound of having thoughts. Someone said if you think about the sound of the car you can hear it (But an ethereal sound). When you are dreaming you can hear it completely because you have direct access to that part of the brain. That really got me thinking.

In a lot of my dreams (Just the one i had last night) I realize that my my body is never fully asleep. Something had crawled into my mouth in my dream and i woke up spitting on my self. Other examples are I’m punching someone and I wake up just at that moment and i find myself thrusting my fist forward. This only happens when I wake up. I’m completely still during the night (According to people ive crashed in the room with).

Milod789- My other senses are completely bizzare. Colors are more vivid than in real life, I have a great sense of emotion… That is the most amazing and important thing to me in a dream… I can recall the feeling of holding my girlfriend (before she moved away). I have an amazing sense of smell… Even now days after the dream i can recall the smell ALMOST carrying over. Everything besides my hearing are as good or better than in real life. Nothing is fuzzy- and looks just like real life.

One thing I must note… for every single dream i have TWO MEMORIES of it. One of the memories is in 1st person, the other is in 3rd person. (this is how my waking life memories work as well).

I think thats all…

very interesting rebuttal atheist… perhaps this is why sounds, smells, lights can wake us out of our dreams… the physical stimuli is taking precedence over the umm… non-physical stimuli

i have a question though atheist. you gave a very good description of how the eye sees things, but how does it determine depth ??? i’m not asking about stereoscopic vision (that’s what it’s called when your eyes can determine depth my comparing and contrasting the view from both eyes, isn’t it?) i can close one eye and still see that the wall is still across the room and not two inches from my face

anyway, back on topic… i’d like to say that i will sometimes hear sounds in WL that get incorporated into my dreams… i dunno if that exactly backs up atheist’s argument but it did in my head… as if the physical and non-physical stimulus were both employing the same “processor” until i realized that the sound was actually somebody knocking at my the door, then i get up to answer it :yinyang:

I do that all the time. I was sleeping in a hotel room and was dreaming but I heard the entire conversation my friends were having (This is the only kind of hearing possible with me). Its like my ears are always awake when my body is asleep. No one can sneak up on me when im sleeping… Is very odd to think about. Also another thing… When I wake up my eyes just stay closed until i choose to open them.

But perhaps thats why I can’t hear my dreams? I’m paying too my attention to WL’s sounds.

Depth is part of the processing of the brain. It uses the combination of the two eyes as well as things such as the location of the light source and the texture of the thing to give the “illusion” of depth.

But mostly just the combination of two images (eyes).

While it’s not as easy to determine depth with one eye closed, it’s still possible due to the magic of focus. Since they eye has to adjust it’s focus depending on how far away the desired object is, you always have a pretty good idea of it’s distance. As an example, close one eye and hold up a finger between your open eye, and the monitor before you. You’ll notice that while focusing on the finger, the monitor in the background will be blurry. When focusing on the monitor, the finger will be blurry. This indicates reliably that both objects aren’t at the same distance from you.

The other method of determining distance is to move around a little and judge the way objects move, in relation to each other, from your perspective. An object which moves a lot is closer than an object which hardly moves at all. Just by tilting your head left and right you can get an accurate depiction of how close everything is in your field of view.

I see you did your homework Atheist. Very impressive posts. :smile:

Atheist puts us all to shame with his too-logical, knowledge data base. :tongue:

Excellant post Anthiest

Now we understand the issue more clearly. Does anyone understand why .:Illusion:. can not hear any sound at all? I have never experienced this before so I am not really sure how to advise him/her. I think that as .:Illusion:. gets better with lucid dreaming and controlling his dreams he will be able to “learn” how to hear.

Well, I hope I’ll be able to learn how to hear but I’ve been thinking and I think i’ve solved my issue. Well… Not solved but understand. I have a sleeping disorder called Circadian Rythmn Disturbance, or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome… (bleh.) Basically it means that I’m a vampire. My body releases serotonin at night, and melatonin during the day- Causing me to be a slacker who likes to stay up all night and do things productive on the computer. Well it screws my sleep up bad. I used to have to take sleeping pills at night and stimulants during the day. I don’t like that it’s too unnatural- so I’ve been trying to turn my sleep schedule around by meditation, lucid dreaming, and a sleep ritual. (I light a certain incense when im getting ready for bed, drink chamomile tea, etc). Well I still have trouble getting to sleep but at least I fall asleep and can function in the day- I’ll really be “fully” awake around 7:00-8:00PM.

Well, I was diagnosed with that a few years back and I’m sure that could screw with my dreams. I’m able to hear the sounds of waking life streaming over into my dream world. Perhaps my mind just can’t fully go into the dream stage. I’ve only had one lower level LD at night, and all of the vivid one’s I’ve had are in the morning.

Does anyone have advice to turn around my sleep schedule naturally?

OMGOMGOMG! hahahah!!! I can go lucid EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!

All I would need to do is have a sound file that plays during the night on a timer saying “You are dreaming. None of this is real, You will become Lucid” Or something along those lines. I can hear everything in real life when I sleep… So if I’m dreaming and here this I would snap out of my dream state!!

This is GENIOUS!