Do blind people see in their dreems?

Question

I mean people who are born blind.

Answer 1

I am going to theorize based on my experience with deaf people. My theory is "No, they dream using their primary senses."

Reason: People who are deaf from birth are not given choclear ear implants to make them hear (unless they get them at a very young age). When older people deaf from birth experience what we think of as "hearing" they experience it as a very uncomfortable or downright frightening "feeling" in their brain. These ear implants work well for people who have heard before but lost their hearing. They know what sound is and what to expect.

I would guess that a person blind from birth would not be ecstatic about seeing, but instead be overwhelmed by this horrible foriegn sensation.

With that in mind, "seeing" is such an unknown concept to a person blind from birth that they do not dream in "sight".

Answer 2

" Yes, blind people do dream. What they see in their dreams depends on how much they could ever see. If someone has been totally blind since birth, they only have auditory dreams. If someone such as I, has had a measure of sight, then that person dreams with that measure of sight. I still dream as though I can see, colors included. For people I've met since, their faces are just blurs or how I imagine they look. To me, someone like my mother looks forever 30. "

Answer 3

I have a frat brother who went blind at 18. He says he dreams in visions. He says blind from birth people don't. They have disorganized shapes and colors but having never seen, they don't know how to create images in their minds during sleep.

Answer 4

That is a really interesting question. I would guess in addition to what everyone else has said that part of what they dream about deals with nightmares, which apparently teach us how to cope with threats. Therefore dreams about being chased, falling, flying, etc. are universal and are less visual than they are about instict and impulse. There was a good article in the Times about it recently.

Answer 5

I think if they are blind since birth their sense of vision wouldn't be the same as people with vision so I think the answer to that part will be no, however, if they loss of vision came later in life the answer would be yes.

Answer 6

No, not if they're born blind, because they do not have any visual memories. They do dream though, that's what I've heard, but their dreams are based on the other senses they have; hearing, touching, tasting etc.

Answer 7

since we all "see" in our mind when we are dreaming then the answer is yes. Although it may not be the same as people with vision they see things through there other hightned senses. SO yes blind people see in their dreams, just not nessecarily like you and I.

Answer 8

No, they dream with their other sences, like during the day.
People who are not been born blind do have images sometimes. Depends on how long they are blind how many images they stil have.

http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hurovitz_1999a.html
http://vision.about.com/od/severevisionloss/f/blinddreams.htm

About dreams in general:
http://www.asdreams.org/index.htm

Answer 9

i read sumwhere that it is a yes...visions of smthg lk a pre-installed memory (example of pre-installed memory, lk how do we noe we need to eat to satisfy hunger)
i think so, not too sure.

Answer 10

Woh I don't know that is such a good questuion what made you think of that.