Reading Dreams: Dream or Reality?

[Meffy]

@Bruno: For me, it's barely stable text.

Some of my earliest memories are of the time when I was just beginning to learn to read. They're very distant and probably not 100% reliable, but one impression is very distinct and I believe it to be authentic: The letters on the page seemed to squirm, to shift, to evade interpretation. I suspect this was because my eyes hadn't yet acquired line-following discipline and so leapt from line to line involuntarily -- but that's just a guess.

Anyway, the impression I get from text in dreams is very much like that. Until I "pin it down" deliberately, which takes some exertion and so requires a degree of lucidity, the darned stuff won't stay put.

It would be interesting if the mode of "seeing" mimicked by dreams were a memory of that early way of using the eyes -- or even the same mechanism preserved against the years. Wonder if any research has been done on this.

 

[Bruno Putzeys]

Your childhood experience sounds much like how dyslectics describe what text looks like to them. I had no such problem, but I spent too much attention to the exact shape of the letters. I suppose that's normal.

I suppose I could dream of locking on to a word so it stays put, but when I read on and return it's changed.

 

[Meffy]

Attention to letter shapes -- that's interesting. Not long after I learned to read, I became very interested in typography, letterforms, other languages' writing systems, and the like. With a mother who worked in printing and publishing, I had a nearly endless supply of type sample books, hand-lettering information, and so forth.

When I got to first grade the first thing I did was to get a school library card (already had a city library one, one of the few adult cards issued to a kit) and check out the Hunt brothers' "101 Alphabets." Wonderful mid-century lettering, printed big so you can see the subtle bits. It affected me strongly; to this day I loooove lettering and type, and have collected several thousand fonts -- not counting the cheesy free ones.

 

[Kaylee]

I remember two dreams where I was reading. I usually don't remember my dreams years or even weeks later unless there is something very interesting about them. In this case I recall I had both dreams shortly after I had an online discussion about lucid dreaming where someone said he was trying to experiment and see if he could read while dreaming.

I thought that was interesting but for various reasons (off topic, so I won't go into it) I don't try to control or manipulate my dreams.

Shortly after that conversation I had two different dreams where I read in my dream. The first one I recall I was looking something up in the index of a book, but it didn't look like a regular index -- it looked like an outline. I do recall noticing that in the dream, and thinking that it wasn't a particularly useful format, but that I was finding what I needed right away anyway. Later the next day I thought about the dream and thought it was pretty cool that shortly after having a discussion about reading in dreams I had one. I hardly remember my second dream, just that I thought while dreaming -- oh cool I'm having another dream where I'm reading. There was nothing remarkable about those dreams, and I think the only reason that I remember them at all is because they occurred shortly after my online discussion about reading in dreams.

I also think its likely that I may have had other dreams where I read both before and after those two dreams -- but if there was nothing notable about them I wouldn't bother to remember them.

FWIW, I dream in color.

I tried doing a search on the net on Michel Jouvet. Couldn't find much on him * except some reviews that said he was well regarded in his field. I find that curious that would be so if he actually believed for a long time that there was no such thing as lucid dreams and if he flat out said that people don't dream about reading in their sleep. It does make me wonder about his research techniques and exactly what it takes to be well regarded in his field.

* I'm leaving soon -- so granted I'm not really trying all that hard.

 

[Maenoon]

If I'm trying to resolve a writing problem, I sometimes dream the solutions; but I can't recall ever reading. I did have a grammar discussion in one of my dreams. Do I need to get a life?!

 

[Forty-Two]

I did have a grammar discussion in one of my dreams. Do I need to get a life?!

I've dreamt grammar discussions, too, as well as various discussions about classical music. (The other night, I dreamt I was explaining to a woman why I thought she should include Holst's Planets in the cds she was using to "expose" her kids to the classics, and last night I dreamt I was helping my son (bear in mind, I'm years away from having kids) decide on his second instrument after piano.) I probably need to get a life, but I don't think that has anything to do with the dreams. If you'd been thinking about grammar recently, your brain was just processing that night.

 

[ahoneycutt]

I recall a very vivid dream that actually had me laughing hysterically when I woke up. I was sitting in a well lighted room and reading a rolled up parchment of a sort of list of limericks about G.W. Bush. It was pretty funny, and I was certainly reading from the page I was holding. I just wish I could remember some of them now...

 

[Ersby]

I can read in dreams, but I find I have to concentrate. And I haven't had occasion to read the same thing twice either.

 

[Bikewer]

I can't recall ever experiencing reading in a dream, but I did write a song once, and it was pretty good. Couldn't remember it once I woke up, of course....

 

[gdtbiker]

Man, did I just have doozy of a dream! Just about 30 minutes ago, too. Yes, I take "power naps" regularly these days.

This thread must have affected me more than I realized, because I had lucid dream where I knew I was dreaming. In the dream, I remembered this thread and proceeded to test myself at reading. I went into a storage room and rummaged around until I found some old birthday and graduation cards. To my utter delight, I not only saw them in brilliant color, but I noticed many different fonts and sizes and colors of letters I saw. And I read a few lines from a couple different cards. And all the time, I knew I could wake myself up again at any time! I also heard sounds very clearly around me, but curiously I can't recall any distinct feeling of touch or texture to the things I touched and picked up.

I remember that I reminded myself to remember exactly what I read. But, wouldn't you know it, when I actually did wake up, I forgot to remember what I'd read. So I am left with only the distinct memory of reading and the colors (vibrant blue in one case) of the text that I read. The actual words now escape me.