What does a blind person dream about?

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LilacRose32@reddit

I’m blind but haven’t always been.

My dreams are a mixture between what I recall and what life is like now. Whether I can see in the dream often doesn’t match the experience.

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Mdl8922@reddit

My nan mostly dreams about my grandad, and her grandchildren & great grandchildren.

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SatisfactionMoney426@reddit

Being a Venetian, a roller, a roman etc ...

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smushs88@reddit

Chuckling as i recently saw a short from the “Hood Research Department” on this very topic.

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Efficient_Chance7639@reddit

I don’t have any answers as I’m not blind, but excellent question OP and great answers all

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Broadly all sorts of weird stuff, just like a lot of people, I'd imagine. I was born blind and get asked if I can see in my dreams at least once a month - I can't. I can do stuff magically as if * I could* see sometimes, though. My dreams never feature actual eyesight; probably because it's something I've never known.

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Rough_Wear_882@reddit

Please forgive my ignorance but how do you navigate reddit so well whilst blind?

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retrolental_morose@reddit

:) All the tech talks these days - both my computer and phone speak to me. And I have a Braille Display, which shows a handful of words at a time in braille. which I use when it's noisy and I can't listen or I'm just fed up of listening to things.

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Rough_Wear_882@reddit

That’s so cool! Thank you for replying, I’m so impressed by technology and how it can help people do everyday things that people like myself take for granted everyday!

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retrolental_morose@reddit

me too. Ironically I use the camera a lot on my phone - reading letters, having images described, getting the use-by dates out of my fridge.

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Rough_Wear_882@reddit

That’s amazing, I’m glad there’s stuff out there to help you! :)

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

I can do stuff magically *as if * I could see sometimes

Like what?

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retrolental_morose@reddit

Drive, parachute, return a tennis ball without it bouncing first, that sort of thing.

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

How do you see that in your dream of you aren't seeing it?

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worldworn@reddit

Have you never had a dream where you "know" something? Even without being shown it?

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TheTjalian@reddit

Because your brain can still make things up even if you're blind. It's reasonably possible to get a feel for the rough layout of some things if you've been around them long enough, purely because of the other senses. Also, the colours in said dream could be completely non-sensical or are otherwise mostly colourless, like a wireframe with shaded faces.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

I don't ... I can't really explain it better than I can hit it like I could see it without seeing it.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

To be fair you could probably parachute with a partner right? No one is doing it for their first time alone I think

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P-l-Staker@reddit

It's not about first or second time. You need proper training to go alone. And it costs £.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

Oh probably. And I've driven round an empty car park. But if I'm dreaming about it, I'm doing it solo.

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Defiant_Sample3460@reddit

Exactly! Your brain grows and adapts to what it knows and its circumstances. It is sometimes hard for people with visual impairment to comprehend that.

However, I have done a lot of volunteer work with people with disabilities and one of the things that is the most insulting is that people think they are missing out on life. They aren’t at all. They are living a normal life with the adaptations that their disability requires. Many have never known any different. caveat: I am aware that in certain circumstances, some establishments etc aren’t set up to be disability inclusive and then that does cause a hindrance

My dreams are positively weird sometimes and I wake up thinking….where the hell did that come from!! Continue to enjoy your dreaming :)

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1whoisconcerned@reddit

So what does your dream involve?

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Competitive_Test6697@reddit

The vast amount of blind people have sight. It isn't binary and to be labelled blind is a spectrum.

People that are completely blind are even few and far between and those that are born completely blind is like very low.

So most blind people have had some sight at some point in their lives. Most lose it due to brain tumors/accidents.

So I suppose they dream normally?

Although I did have a person (born with no eyes) ask if a squirrel was the size of a horse.

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ema_l_b@reddit

Imagine one of those trying to steal from a bird feeder lol

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OrionGrant@reddit

It is easier for a blind man to steal seed from a bird feeder, than it is for giant squirrel to remain full.

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TepacheLoco@reddit

Well, to follow this: does someone with eyesight poor enough to be legally blind (but still see generally blurry or very tunnel visioned imagery) dream in that same format?

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Competitive_Test6697@reddit

I knew one girl that lost her sight that just dreamed in colours.

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neilm1000@reddit

What was in place of the eyes? Just sockets?

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Competitive_Test6697@reddit

Unsure, as didn't know them then and didn't want to ask. But they had to prosthetics and could blink, so guessing just sockets?

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Ok-Personality-6630@reddit

Either a very small horse (meaning jockeys are tiny people) or a terrifying squirrel. Interesting world to live in!

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trv09@reddit

It depends on when they became blind. Those who lost sight after childhood still dream in vivid visual imagery, their brain has a library of how things look. But people born blind or who lost vision before age 5–7 dream through sound, touch, smell and emotion likee rich experiences with no pictures.

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T0urnad0@reddit

I went to Dans le Noir a few years back. If you don’t know the concept you eat in darkness and all the waiters are blind.

Our waiter was amazing and we had a long chat with him where I asked this exact question. I’d also been wondering for years OP! This response echos exactly what he told me.

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jemjabella@reddit

Learned something new today. I always just assumed that Dans le Noir was something About Time (Richard Curtis film) made up, didn't realise it actually existed.

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T0urnad0@reddit

Not only does it actually exist but the waiter in it was the waiter who told me the above!

