h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think the 30sec part has been pretty much discounted. Most research I've heard about in recent years says that the dreams last as long as the REM/Alpha Wave period. (At least I think it's the Alpha that come out during dreams) Around a half hour, give or take.

Are you musical at all? Maybe you should try and write down the music you hear - could be a big hit?!!!! or failing that sing it to a friend who is musical (or hum it depending on your talent!!)
I dont remeber hearing things in my dreams - usually communication is via mental telepathy. I know when i TRY to talk in a dream I never can - ie when I want to yell out or something.
I am always a third person in my dreams too, stuff happens to me, but I can SEE me and can see stuff happening to me as if I am a fly on the wall. Someone tried to tell me once that this is like an out of body experience, but Im not so sure (and not to mention a bit scared about investigating it) the only time I am actually Me and not watching me is when I have flying dreams. Ive been having heaps of them lately - anyone know what they mean? I used to always be in this building (that I recognise and know of - but it's really different in my dream) but these days Im in a tunnel with a big opening, but i just cant get to the opening... anyone want to analyse that?

I am 14 years old. I have absolutely no idea as to whether blind people dream. I can hazard a guess, though, that it depends on whether the blind person has always been blind, or whether he/she has been made blind during their life. If the person has always been blind, I believe that a dream cannot be had by him/her, as they have never seen images of reality before, and so can't use those images in their dreams. However, if someone became blind during their life, it is ikely that they can dream, as they will have seen, and remembered these images. Thanks for readin my posting.

A boyfriend once told me that he always dreamt he was flying when he had a wet dream. I can't say that I ever had an equivalent experience (those dreams were more explicit) I found that flying was just that. Being able to move without your feet touching the ground. Usually down the stairs at home or across the classroom (im my primary school, so I was about 10 years old) At eye-level and horizontal. Quite ordinary really.

Dreams are very vivid when you're taking medication I've found, or, like me recently, although I didn't have anything - not even painkillers - a few days afterwards, I still went on having vivid dreams and sleeping very deeply. I assume it was a natural way for the body to recuperate.

Also someone recommended Bach Flowers to me once and I found I had very odd dreams when I was taking them. It frightened me so much I stopped. Not that the dreams were nightmares, but they were so unlike what I usually had I realised these "harmless" little drops were doing something to my brain.

I expect blind people notice a difference in these situations, too.

I wish I could dream up the ultimate number one hit. I do think I hear people talking in my dreams though.

I believe that humans START OUT with visual elements in their heads; I believe that we already posess the ideas of colors, shapes, lines, light, dark and shadows when we are born. Then when we learn to see we associate these inborn elements with the things we perceive and from that form a picture. A "picture" is something in your head - it does not exist in the outside world. All that is really out there is objects and rays of light. So I think blind people (even if they are that way from birth) will also have the elements for forming pictures in their heads, but they will not be able to associate them with external objects through the use of their eyes. Maybe blind people associate the colors and shapes and textures and so on that they have in their minds with the stuff they hear, smell and feel. If they dream, the pictures they experience must be very different from ours.

By the way, I notice vivid colors when I dream, I can remember most of my dreams. There is continuity between them: the same people, the same places, the same plots turn up regularly, but also with many variations. In my dreams I can be any character I want: woman, man, the goody, the baddy, more than one person at a time - I can switch perspectives in the middle of a dream. I also dream about sounds and smells, I sometimes experience pain or other sensations, and I have dreamt up songs that don't exist in real life. But while they sounded great in the dream, after I woke up and remembered them, they were not particularly impressive. So much for that number one hit.

Just to say when I used the word "ours" by that I did not mean to exclude blind people. I would be very happy if there were blind people who could access this site. But I assume most if not all of the people reading this message are people who see with their eyes.

yeah...im musical...i play guitar...oboe...and i sing soprano in showchior....never thought of writing it down...novel concept...

usually in my dreams i cannot see myself...i am myself...but i dont have a body...i just hover there a few feet above the ground....all of my dreams are flying dreams...i dont walk...i fly...i talk to other pee/animals that have bodies...but it is not telepathic...I am usually dreaming when my mom wakes me up in the morning...at which piont i will actually start to dream about getting ready for school...i have no hands so i cant touch anything, everything is telekinetic...

when i talk in dreams i talk in real life too....i discovered this last night when i tape recorded the first 4 hours i was asleep....i also discovered that i snore....

