If someone was born blind, what would their dreams be like?

Answer 1

If you are born totally bilind then you will not recreate any visual images in your dreams as you have no prior experience or knowledge to base them on. Dreams rely on memory recall to create a reality similar to our daily lives. The daily reality of a totally blind person will include, auditory, oral, olfactory and tactile cues and these will form the basis of there dreams. Remember however very few people are born totally blind so it is possible for some residual visual information to work its way into peoples dreams who have not been able to see for a long time.

Answer 2

Though there has been little work done with dreams and the visually impaired (Hunt, 1989, Rainville, 1994), the general belief and little evidence seem to favor the notion that people dream as they live in waking life and represent situations to themselves and others in pretty much the same way in both wake and sleep. What confuses the issue is our habit or cognitive style of verbal narratives that represent people and things in visual metaphors. A quick look at the description of a dream by a blind individual may reveal an elaborate array of visual imagery, while a closer examination of the actual sensations of that blind dreamer reveal little or no direct visual imagery.

In a special letter form Helen Keller, she relates what dreaming was like before her teacher:

"My dreams have strangely changed during the past twelve years. Before and after my teacher first came to me, they were devoid of sound, of thought or emotion of any kind, except fear, and only came in the form of sensations. I would often dream that I ran into a still, dark room, and that, while I stood there, I felt something fall heavily without any noise, causing the floor to shake up and down violently; and each time I woke up with a jump. As I learned more and more about the objects around me, this strange dream ceased to haunt me; but I was in a high state of excitement and received impressions very easily. It is not strange then that I dreamed at the time of a wolf, which seemed to rush towards me and put his cruel teeth deep into my body! I could not speak (the fact was, I could only spell with my fingers), and I tried to scream; but no sound escaped from my lips. It is very likely that I had heard the story of Red Riding Hood, and was deeply impressed by it. This dream, however, passed away in time, and I began to dream of objects outside myself

Answer 3

My friend was born blind he tells me about his dreams they are not like ours they are touch & sense & sound & vibrations...
...He has no visual images.
He once told me he dreamed i was talking to him on the phone & he told me he smelled my perfume..lol
He always jokes with me about being color blind..I asked him why he tells me this he tells me because he has no idea what colors are..

Answer 4

I don't know what they'd be like, probably more audio and visual. How would you decribe your dreams to a blind person or even a color.

Answer 5

They have no dreams as others dreamt but they have their own ideas that all related to the sounds like every one praising them,claps sounds,good words etc.

Answer 6

i have a friend who is blind and she sees in her dreams just cant when she wakes up..weird

Answer 7

Put your favourite movie in your DVD player. Press play... Unplug the yellow cable......You now have an idea.

Answer 8

Cool, keep the answers coming to this quation it is really interesting.

Answer 9

they have no dreams of this world but they have strong sixth sense.

Answer 10

maybe whatever they hear, how sad though..