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jemjabella@reddit

Definitely adding it to my 'must visit' list, that's brilliant.

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MojeJmenoJe@reddit

It's obvious really. Must be like listening to the TV instead of watching it.

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Bounci3@reddit

Probably about being able to see

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retrolental_morose@reddit

Don't be an arse. I have a perfectly full life without needing the crutch of eyesight that I never had to begin with. So much easier to keep things calm and quiet at home by leaving the lights off at night to get a drink or go to the loo.

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Bounci3@reddit

Hindsight is 20/20.. I see you have little sense of humour along with little vision. Sorry.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

I have a brilliant one, in my own humble opinion ... I think the dad jokes would make my kids say otherwise. In this particular case I think your joke fell flat.

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Bounci3@reddit

It most definitely fell flat, unfortunately. But the dad jokes? Chefs kiss, I love em, my kids hate em. The dad jokes reddit page is brilliant.

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Bounci3@reddit

I agree with the keeping the lights off comment above for toilet trips and drinks. I do this myself for the opposite reasons.. putting a light on for 30 seconds makes me not able to see anything when I put the light off on my return trip. But having a black cat that sleeps on the steps doesnt help the situation. I swear its trying to kill me

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1whoisconcerned@reddit

How are you seeing these posts?

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retrolental_morose@reddit

I have a computer and phone that talks to me and a little gadget that I can use to read text from the screen in Braille :)

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1whoisconcerned@reddit

Wow. Thats a maze in the garden with rabbits dancing under the hedge.

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iBlockMods-bot@reddit

You can learn about some technologies here

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ShittiestUsernameYet@reddit

Calling eyesight a crutch seems like a pretty handy delusion

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retrolental_morose@reddit

WORKS FOR ME. the number of times I've had to pull someone up on "it' snot in the cupboard!" When it's behind something and they can't see it is ridiculous.

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Dazz316@reddit

It is ridiculous, but that doesn't mean it's worse.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

No, fair point. I guess if you magically gave me eyesight now by fixing the physical problems with my eyes, I'd then have to go through the process of "learning" to see like a baby does. So many people think that if there were some clever medical procedure tomorrow, I could have it done and then be able to spot my wife or kids in the crowd on Friday. The reality is even if they could replace my broken retinas it'd be months before I could even recognise that there was a bus coming at me, never mind read the number on it.

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Dazz316@reddit

Oh I wouldn't assume that. But eyesight not a crutch. Yes it'd take time get used to it but it's something that gives you more information in life on what you're going to do, and often that information is incredibly useful or even necessary

The ways and methods you've learned to do certain things, which in the world we live in, were built around. Everything from spotting fire exit signs in buildings to driving a car. We build so many things around our ability to see. When you see the bus coming down the street and sprint through a crowd to catch it or just driving the bus yourself. So many blind people don't have the ability to do those things at all let alone to a normal capability.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

I can't argue with any of that, but there's also a common belief that life blind is no life at all. Crutch is perhaps too strong a word, but by the same token, I've met people who think I must be depressed and suicidal and would leap at eyesight at any cost.

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Public_Ad_1411@reddit

Yeah. Because everyone wants to be operated on by a person not using the crutch of sight.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

Ha, fair point. If you're driving me around or doing surgery I'll let you keep your eyes ;)

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Miserable-Ad7835@reddit

Like someone in a wheelchair boasting about not needing to fight for a seat on a train.

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retrolental_morose@reddit

I've done that unintentionally before, offered my seat on a ferry crossing to someone in a wheelchair. Luckily the huge white stick was a bit of a giveaway.

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Whole-Strawberry3281@reddit

😂

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Pyrex_Living@reddit

The more interesting question is: is the dreamer separate from the dream?

Ponder that one. Don’t answer intellectually, answer from your direct experience

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maceion@reddit

The 'dreamer' is never separate from the dream as the dream lives on in one's memory, and can effect daytime activities.

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Pyrex_Living@reddit

When you look at your actual experience, can you find a “dreamer” apart from the dream itself?

In the moment of dreaming, there isn’t a separate observer standing outside it—the dream and the one experiencing it arise together. Only after waking does the mind create a “dreamer” who supposedly had the dream.

So the separation seems to be something added later, not something that was ever actually there.

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Glittering_Win_5085@reddit

Read 'the interpretation of dreams' by Freud. Lots of good answers to the blindness aspect here already, but think you will find this interesting. I think Freud would say that actually language is a more significant aspect than sight, and that the language in which one dreams shapes the symbolism of it dramatically.

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BiscuitCrumbsInBed@reddit

I used to work in a care home and we had a blind resident in his 80s. Completely blind by that stage but had once been sighted. I asked him that question and he told me that he dreamt in colour, and he would paint the scenes in his head from memory of what things would be like. (From what he had seen as a child/young person). Or sometimes his imagination would kick in. He told me that he always loved having dreams, that it was positive experiences.

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That-Lawfulness-9360@reddit

Some blind people suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome, it’s a condition where they ‘see’ various shapes, people, animals, landscapes whilst awake, because the brain isn’t receiving the stimulus from the optic nerves it generates its own images, before the condition was recognised people, especially the elderly were thought to have a psychotic disorder when claiming the could see things that weren’t there

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