A question from reader Josiah : " Do unsighted hoi polloi see when they dream? I recall there are two sides to the question , dealing with masses who were born unsighted , and those who used to be able to see . "
Whether visual imagery is present in the dream of the blind has been pondered by scientists since the early 19th century . Josiah is right about that last part . People who are sighted , people who were born sighted but were blinded subsequently in living , and mass who were born blind all dreaming differently . As the Royal National Institute of the Blind in London put it , " dream are experienced in the same way as life is lived . “ ( Some mass over 55 on occasion dream in black and white , while youthful people who produce up with color television lean to dream only in color.1)How much visual mental imagery someone has experienced in their wake up life — if they ’ve experience it at all — impress how much visual imagination is in their dreams .
A series of questionnaire and audience studies direct in the 1970s2led to four generalizations about the aspiration of the unsighted :
Several studies in sleep laboratories , in which unsighted player were woken up during REM sleep for the collection of dream report , account alike results .
A more recent study3analyzed a sample distribution of 372 aspiration from 15 blind adults — some born blind , and others who run blind later in sprightliness . Again , the subject launch that people blind since parturition or very early childhood live no visual imagery , and masses blinded later in life did retain some visual imaging from their sighted waking sprightliness and experienced it while dream .
One participant in the study , though , reported visual mental imagery inconsistent with the style account in previous findings . Participant 13 , a 24 - year - old valet blind at age four , reported that he was able-bodied to see object " clearly" or " plainly" during the dreaming , so it is possible that some people who became blind before the age of five can know visual mental imagery in dreaming .
The study also boom upon the previous enquiry and revealed two interesting things :
1Murzyn E. ( 2008 ) . Do we only dream in colour ? A comparison of describe pipe dream color in jr. and older adult with different experience of black and white medium . Consciousness and cognition . Dec;17(4):1228 - 37.2Kirtley , D. ( 1975).The psychology of cecity . Chicago : Nelson - Hall.3Hurovitz , C. , Dunn , S. , Domhoff , G. W. , & Fiss , H. ( 1999 ) . The dreams of blind men and women : A replication and extension of previous determination . Dreaming.9:183 - 193 .
[ Image courtesy ofChristophe Moustier . ]
