Can Blind People See Other People in Dreams?
Introduction
Blind people are unfortunate to not have the best gift God has given us: vision. We can see the colourful world around us and admire it every day. We perceive things better when we coordinate all our senses with vision. In fact, vision lets us understand things in a much better way. Blind people do dream. Can blind people see in their dreams? Sure they do.
It is a curious topic of what blind people actually see in their dreams. Dreams are a state of subconscious mind we achieve when we fall asleep. They defy their disability to see when they are dreaming. They see things with their subconscious imagination. Let us find out in detail. First, let us learn what a dream is.
What is a Dream?
A dream is an experience that comes in the form of a series of thoughts in our subconscious mind. It is packed with sensations regulated by our subconscious minds along with pictures of people, objects, etc and thoughts merged together.
Blind People are Capable of Dreaming
A dream is also interpreted as the connection of our real-life connections and constraints. When we are sleeping, those thoughts and the urge to know or do something combine to give birth to a series of imaginary reels that reflect on our wishes, desires, emotions, and impulse.
Do Blind People Dream When They Sleep?
Blind people, as a matter of fact, do dream when they sleep. They do not have the power to see things but their subconscious minds process their feelings and thoughts to form dreams. Dreams are also connected to what we see and perceive every day. It means that blind people will not be able to visualise things as we do in a dream.
As we know that a dream is an imagery a human’s subconscious mind weaves with thoughts and visualisations done using the conscious part of the brain. Blind people are incapable of seeing things. It certainly restricts their creativity in dreaming to a certain extent.
In the past, people used to think that blind people cannot see their dreams. They just process it in a different way. As they do not have the power of vision, they dream in a very different way. Recent studies suggest that blind people do see things when they dream even though they lack the power of sight. The answer to who is dream is somewhat different for them.
The current research on this topic suggests that blind people, even though they are blind from birth, are capable of seeing things in their dreams. They dream in a way a normal human being does. They experience the formation of imaginary images of people and other objects they perceive every day.
You will also be surprised to know that blind people also experience nightmares. They are frightened the way we are and wake up at night in their dreams. Despite their lack of sight, they visualise things that trigger emotions in the same way we experience.
What Do Blind People Dream?
Researchers across the world studied blind people and their dreams. They found that the dreams are almost the same as that of the sighted people. They have found a few exceptions though from their research.
They have reported dreaming about common things such as eating or food. They see dreams that are related to the daily activities they do too.
Some subjects reported that they dream about the things they are most attached to. They dream of their service dogs, sticks, or objects they use daily.
Blind people dream less about aggression and negative emotions. They do not dream about fights, quarrels, etc.
They also dream less about personal failure and success.
Studies suggest they dream of misfortune. The misfortune is related to movements, locomotion, and travel. It shows that they repent of their disability to see things.
Can Blind People See in Their Dreams?
Now that we have evidential answers to what do blind people see in their dreams, let us find out whether they can actually find them seeing things in their dreams. Well, theories vary in this aspect. There is no evidential fact that blind people can or cannot see in their dreams.
It is proved that people blind from birth and or visually impaired later in life have less visual imagery than normal people. It has also been found that people who have lost their power of vision before the age of 5 cannot process images but those who have lost sight later can see things. It is the memory of the things they have seen before act as a feed to process images in their dreams.
To conclude the facts, we can say that people suffering from congenital blindness cannot dream color but can realise smell, touch, sound, etc. Their dreams are based on these senses mostly. The dreams are more tactile than imagery.
Blindness and Dreaming
Now that we have the answer to how do blind people dream, we can focus on another point. Do they experience nightmares? As it turns out, they experience them more than normal people. It is directly linked to the fact that their brains always remain in an alarming state due to their lack of sight. They know they are prone to accidents and other threats. This continuous state affects the subconscious mind resulting in processing nightmares more frequently.
As discussed before, a few scientific studies have been done so far based on this topic. The occurrence of dreams may vary from one blind person to the other considering their lifestyles and incidents. It all depends on the experience they have made through their other senses in due course of time.
