Thread: Is it normal to do some math in my dreams?

Well I'm not sure if its Normal (LOL) but it could be of some benefit....

Imagine, if you studied math in your dreams for an entire school year. Think of how much more skill you'd have in it than the other people. ^____^

Thats not always true though.Because in a dream, you can make 10 + 5 = 43 if you wanted to, so unless you know for a fact that your doing it right, you wouldn't really learn anything... at least im pretty sure you wouldn't.

I had to chuckle to myself when I read this post. Not in a rude way, though. There have been some nights when I was studying something so hard (or when I get really into a video game and play it almost non-stop). Those are usually the nights when I have dreams related to whatever it was I was working on. For example, I had crime scene dreams after almost 24-hours of studying serial killers… that was messed up. I like the Kingdom Hearts dreams much better. ;p

Anyway, yes. It’s perfectly normal to dream about things you’ve been putting all of your energy into during the waking hours. So no need to worry. ^_^

Thats not always true though.Because in a dream, you can make 10 + 5 = 43 if you wanted to, so unless you know for a fact that your doing it right, you wouldn't really learn anything... at least im pretty sure you wouldn't.

Yeah, but with some practice, I'm still you can overcome the mixed up math logic, as long as you spend alot of lucid time practicing...hmm...maybe....thats a tough one.[/b]

Yes it's normal, at least as far as I have experienced.
I study math, and I dream alot about math.
I believe research shows that people tend to dream about performing the same common tasks that they do in their everyday waking lives. So if you do alot of math, it would be expected to appear in dreams.
Math in dreams has a weird "feeling" for me, however. It's very abstract, I tend to lose my bodily sense of self and surroundings, and sort of merge with relationships of concepts being drawn on a board.

Though 10 + 5 can equal 43 in regular dreams, If you become lucid, you can use the time in your dreams to study since your logical mind will be awake. Then if you become lucid often, in an entire school year, it could definately have some benefit, like oneironaut says.

Originally posted by Tsukin
Though 10 + 5 can equal 43 in regular dreams, If you become lucid, you can use the time in your dreams to study since your logical mind will be awake. Then if you become lucid often, in an entire school year, it could definately have some benefit, like oneironaut says.

I see the potential benefit in this, but many times we don't remember most/any of our dream(s). So it would kinda be a bunch of mental effort spent with no results. I think I would rather just spend all of my waking hours studying math and such and then falling asleep and relax and have fun in my dreams, instead of studying some in Real Life and some in my dream and only spend a little bit of time in RL or Dreams having fun...

i hope i didnt just confuse anyone? i think i almost confused myself...

It's probably fairly normal. I've done math in my dreams before. What's really interesting is when I speak Spanish in my dreams. Some of it is accurate. Some of it is I-am-not-at-all-sure. Depends a great deal on my level of lucidity and my strength of conscious logic at the time. Doing math in your dreams -- even if you get the wrong answers -- is probably a good excersize for your brain. Your brain may also be processing mathematics information (which will make you better on the morrow) which, even though it may LOOK illogical, is just the effect of randomness which the brain often resorts to during dreams.

Originally posted by A Lost Soul
I had to chuckle to myself when I read this post. Not in a rude way, though. There have been some nights when I was studying something so hard (or when I get really into a video game and play it almost non-stop). Those are usually the nights when I have dreams related to whatever it was I was working on. For example, I had crime scene dreams after almost 24-hours of studying serial killers… that was messed up. I like the Kingdom Hearts dreams much better. ;p

Anyway, yes. It’s perfectly normal to dream about things you’ve been putting all of your energy into during the waking hours. So no need to worry. ^_^

I too have had those video game related dreams.. I usually see soldiers running through the woods or something.

Hopefully what you guys say about studying something all day and going to sleep and dreaming about it is true. I've been glued to the DV site since I discovered it yesterday. Let's see if it increases my chances. They say the more dedicated you are to LD's, the faster they come!

Originally posted by FMprime
I see the potential benefit in this, but many times we don't remember most/any of our dream(s). So it would kinda be a bunch of mental effort spent with no results.

Nope, when you dream, you consolidate what you have learned IRL. Your brain goes over it, re-encodes it and you remember it better. It doesn't matter if you remember your dream. When you do math in real life, where do all the ideas come from? You don't have them stored in your conscious mind, otherwise you'd have to always be thinking about it. Your unconscious has more there than you know.
Remember that the periodic table of elements came from a dream.
So yes, doing math is very normal if that's what you were doing that day

Take a basic psych course, it's fascinating and enlightening.

I sometimes dream math dreams (I'm in a classroom and a teacher is writing or explaining equations and concepts in front on a chalk board) Problem is that I don't have any interest in math. In fact I find these dreams very frustrating because I am looking at the chalk board trying to figure out what the teacher is teaching and it makes absolutely no sense to me. I see all kinds of strange symbols and numbers, yet I find myself getting flustered and even mad at the teacher when I become more lucid. When I realize that it's MY dream and try to take over or change the scenery, I start yelling at the teacher to stop bogarting my dreamtime and teach something that I can understand instead.

Originally posted by DopeyGuy
Like right after a 3 hour study of math i go to sleep. When i sleep i have all these numers, decimal, and fractions in my head...and my head was like doing math for me. When i woke up, i felt dizzy, and i had a minor head ache, and i also felt tired. Is this normal?

i have had the same thing..

last year I was at university doing engineering. I had next to no mathematical experience so I ended up spending most of my time studying the maths for it... i'm into philosophy and really fell in love with pure mathematics (lots of questions, few answers! ) I also started getting 'math' related dreams.. they were really intense, i would be seeing functions and graphs and geometric objects moving together with their algebraic representations. Like you, I could wake up with those symptoms (head ache, tiredness, disorientation, etc), but sometimes I would wake up in total ecstacy... they were pretty cool!


As for the concerns about the math being 'wrong' .. in my experience i have never dreamt things that could be 'right' or 'wrong' as such.. thats really not what maths is about, in my dreams at least, it has been more focused on the interrelation between concepts and why they work... not sure what yours were like though...? but certainly, if your thinking "10 + 5 = 43" (say) then you are still showing some mathematical ability, your showing that you know the answer is bigger than either of the objects added... more importantly, you are showing that you know that the answer to the sum is another number, and not, say, the colour 'blue'... its all mathematics and its all practice, so no bad thing... even if aspects of it might be 'wrong'...


Anyway, I know most people find mathes really boring, so I'm sorry to have gone on


[BTW. since then I have dropped out of uni and started my own study of Mathematics, Philosophy and ancient history... ... they were good dreams!]

Pleased to know I'm not the only one to have had them.....

love.xx

if you're doing math in your dreams, then do a reality check whenever you do math, and it will help you become lucid

No, you couldn't possibly become lucid from such a dream -- that was not an REM period. Without of doubt what you were experiencing was slow wave sleep. This is clear mainly because of the content of the dream, but also the way you felt upon awaking.

I've woken up with nasty headaches from REM sleep before.. more so then deep-wave sleep. In any case.. when in a dream you lose sensory contraints, so its feasible to do extremley hard math subconsciously..

I keep getting things like IRC stuck in my head.. or games from time to time.. whatever I do before the dream.