# Do babies dream?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 12, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289 "2018-04-12T14:10:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289/21 "2018-04-13T16:48:52Z")

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> [@DrCube](#):
>
> This contradicts my own and others’ experience. I distinctly remember some of my early dreams as a toddler.

I don’t even remember being awake as a toddler. My first clear memories must be from around 3 or 4 years old, possibly even a little later.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289/22 "2018-04-13T17:59:58Z")

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I’ll apply the Copernican principle: we are never as unique as we assume we are. Babies don’t spontaneously get infused with a soul or consciousness at age 2 or something. _Of course_ they dream. Burden of proof is on the other side.

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289/23 "2018-04-13T18:19:10Z")

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> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> I don’t even remember being awake as a toddler. My first clear memories must be from around 3 or 4 years old, possibly even a little later.

People have different thresholds of age from which they can recall memories, and it is easy to conflate legitimate recollections with photographs seen later, but I have memories from before the age of two that have been verified by objective evidence later, including memories of people and places from that age.

> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> I’ll apply the Copernican principle: we are never as unique as we assume we are. Babies don’t spontaneously get infused with a soul or consciousness at age 2 or something. _Of course_ they dream. Burden of proof is on the other side.

Yeah, while the brain changes pretty radically during early childhood, the basic cognitive mechanisms are still at play. The biggest differneces cognitively between infants and older children are the plasticity of visual and speech cortices. Children think and ‘reason’ to the degree that their limited but every increasing experience allows.

Stranger

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-babies-dream/812289/24 "2018-04-13T18:50:38Z")

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I had a memory at 10 months corroborated by my parents when I was older (seeing an orange sunset that I thought looked like a tiger from the back seat of my dad’s Cadillac while driving NE along lake Erie). I also recalled the mattress that they had for me in the back seat (this was in the mid Sixties long before car seats, note).

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