Do you dream visually?

December 8, 20201 min readByJennifer McDougall

When Tom and I first tell people about his experience of aphantasia we often get asked this question: Do you dream? Tom doesn't dream visually, he dreams with the knowledge he's experiencing something, except it's without mental pictures or sound. According to this study, many individuals with aphantasia report fewer and less sensory-rich dreams like Tom. However, some aphantasics say they can dream with visuals, even if they can't do so when they're awake. Here's a story about seeing images just as you're waking up from sleep. What are your dreams like?

Sort comments by

Austin Jarrett•recently•edited

I have aphantasia and when I dream I more feel like I know what I’d happening, but I can also see what is happening. Sometimes when I wake I can still recall the images and change the story of my dream.

Megan Schmidt•recently•edited

I have aphantasia but have vivid dreams. I love dreaming and the time just between sleep and wake where I can recall the images.

Robert Marso•recently•edited

I dream visually in perfect detail, however the question "Do you dream visually?" for me misses the mark. For me that is like asking "Do you in the moment see things clearly?" For me the question should be "Do you recall your dreams visually?" The reason I say this is because there are times when I am having a "Lucid Dream" When I am aware I am dreaming and experiencing it in the moment it is like while I am doing now. Looking at a screen which I see in full visual detail. However when I turn my head and have to recall what the screen I am typing on now looks like I cannot see anything. Just like after a dream, if I try to see it visually, I cannot. Curious if this my way of looking at this resonates with anyone else? Bob

Emily Garner•recently•edited

Im 29, and just learned that when people say imagine this, they actually see it. I just think of it. I cant remember a lot of my dreams, but I do remember having a reoccurring nightmare that was almost every night for a while when I was a child, and then the same nightmare a few more times thru my life randomly- still scares me and sends me into panic. Other then that my dreams are mostly me running / or having to get somewhere or away etc. They are pretty vivid but never accurate. In the sense of ill be at my parents house but its not their house in real life, but my parents are actually there. I usually dont have many people in my dreams but when I do its mostly people I know, with occasional random people I dont know

Margaret Martinez•recently•edited

I am 69. I just found out last year that other people actually saw things with their mind's eye. I have always considered myself an imaginative and creative person, but I do not see anything with my imagination. Not even a hint of a vison. I have always dreamed. Often very detailed dreams with sights and sounds and tastes and smells. Most of my dreams are in the first person so in most I experience them as if I am living it. Occasionally I am not in my dream either as myself or as someone or something else. I experience it from outside kind of like sitting on the park bench watching life. Sometimes, I dream in abstract especially when I'm trying to figure something out. Like when I'm planning or making things. When I was in highschool in the early 1970's I took a class called, "Intensive Journalism". We had to record our dreams and I learned to recall my dreams in great detail. I also learned to take control of them and to return to a dream. In most casesI usually do not take control of my dreams. I enjoy dreaming.

Walfroy Dauchy•recently•edited

Hi, I'm 61 and just recently discovered that I had aphantasia (pretty much total, from what I'm reading). Until a few weeks ago I thought 'mental image" was a metaphor ^^ It's kind of difficult to adapt to the idea that everyone else is different and no one ever told me :)) I am a mathematician by training, and a computer scientist. My dreams are of 3 kinds : - someone is reading a book to me.. like a narrator in a movie, except there's no movie - I am reading a book and somehow I know that I'm the one who wrote it... often the book's writing start "dissolving" into some kind of nonsense and the dream ends - complete abstract stuff, like mathematical thinking gone mad. I struggle to understand but I don't. These dreams are exhausting

Michael Mangis•recently•edited

My dreams are experiences, usually adventures. Because they are happening I don’t see many visual details just as I wouldn’t usually pause a movie to check out the color of a character’s shirt. What is important is what is happening and how it feels and the bigger “picture” such as abstract themes, principles, and objectives.

Gabrielle Bennett•recently•edited

I don't dream, or at least I never remember them. On the plus side I've never had a nightmare either. Volunteered for a long time at my county Medical Examiners Office so with all the stuff I've seen it's probably a blessing I never dream. Anyone else never have nightmares?

Colleen Johnson•recently•edited

Me! I came to terms with not being able to dream by realizing I also don’t have nightmares. I can’t relive painful experiences. I’m not haunted by horrible sounds. When I put it like that it didn’t feel like as much of a loss.

Hej Stranger•recently•edited

I’ve aphantasia and I lucid dream. the setting of where my dreams are, are all things of this world that I know. Trees houses buildings clouds ect ect in my dreams I control most of what’s going on. If I don’t like whatever is happening I can instantly open my eyes to get out of it. I can also wake up to use the bathroom come back and continue where I left off. I also laugh a lot, like out loud in my dreams. This hasn’t always been the case. I remember as a child going all the way up to my early 20’s i kept having this reoccurring dream that was nothing but pitch black darkness and a bunch of silver like spikes n hard edges. I could never get out of it and when I would wake up it was always in a distress.

Ralf Pfeiffer•recently•edited

I m 61 and have been an aphant all my life. Although I just discovered the word Aphantasia last month! My dreams are quite sporadic, but they often feel like "anxiety dreams", like one I had last week was of about my daughter being lost and I'm calling to her and following her in various scenarios. The last ended with her treading water in a rapidly moving river and heading to a waterfall and I'm trying to save her. Recently she has not returned my calls in months, so that made sense. I'm flying in some dreams which happened before and after I learned paragliding. I have had dreams of being chased, a few were quite the bond thriller, inducing fear. They feel real until the cut scenes get super weird. Sometimes I wake up sweating. More often in the past months I "wake up" simply thinking about some issues, and realizing I've been thinking pretty coherently for what seems like a half-hour... and I may just stay in bed with my eyes open and continue to ponder it for a while. I have had severe insomnia since I was about 27, so I think this happens when I'm not getting REM sleep and I use medication. Perhaps I am not really sleeping.

