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I'm also aphantasic and dream normally, and I once got really into lucid dreaming for a ~semester in college. My best successes would occur after drinking a cu

I'm also aphantasic and dream normally, and I once got really into lucid dreaming for a ~semester in college. My best successes would occur after drinking a cup of coffee and immediately taking a nap before a study session. It was great, I "learned how to fly" and could "morph" my dream into whichever direction I wanted. One thing stuck out though: whenever I would try and focus on something, I would see a black dot enter the center of my vision. The more I tried to focus, the larger it got. If I focused on an area attentively enough, such that the black circle became all encompassing, I would wake up. After a few times of this, I could start to notice the focus, and then sort of relax out of it, and thus continue the dream. It feels like the black dot is my real-life vision coming into focus, and "winning" over the visual aspects of the dream. It's always continuous from black dot to eyes opening. I rarely lucid dream now, but I've noticed a similar thing happen whenever I try to read text - the black dot appears and I wake up. Wish I still had unlimited time to go back to sleep!

andyclap2 11d ago
I'm not aphantasic, but that's exactly the experience I get when coming out of a lucid dream. Except it's my expected surroundings not black. Gets a bit weird and inceptiony when it's the wrong surroundings! Given the number of cultural references along these lines, I suspect it's not uncommon.
vedmed 11d ago
Focus takes training, just like physical exercise, it is a super power to be harnessed. You can train yourself up by looking at your hand, then building a body, then building a room, and maintaining all of it. When you are strong enough, you walk outside.
PalmPilotProMax 10d ago
>black dot One of the most horrifying recurring dreams when young was "geometric nightmares". This black circle would expand in size while a deafening silence grows. The volume is a void, and it's deafening. An impending sense of doom as the expanding black void circle approaches. There's a real fear of oblivion, of ceasing to exist. Then you wake up. Anyone else had similar dreams?

andyclap2 11d ago

I'm not aphantasic, but that's exactly the experience I get when coming out of a lucid dream. Except it's my expected surroundings not black. Gets a bit weird and inceptiony when it's the wrong surroundings! Given the number of cultural references along these lines, I suspect it's not uncommon.

vedmed 11d ago

Focus takes training, just like physical exercise, it is a super power to be harnessed. You can train yourself up by looking at your hand, then building a body, then building a room, and maintaining all of it. When you are strong enough, you walk outside.

PalmPilotProMax 10d ago

>black dot One of the most horrifying recurring dreams when young was "geometric nightmares". This black circle would expand in size while a deafening silence grows. The volume is a void, and it's deafening. An impending sense of doom as the expanding black void circle approaches. There's a real fear of oblivion, of ceasing to exist. Then you wake up. Anyone else had similar dreams?