A blind-since-birth man had a near death experience, and he recalls SEEING stuff, and knowing it was green. Don't why I brought this in, but their seems to be some sort of tenuous link, and I thought I would throw it in Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

You might be interested to read this essay I found while browsing about this evening:-
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/articles_rcw/ed2-1bli.htm

It confirms that blind people do indeed have rich and imaginative dreams, although probably without visual content if blind-from-birth or sight lost in infancy.

gee i read it...but i dunno...i like to think they see stuff...but just dont now that they are seeing stuff

I could tell you I work with lots of blind people and they have told me (because I asked whether they did once) but I just want to know whether this started as somthing serious or somone taking the piss

No one is taking the piss, we are all genuinely interested, as I am sure you will agree if you read the original question (the whole forum is all in the same vein, most of us floundering because we don't know any blind people to ask and some regretting that we can't contact them via this very visual medium)

So please go ahead and tell us.

While we all look forward to some useful information, I think we shall have to agree that we have found out that dreams are very individual things and even if you can tell us what 10 blind people have said on this subject, we appreciate that this may not be representative.

Bob,
im actually responsible for starting this thread, and I can assure you Im not taking the piss - far from it. It is something that has intrigued me for years since my neice was diagnosed with occular albinism (see earlier in this thread). Her mother was told (when my neice was about 3 months old) that she would be lucky if she could navigate around the house. We were all obviously initially devastated at this news (being a particularly close family) and were discussing the implications. this was all about 5 yers ago and I am happy toreprot that my neice is now attneding a 'normal' school and doing incredibly well. She does have a sight impairment but not nearly as bad as was first diagnosed. The idea of what she might dream was brought up by a friend of the family many years ago and as yet, no-one has come up with a conclusive answer - I'd be very interested to hear one if you have one, as my neice is still a bit young to ask. (and she's not totally blind)
My neice is also the basis for the other thread I started - 'what colour do you see behind you eyelids', Im interested to note that both dreams and the 'colour behind your eyes' are extremely individual and everyone has a very different answer - these things are very personal. if you have an answer about the blind people dreaming thing id be very interested to hear it - I could then pass it on to my family who were worried about the things my neice may miss out on (although now we know she is not toally blind these are less - and I understand that while blind people may miss out on some things, they have other things 'we' dont, Im not being discriminatory - its so hard in these days of political correctness not to offend people - I could write pages) basically all I want is an answer to my original question....
Thanks

Sorry I did not really think you where I was angery I had a bad day at work some nice kids came down and where skitting all the dissabled kids reduced harlf of them to tears.

Right I know dreeming is a verry indavidual thing so I am going to make verry brade genraliseations here. Incadentally I have not got my information from 10 people more like 100 but I think I will concentrate on one girle her name is Jenny. She was in a car crash that caused damadge to her optic nervs (so she had dreems when she could see, which is one of the reasons I am using her because it is easy for her to make comparasons) she told me that when she dreemed she could still see everything as she alwaysd used to but the dremes seemed more real. because she had to get used to seeing things by the way they smell and feel. all those things where in her dreems as well. If it was raining she could tell you the exact amount of time batween the rain drops hitting her arm of if the trees had holes in the bark. She seemed to have the sort of dreams that we only get once in a blue moon you know the really vivid realistic ones, she seemed to have them all the time.
I contrast a boy (Mike) who had been blind since birth said he did not see anything but still herd and felt things, like the sand on his feet, or the cars on the roade. So I gess it just depends on whether the person is blind since birth (moast of the people I have talkd to hav said the same things depending on when they where blinded. although there are alwayse exections to every rule).

AS I said sorry about the first messadge I was not thinking straght.

No harm done.

What do you do with people who are like that to disabled kids? Do you have any power over them? Do you teach the disabled kids to defend themselves (where possible?)

Ditto Trillians Child's post.....

Usually I hunt them down after schools finishedand beat six layers of s**t out of them. the Kids who I can I teach to defend them selves but it is not aways possible.

So, do the kids have guide dogs/goats/pigs/anything else......and what do you teach the kids?

OK, a little off the track of blind peoples dreams, I know, but I sometimes find that when I am dreaming and something bad is happening, like I'm being chased, falling, surrounded, etc. I find that I can sometimes think to myself 'OK, I wanna wake up now' and for a couple of seconds, I have concious thought while still seeing the images from my dream. I have control over what happens, but after a few seconds I am totally awake, anyone else get the same thing?

No I never needed to because I only have nice dreams. But some years back there were people publishing books encouraging people to consciously take control of their dreams if they were having recurring nightmares or bad experiences. This was supposed to give peace of mind For example, you are being chased by a monster - you turn round and face the monster and it turns into your father/teacher/older brother, or whatever it is you really deep down have a subconscious fear of and hadn't even realised. You could then go on and tackle the problem in waking life and live happily ever after.

As far as I understood the technique was to get into the habit, while awake, of asking yourself if you were dreaming or if it was real and activating this habit in your subconscience, until you could start doing it - literally - "in your sleep".

Did anyone try this out? Did it help?

Sorry if this comes out twice, but there seems to be a hold-up again this afternoon.