Holly O’Riley•recently•edited

I’ve always said i dont dream, but have twice in the past just don’t remember them, but ive been questioning it for a while now actually. I daydream, typically more of think of a situation and play it out but don’t actually see what’s happening, and will end up doing that as i fall asleep and lose consciousness as im still daydreaming and it becomes unclear as to whether it continues as a dream or if I’m just not asleep yet. I cant even say whether i have control cause i don’t really feel like i have much control even when I’m definitely awake, like it just happens how it does and if i don’t like it, tough.

Maggie Badior•recently•edited

I dream vividly and can only remember my dreams if I turn them into words very quickly when I wake up. I've never had a lucid dream...no matter how fantastical my dreams are, I believe them completely. I rarely dream about people I know, and when I do, I'm not sure if it's accurate. I don't think I've ever dreamt about a real life location. A lot of my dreams are about being at a party with a lot of friends, but when I wake up I realize that I made everything up, the house, the friends, their names, etc. The rest of my dreams are usually about having to go to the bathroom or having to get somewhere, but there are always weird, strange problems. I had one dream that I can barely describe in words cause it involved trying to go to the bathroom in a wide hallway with sort of porta potties, but every time I tried to go in to a one, they changed into backpacks hanging on hooks. There were a lot of other people that had no problem going in and out, and I finally figured that if I went into the one that my late husband had gone in and out of (he was six feet tall, so I thought if he could do it, I'd be able to), but as soon as I tried, they all turned into backpacks and I couldn't get in. I described that dream because it's a very typical type of dream that I often have, but never with the same situation or the same people.

Mark Howard•recently•edited

I am 56 years young and have slowly come to realise, over the last twelve months or so, that I have complete aphantasia. I always believed that I experienced vivid visual dreams, but do I? I often remember having incredible dreams in which fantastic and wonderful things happen in fantastic and wonderful worlds. However, I can't replay any of these dreams - but I can remember them. It's as if I've watched a film, say one of those wildly imaginative and intense Marvel films, and can remember what I saw and experienced but cannot re-visualise any of it. I've never had the ability to lucid dream: in fact, on the rare occasions when I have realised I'm dreaming I always wake up immediately. So, while I seem to remember dreaming visually, usually quite intensely and with much detail, I cannot be certain that I actually do. Am I dreaming in concepts, the same way that I think (and I can happily spend hours "daydreaming" in concepts), and imagining that I must have been dreaming visually - or am I actually dreaming visually? I honestly can't tell for sure but it feels like I dream visually. It's hard to explain, but memories of my dreams are like the rest of my memories, which I explain thusly: my memories are like detailed photographs or short films, I know what's in each of them but it's like all the originals are locked away in a drawer to which I do not have a key and so I can never see them again.

Melanie Brown•recently•edited

I really like your description, Mark. Chimes with my experience. Very similar

Rubber Ducky•recently•edited

Funnily enough, I have very vivid dreams so it really baffles me how my mind can just shut that part of my brain off when I'm awake haha ^^

Isabel Storey•recently•edited

Very vivid, detailed dreams. So often almost precognitive. Also worth pondering for whatever message being sent from subconscious.

Michael Eisbrener•recently•edited

I have not had a dream experience that I remember upon waking in decades. In the early 80s, I used something called 'rebirthing' to visit every memory deemed an upset. There were many, but as I relived the experience, all in living color and total senses while watching from another point of view, they disappeared along with decisions I made that day about me, it, or them. I discovered a lot about myself and verified the early until then forgotten memories with my parents, who provided another point of view and their context. 15 years later, I met with another rebirthing practitioner and visited the birth canal experience again... just a whole body warm fuzzy without any pictures. Since the completion of the rebirthing the first time I cannot remember having a visual dream while sleeping. Just a black canvas.

Roseann Knuth•recently•edited

I’ve never dreamed much. I see figures/action but poor definition and usually immediately forgotten. On first taking Vit B6/P5P some years ago I could sometimes see very clear pictures (of eg. strangers ) when dropping off to sleep. But the moment I mentally recognised them they blinked out and I could not stop this. This ability soon disappeared. My Aphantasia is lifelong, but I’ve wondered if I ‘turned off’ visualisation aged 3-4 as I recall that for a long time I was frightened to go to bed and close my eyes. Because I would immediately see rolling waves of changing colours. They would be so strong that I felt like I was drowning in them. It was terrifying. However, I’m well experienced at Mind/Body internal communing, and I get a definite ‘No’ to that question. 😊

Brad .•recently•edited

I dont experience visual imagery in my head or while dreaming

Bridget Seton•recently•edited

no, i don't dream.

Suzi Little•recently•edited

I do see visuals and hear sounds when I dream. It's not exactly like "real life" always. But some dreams are more vivid and lifelike than others. While I'm dreaming I don't know that I'm in a dream. Oftentimes I wake up from a bad dream and, once I realize I was asleep, I'm relieved that what I dreamed about didn't really happen. (Like losing my dog off a cliff or all my teeth falling out..)