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Does the aphantasic mind still store visuals when making memories?

I'm curious about the distinction between whether my brain is capable of visuals yet my conscious mind finds it inaccessible, versus whether no part of my brain has access to visuals. So, for example: does my brain store visuals as part of its memories, but when the memory is triggered I am not consciously aware of the visual?

My question is inspired by the realization that some of my dreams generate strong visuals of which I am consciously aware (for a few minutes after waking), but others have no visuals and I merely have a conceptual awareness of who is where. I wondered whether all my dreams have visuals, but there is a barrier that keeps my conscious mind unaware.

Thanks!
— Ethan

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Julian F
on September 3, 2024

Definitely not an expert, but the ability to visualize and dream vividly but not visualize _while conscious_ is the case for some people with aphantasia. As far as all dreams having visuals, that could be the case, there is not a lot of understanding around sleep, but last I remember the consensus is that when you go into REM sleep you “always” dream, but you don’t always remember what you dream. I would say that that is the case whether you have aphantasia or you don’t. I have the same case you have where I dream very vividly but have aphantasia and I remember about 10x more dreams than my wife who does not have aphantasia.

Sleep happens in cycles that move from light sleep, to deep sleep, to REM that happen in roughly 1.5 hour cycles during the night so roughly 5 on a good night sleep. (Cool article on sleep stages https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/11752397946003-Sleep-Stages) I believe if you are woken up in REM you are way likelier to remember dreams, also, you usually wake up for some period of time between cycles where you will likely remember what you were dreaming last.