3 ms·

I can't picture images at all, and don't really dream at all either. Wonder if there are any implications, I went through most of my life thinking this is norma

I can't picture images at all, and don't really dream at all either. Wonder if there are any implications, I went through most of my life thinking this is normal.

emerged 5y ago
I can’t picture images at all and thought it was normal. I mean it seems to be relatively common at least so we aren’t total aliens. It always seemed really odd to me that people can sit down and draw whatever they want. The way my mind works it’s just absurd to imagine magically knowing what color to use and precise brush movements. But if you can visualize things you basically are copying from an image of sorts. That made art both more and less impressive to me lol
mikelevins 5y ago
It’s unlikely that you don’t dream, but not at all unlikely that you dream but don’t remember it.
- kmonsen 5y ago
  That is probably true, but since I can't remember them I don't know if they are visual or not.
- scruple 5y ago
  Yes. I have no visual imagery, either, but I know that I dream. I just have no recall, or very, very little. I've tried the dream log thing, etc. and nothing ever made a difference. I have a handful of dreams that I can recall from the entirety of my life and a couple from childhood, a couple from adulthood. I know that 1 of them is a recurring dream. 3 of them are actually nightmares.
  - kmonsen 5y ago
    I could have written that whole comment you make, except I have only one dream I can remember from my whole life and it is a nightmare. Have not had it for at least 10+ years. I mean how do you do a dream log when you wake up and it is just like I have no idea if I dreamt or not.
    - mikelevins 4y ago
      I kept journals for several years. One night I woke up from a dream that was particularly interesting, so I turned on the light, found my journal, and wrote down everything I could remember. I decided then to keep a journal and a pen next to my bed so that recording additional dreams would be easier. I soon found that I had collected multiple volumes of recorded dreams and auxiliary notes about them. I don't know whether writing my dreams down made it more likely that I would dream, or more likely to remember my dreams--I know that some people say that it makes you more likely to remember your dreams, but I don't know whether that's true. I just know that the number of dreams I ended up writing down was much greater than I expected based on the number of dreams that I had previously remembered. Also, I needed to write them down very quickly after waking or I'd forget them. Every minute I waited caused me to lose more details. That still seems to be true years later. I don't keep a dream journal anymore, but I notice that if I wake from a dream, and I want to remember it, I need to write it down or tell someone about it pretty much right away. If I don't, it'll be lost within a few minutes. I might remember that I had a dream, and I might remember what I felt like when I was having it, but most often nothing more than that. If I write it down or otherwise communicate it, though, I usually remember the parts that I managed to communicate before the rest disappeared. Maybe if you keep a journal close to your bed as I once did, you'll get lucky one night and wake up from a dream to write it down. Maybe it will then turn out that those people are right: that writing down dreams makes you more likely to remember additional ones. I don't know if that's true, but maybe.

I can't picture images at all, and don't really dream at all either. Wonder if there are any implications, I went through most of my life thinking this is normal.

emerged 5y ago

I can’t picture images at all and thought it was normal. I mean it seems to be relatively common at least so we aren’t total aliens. It always seemed really odd to me that people can sit down and draw whatever they want. The way my mind works it’s just absurd to imagine magically knowing what color to use and precise brush movements. But if you can visualize things you basically are copying from an image of sorts. That made art both more and less impressive to me lol

mikelevins 5y ago

It’s unlikely that you don’t dream, but not at all unlikely that you dream but don’t remember it.

kmonsen 5y ago
That is probably true, but since I can't remember them I don't know if they are visual or not.
scruple 5y ago
Yes. I have no visual imagery, either, but I know that I dream. I just have no recall, or very, very little. I've tried the dream log thing, etc. and nothing ever made a difference. I have a handful of dreams that I can recall from the entirety of my life and a couple from childhood, a couple from adulthood. I know that 1 of them is a recurring dream. 3 of them are actually nightmares.
- kmonsen 5y ago
  I could have written that whole comment you make, except I have only one dream I can remember from my whole life and it is a nightmare. Have not had it for at least 10+ years. I mean how do you do a dream log when you wake up and it is just like I have no idea if I dreamt or not.
  - mikelevins 4y ago
    I kept journals for several years. One night I woke up from a dream that was particularly interesting, so I turned on the light, found my journal, and wrote down everything I could remember. I decided then to keep a journal and a pen next to my bed so that recording additional dreams would be easier. I soon found that I had collected multiple volumes of recorded dreams and auxiliary notes about them. I don't know whether writing my dreams down made it more likely that I would dream, or more likely to remember my dreams--I know that some people say that it makes you more likely to remember your dreams, but I don't know whether that's true. I just know that the number of dreams I ended up writing down was much greater than I expected based on the number of dreams that I had previously remembered. Also, I needed to write them down very quickly after waking or I'd forget them. Every minute I waited caused me to lose more details. That still seems to be true years later. I don't keep a dream journal anymore, but I notice that if I wake from a dream, and I want to remember it, I need to write it down or tell someone about it pretty much right away. If I don't, it'll be lost within a few minutes. I might remember that I had a dream, and I might remember what I felt like when I was having it, but most often nothing more than that. If I write it down or otherwise communicate it, though, I usually remember the parts that I managed to communicate before the rest disappeared. Maybe if you keep a journal close to your bed as I once did, you'll get lucky one night and wake up from a dream to write it down. Maybe it will then turn out that those people are right: that writing down dreams makes you more likely to remember additional ones. I don't know if that's true, but maybe.