I don’t recall ever actually reading in a dream, but I’ve had dreams where I was reading; looking at a book and knowing what I was “reading” in it, but not seeing the letters. Frustratingly, it’s generally been sequels that were never written, or Book 5 of a nonexistent series by a favorite author.
I’ve not only read coherently in dreams before, but I’ve translated ancient Greek in my dreams.
A week or two ago I had a dream in which I was trying to read a text for school, but it was like I’d forgotten how to read. That was not a happy dream. (FWIW, the text is Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, so the dream wasn’t too far from reality…)
I’ve dreamt of Reading [Berkshire] and it was really Reading - My g-g-grandparents are buried in Reading Cemetery and I had recently visited their rather decrepit grave.
In answer to the post - I’ve been able to read in dreams, but it seems like it’s been really rare and it usually wakes me up when it happens.
The dichotomy between those that can and cannot seem to “read” while dreaming is certainly interesting. I wonder what brain function or lack thereof allows some to be able to do it while others can’t.
I also have difficulty running, screaming and punching in dreams.
I had a boyhood dream about a bully that I wanted to beat up, and when I got on top of him, I was flailing away at his face, but it felt very much like punching a pillow (maybe I really WAS punching my pillow!) and he just laughed at me over and over.
It’s zany how some dreams can replicate reality so closely in many respects that you can’t distinguish it from your waking state while you’re dreaming, and how others are so disjointed you actually think to yourself “I know this is just a dream”.
To the dream researcher: does eating before bed really influence dreaming?
That’s a recurring theme in my dreams, too. I think that if I found a decent bathroom, I’d probably wet the bed.
I can remember not being able to read things in dreams, and can’t remember being successful at it.
The way that I should be able to tell whether I’m dreaming is that I find foreign and/or old coins. It doesn’t work, though, because I think in my dream, “Wow, usually this happens only in my dreams!” :smack:
I remember when I was in the Army, stationed in Germany in 1990, I was “in the field” in what amounted to a “tent city” of large-ish tents set up on preordained concrete pads.
I had been drinking with the fellas that night, and it began to rain. Unbeknowst to me, the tent had a large-ish leak that was dripping rainwater almost directly on my crotch region while I slept inside the sleeping bag.
Since I had so much to drink prior to “passing out”, and since the dripping water provided the impetus/stimuli, I dreamt of pissing gelatin, no lie. And it felt SO GOOD, peeing this gelatin, that upon awakening, I’d pissed my sleeping bag…the same bag that I could not wash or do anything about that I had to sleep with for the next 20 days in a row.
All I could do was put it outside and hope it dried it. It sorta did. The following night in it was a damp, unpleasant sleep.
I’m curious about that, myself. D’ya think we should start a thread to try to find some commonality between people who can read and people who can’t?
featherlou, you poor thing! I’ve had some of my best meals ever in dreams.
For the OP- I read in dreams all the time. I’m bitterly resentful that I can’t keep those books, 'cause they’re really good.
Except for school nightmares. Years later, still have 'em. Take one look at my imaginary exam, which is vital to getting my degree, and it’s in Martian.
Ninja Chick, is translating Greek something you do often? I’m wondering if the people who can read in dreams have a particular relationship with reading and writing such as doing it for their job or something.
The theory I’ve heard about the “can’t find a decent bathroom” dreams is that your body is signaling that you need to urinate, but since the signal isn’t apparently enough to wake you up, your brain starts interpreting the “must pee/can’t pee right now” signal as being something to do with an unsuccessful attempt to find an acceptable bathroom. I don’t know if there’s any hard evidence behind it, but it’s a nice-sounding theory at least.
The few times I remember doing any reading, I either get the “fuzzy, basically illegible script” problem, or if I don’t make a real effort to read, I think I understand something amazing in the dream but can’t even remember what it was about upon awakening. I suspect that if I put in an effort in the latter cases, I might find fuzzy text again.
Oh, no, don’t pity me - I have fantastically creative dreams. I just don’t happen to be able to taste or smell in them. (I was Queen of the Underworld once - that was very cool!)
At that point in my life, I was taking a Greek class and we were translating about 150-200 lines per week, so yes, I spent a lot of my waking hours translating it.
How would the people who can’t read participate?
But seriously, another thing that has come up in other threads is whether or not people have sexual experiences in dreams. I doubt there would be any connection between reading in dreams and sexual experiences in dreams, but I do wonder whether there are tangible reasons why some people have certain experiences in dreams while others notice the fact that they can’t.
I’ve had sex in dreams too. That’s always interesting, especially when I’m someone else in my dream.
Ooh, have you ever been the other *gender *in your sex dream? I have. I wonder if my dream penis really felt like a man’s penis feels (to himself, I mean.) It definitely felt different than either my waking sex as a woman or my dream sex as a woman.
I just had a dream last night where I could read. In the dream I was betting a friend I $20 I could run a mile faster than he could. I pulled out some cash, read the bill that said “$20” on it, and put it in the pile.
I never even would have thought it possible.
Do you (meaning Antinor01 or anyone else who has experienced this) ever dream you’re someone else doing yourself? I expect in that scenario I would probably be criticizing my performance.
Maybe more to the point, when you’re dreaming you’re someone of another gender knocking astral boots with your alter-ego, can you read?
Yep, I’ve been both female and male. In one dream (with no actual intercourse I remember) my dream self’s gender was ambiguous, even to me. One cool dream I had where there was plenty of sex I was able to shift gender at will. That was fun.
I don’t recall meeting myself in a dream. I’ve seen myself in dreams, but those were third-person perspective dreams and it was more like a movie. But in my first person perspective dreams when I’m someone else, I’ve never met myself.
Does seeing the bloody solutions to the damned exam you just took the previous day, all written down on paper (the proper format of paper, too) count as “reading”? Even if it was matrix algebra?
I’ve had dreams which involved internet message boards, the MUD I used to play, WoW (chat window included)…