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A weird hypothesis is that a dream might not even be a story until you wake up—like a wave function collapse[1] of abstract brain activity. Freud wrote about a

A weird hypothesis is that a dream might not even be a story until you wake up—like a wave function collapse[1] of abstract brain activity. Freud wrote about a man being jolted awake by his headboard falling on his neck the very moment he had been guillotined in a dream, and I think most of us have examples. [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse

kalium_xyz 7y ago
This makes a lot of sense for deeper sleep where dreams are fragments of thoughts within a barely coherent mind but little sense in REM sleep where people have shown to be aware by doing preestablished eyemovements. There is a lot of indication that people are aware during dreams that occur in REM sleep (eye movement is unrestricted by the brain stem blocking signals so eyes move as if the person is doing things). Point being that if a person is aware and can do tasks and communicate with regular timing then the dream cannot take place at the moment of waking up.
bil7 7y ago
I remember reading that people used to believe that your whole dream happened in the few seconds before you woke up. Would be interesting if that was actually close to the truth.
cs1717p 7y ago
I have experienced several instances where I dream that I am with some friend/colleague/etc e.h. helping him solve some problem. Upon waking up, I check my phone and then sure enough that same friend has in fact contacted with the same or similar message as in my dream. In several instances these are people I haven't heard from in a long time, with some very hard to guess specific reason why they contacted me. (E.g. a long time friend asking me to help his dad with something). My memory is very clear that I had the dream and processed it (with some reaction of 'huh strange, fancy dreaming about that guy) before I opened my phone and found the text/email from that person. But is that memory being rewritten somehow afterwards? Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought
comsolo 7y ago
I have experienced several instances where I dream that I am with some friend/colleague/etc e.g. helping him/her solve some problem. Upon waking up, I check my phone and then sure enough that same friend has in fact contacted with the same or similar message as in my dream. In several instances these are people I haven't heard from in a long time, with some very hard to guess specific reason why they contacted me. (E.g. a long time friend asking me to help his dad with something). My memory is very clear that I had the dream and processed it (with some reaction of 'huh strange, fancy dreaming about that guy) before I opened my phone and found the text/email from that person. But is that memory being rewritten somehow afterwards? Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought
- easymodex 7y ago
  I also have some stories like that. One time I dreamt about a friend who I haven't seen or heard from for more than a year and the same day I run into him at a random gas station on the other side of town. I mean I know this is probably a coincidence but it's just one of those moments where you start thinking if there is something supernatural about it.
- viklove 7y ago
  > Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought Ha, much more likely is that in your dream the person was nonspecific, and when you woke up your brain "altered" the memory to be about the person who texted you. There is well documented evidence that human memory is extremely suggestible, and I think that is a far more likely explanation than... information time travel.
  - comsolo 7y ago
    Possibly. But I remember very specifically thinking about the person in question prior to receiving the message. We really don't understand that much about consciousness (or many other phenomena). It's not that outlandish that there may be some strange behaviour of time. Many physicists suggest its structured more like strings or otherwise more "liquid" than a linear timeline

kalium_xyz 7y ago

This makes a lot of sense for deeper sleep where dreams are fragments of thoughts within a barely coherent mind but little sense in REM sleep where people have shown to be aware by doing preestablished eyemovements. There is a lot of indication that people are aware during dreams that occur in REM sleep (eye movement is unrestricted by the brain stem blocking signals so eyes move as if the person is doing things). Point being that if a person is aware and can do tasks and communicate with regular timing then the dream cannot take place at the moment of waking up.

bil7 7y ago

I remember reading that people used to believe that your whole dream happened in the few seconds before you woke up. Would be interesting if that was actually close to the truth.

cs1717p 7y ago

I have experienced several instances where I dream that I am with some friend/colleague/etc e.h. helping him solve some problem. Upon waking up, I check my phone and then sure enough that same friend has in fact contacted with the same or similar message as in my dream. In several instances these are people I haven't heard from in a long time, with some very hard to guess specific reason why they contacted me. (E.g. a long time friend asking me to help his dad with something). My memory is very clear that I had the dream and processed it (with some reaction of 'huh strange, fancy dreaming about that guy) before I opened my phone and found the text/email from that person. But is that memory being rewritten somehow afterwards? Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought

comsolo 7y ago

I have experienced several instances where I dream that I am with some friend/colleague/etc e.g. helping him/her solve some problem. Upon waking up, I check my phone and then sure enough that same friend has in fact contacted with the same or similar message as in my dream. In several instances these are people I haven't heard from in a long time, with some very hard to guess specific reason why they contacted me. (E.g. a long time friend asking me to help his dad with something). My memory is very clear that I had the dream and processed it (with some reaction of 'huh strange, fancy dreaming about that guy) before I opened my phone and found the text/email from that person. But is that memory being rewritten somehow afterwards? Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought

easymodex 7y ago
I also have some stories like that. One time I dreamt about a friend who I haven't seen or heard from for more than a year and the same day I run into him at a random gas station on the other side of town. I mean I know this is probably a coincidence but it's just one of those moments where you start thinking if there is something supernatural about it.
viklove 7y ago
> Or is there perhaps some kind of vaguely wavefunction/quantum/etc phenomena that leads some information to be transmitted back in time by a few minutes? Hard to say, but definitely food for thought Ha, much more likely is that in your dream the person was nonspecific, and when you woke up your brain "altered" the memory to be about the person who texted you. There is well documented evidence that human memory is extremely suggestible, and I think that is a far more likely explanation than... information time travel.
- comsolo 7y ago
  Possibly. But I remember very specifically thinking about the person in question prior to receiving the message. We really don't understand that much about consciousness (or many other phenomena). It's not that outlandish that there may be some strange behaviour of time. Many physicists suggest its structured more like strings or otherwise more "liquid" than a linear timeline