Can Blind people dream?

Question

In drama today we had a topic on wether we thought blind people could dream or not can they??

Answer 1

If the people were born blind, they have no REM and no visual imagery; the dreams consist of impressions from the other senses -- touch, hearing, smell, and taste. If the people were sighted and then became blind, they have REM (if the eye muscles have not yet atrophied), and their dreams contain visual imagery -- but these visual dreams might cease to occur eventually

Answer 2

1.Answer from somebody who has been blind since she was fairly young:

" 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. "

2. Yes, blind people do have dreams. However, those blind since birth or very early childhood have no visual imagery in their dreams. Instead, they experience a very high percentage of taste, smell, and touch sensations in their dreams.

The breakdown is as follows:

There are no visual images in the dreams of those born without any ability to experience visual imagery in waking life.

Individuals who become blind before the age of five seldom experience visual imagery in their dreams.

Those who become sightless between the ages of five and seven may or may not retain some visual imagery.

Most people who lost their vision after age seven continue to experience at least some visual imagery, although its frequency and clarity often fade with time.

Source:
http://psych.ucsc.edu...
This is a rather scholarly paper and dry reading.

For more information, go to google.com, search on "blind people dream" and you'll get links to many sites about the dreams of the blind.

Answer 3

Yes their brain is the same as ours unless they have a brain anomally that is causing them to be blind in which case they will have a chance of having reduced brain activity constantly which may affect their dream cycle while sleeping.

They may not have visualizations when they dream unless they formerly had sight though because their brain has nothing to form images with if it has never been subjected to them. (you have to put information in to get it back out)

But instead they will have activites in their other senses while at rest but they may go unnoticed. When was the last time you woke up cause you tasted or smelt something weird in a dream? So probably more Touch/Sound related dreams could be expected from a blind individual.

Answer 4

Yes they can. However many blind people from birth only dream in smell, sound, taste and touch. People that could see but have been blinded in their life have dreams like us:

Check out these:

Answer 5

As dreaming is a trait that all humans share, then I would assume that they do, just as I would also assume that deaf people dream. A better resolution to your question would be to ask a blind person instead of having a discussion about it amongst yourselves and exclude the subject matter experts who could answer your question definitively yes or no.

Answer 6

Studies of blind participants in sleep laboratories using awakenings during REM periods to collect dream reports have shown results:
There are no visual images in the dreams of those born without any ability to experience visual imagery in waking life.
Individuals who become blind before the age of five seldom experience visual imagery in their dreams, although Deutsch (1928) reports some visual imagery in six schoolchildren who lost their sight before age five.
Those who become sightless between the ages of five and seven may or may not retain some visual imagery.
Most people who lost their vision after age seven continue to experience at least some visual imagery, although its frequency and clarity often fade with time.
http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hurovitz_1999a.html

Answer 7

Yes they can my husband has a legally blind neice who has told me some of her dreams and stories.

Answer 8

i think ofcourse they dream, see even those who have eyes are imagining certain things without even seeing them, like wise the blind people dream.

Answer 9

i think any1 can dream just cuz their blind is no sign they can't c thier dreams.

Answer 10

In their dreams they feel and hear things!