Back in my adolescent days, I’d occasionally dream of having sex with some hot babe. Whenever that happened, however, I’d wake up to find that I’d jizzed myself in my sleep, so it really wasn’t all that great.
I can read in my dreams. In fact, the other day, in my dreams, I read one of the most beautiful eulogies ever. Woke up, and thought “damn, I’m a good writer.” Pity that I can’t access that in my waking life.
I can not, however, re-read in my dreams. If I try to read something twice, the meaning will stay more or less the same - but the actual words may be different. (“He went through the door” might become “John walked outside”) One of the most frustrating dreams I ever had was trying to call someone. Every single time I looked down at the paper to get the next few digits, the numbers changed and I had to start over again. Dream me broke down entirely.
I have to agree.
I not only dream about reading the SDMB I dream about arguing…er debating salient points in the SDMB even though I am not a master debater…
what?
No but I’ve read about dreaming.
Dreaming about reading about mathematical equations is really crazy.
I suppose the commonality in some dreams is “what you were doing right before you fell asleep”, except I’ve had dreams that were completely unrelated to my pre-sleep activity on any given night, as I’m sure many of you have as well.
I hope we can continue this conversation. I find it utterly fascinating. I had another non-reading dream a couple nights ago, and I wish I could remember the situation. I recall being frustrated at my inability to read something in my dream and it was apparently really important to my dream-self.
I’ve done some of my finest library research in my dreams… selecting the books, settling down at a desk, and skimming and reading whole chapters (or so it seemed) and even taking notes on the material, all in my dreams. These are books that probably don’t exist and which I definitely haven’t read, although they may be similar to others that I have read. The freakiest one of these was probably the text on engineering aspects of architecture (it was dry, fairly technical, academic/professionally pitched, and IRL rather over my head). I have done some reading in architecture, but always from the aesthetic angle, as opposed to the engineering problems involved… and I’ve never done any real readings in engineering, except for one book on notable engineering failures, like collapsed bridges and such.
I can seldom read properly in my dreams - when I try, something prevents me - a sensation of tiredness means I can’t open my eyes more than a slit, or can’t raise them to the page, or I can’t move the book into my field of view.
Not sure if this is because my body is aware that my eyes really are closed, or maybe (long shot) that I’m not wearing my glasses, or something like that - in the same way that it is thought the reason you sometimes can’t run in a dream is the constraint of the bedclothes, or your mind’s recognition that your body is in a relaxed state.
Yes. I tend to recall my dreams pretty well, perhaps because I kept a dream journal for a few years…it trains you to recall.
I have not only read things which I could remember and which were “meaningful” in terms of being actual words/sentences (if not understandable as to what they “meant” as far as their symbolism, if that makes sense) but I have WRITTEN things (entire passages of something I was working on and recalled it word for word upon waking and transcribed it)
I’m another who has difficulty processing external material in a dream - reading books, dialing a phone or remembering music. However, I can (on occasion) speak/understand Spanish - which I haven’t actively used in years.
Specifically with reading, I can see the letters and smaller words just fine, but the sentences themselves don’t make grammatic sense. Slogans or signs are OK, but a book or newspaper is generally incomprehensible.
Music - I have listened to and even written songs in dreams & only once or twice have I been able to recall it afterwards (“It’s just a love song, alto” was one of the lyrics)
Dialing a phone: I either can’t remember the number or keep misdialing.
In fact, this is one of my “lucid dream” triggers - if I can’t dial a number, I’ll ask myself if I’m dreaming… once I realize I am dreaming, I’ll either opt for really good sex or go flying - the latter more often than the former (hey - I can’t fly in real life! :D)
I also have “limitedly lucid” dreams where I change some minor aspect of the dream & keep going - such as I’m running late, so I set my watch back 15 min, or something scrapes the side of car - so I run my hand over it to remove the scratch.
I’ve had dreams where I was looking at something with text… not usually a book but on occasion It was (though I wasn’t sitting there reading it… more like took a glance at it) and in every case it was blank… Just white space.
Maybe I just can’t read in dreamese?
That’s what I came in to post. I can read perfectly fine in dreams. It’s just that the words are a mite fluid and impermanent. If I read it and look away, when I look back, it’s something different. If I stare at a page long enough, the words will change.
For Lucid Dreamers
Even though we become “lucid”, that doesn’t necessarily (for me, at least) mean that we regain full memory and faculties. I’ve always wanted to try this a second time after doing it once before, but I never remember it in the dreaming;
Attempt to gain 360 degree vision.
I did it once, as I said. The shock of it, the overwhelming sensory input, woke me up. It was definitely a WOW! experience.
I can’t recall whether I actually read in dreams or not (certainly I’ve had dreams that involve books and such, but did I specifically look at the text?) but frequently I have dreams where I know I’m reading a story, but it’s actually playing out like a movie.
On an almost completely unrelated note, sometimes I fall asleep reading a book, and I can always tell because the text becomes something very Borges-esque, with some phrases that recur from night to night. Usually I realize this and wake up, and that’s the closest I’ve come to lucid dreaming.
If I fall asleep listening to music, the same thing happens. In this case it’s a creepy recurring tune that may or may not have lyrics–I can’t remember right now.