# Watching myself in a dream **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334 "2010-05-22T03:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/1 "2010-05-22T03:28:21Z")
Every once in a while I have a dream in which I am the main character, but the dream isn’t from my point of view. It’s like I’m watching and hearing myself from a third-party perspective . . . or like I’m watching a play in which I’m the lead character, from the PoV of the audience. It’s not a recurring dream, but different each time. Nobody I’ve mentioned this to has ever experienced this. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/2 "2010-05-22T06:12:00Z")
I’ve had dreams like that. In fact, I would say most of my dreams tend to be a blend of both first and third person situations. (Dunno, if that is the correct terminology, but I can say I’ve had dreams where I am looking through my own eyes as well as watching me.) The question I now pose to the readers here is how many of you have had dreams where you are an entirely different person? ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/3 "2010-05-22T06:50:07Z")
Nearly all my dreams are from an eye-in-the-sky point of view. I’m watching myself down there, and I know that’s me, but I’m also up there in the aether, looking down. It’s all very confusing when awake, but completely natural and understandable in the dream, like everything else about dreams, I find. Dreams is weird. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/4 "2010-05-22T07:30:16Z")
I sometimes have first person dreams where I’m not me. Sometimes I have first person dreams where I’m not even human. Once I was a giant spider, and my legs were disguised as circus tent posts. I ate the people who came into the tent. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/5 "2010-05-22T07:37:59Z")
I will always change perspective when I’m driving. I get in the car, and then it changes to the perspective of a racing video game. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/6 "2010-05-22T07:41:31Z")
The third-person view is how most of my dreams are. Sometimes, I’m in the first-person view from someone else’s POV and while I’m sitting next to them or something. Sometimes it’ll switch back forth between whomever is speaking at the time in the dream and all kinds of other crazy variations, but most of the time I am not viewing the world through my own eyes in dreams. Recent Dream: In a Lamborghini with a friend of mine, viewing the world through my friend’s eyes when he spoke then through my own eyes when I was speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Pduol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@Pduol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pduol)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/7 "2010-05-22T09:35:03Z")
I have a “third person view” dream about once a month. I am always watching myself doing something that is so funny I wake myself up laughing. The most recent was set on an old ship. Picture Pirates of the Caribbean. Some pirates had attacked the ship and had grouped everyone except me in one area of the ship. One particularly crusty old pirate was terrorizing everyone. He was standing next to a wall with circular windows in it, except there was no glass. I was on the other side of the wall peaking out. At this point the dream switched to third person. My view was from someone in the crowd. I watched myself peaking out from a window next to the pirate. Then I watched as I poked my head out of the window and bopped the pirate on the head with a rolling pin and ducked back in. As the pirate turned to look at the window I had just ducked into, I popped out of the window behind him and bopped him on the head again. This kept going for a good while, he would be looking where I had just ducked in and I would pop out of another window and bop him on the head. Everyone on board was laughing their ass off. Unfortunately, I was laughing so hard I woke myself up. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-myself-in-a-dream/540334/8 "2010-05-22T10:33:28Z")
I viewed two days ago a documentary about a guy who had a partial face transplant (he was awfully disfigured by an elephant man like disease). When asked if he was now accustomed to his new face, he mentionned that he was now dreaming of himself with this face. Not having ever had a “third person point of view” or saw myself in a dream, I wondered whether his dreams were related to his condition (seeing his face in his dreams because it was a huge issue for him) or if other people similarly saw themselves while dreaming. Thanks for this thread that answers my question.