Thread: Reading In A Dream

Yes and no.
There's actually an ongoing debate to whether or not it's even possible.
Why do I say this?
Many people believe that when you 'read' in a dream, you aren't actually seeing the words in front of you. You are just running the information through your mind, as if you were reading.
I tried it once. I opened up a book and started reading. "I CAN READ!" I said aloud. I always say my new discoveries out loud in my dream, so that I don't forget them when I wake up. I was amazed that what I had heard about reading in a dream was not true. I read several pages and then woke up. I grabbed my dream journal, and started writing. Unfortunately, when it got to the point, I was unable to remember what I was reading about. Every other part of the dream was clear, but the subject of the book was a complete mystery. So, was I really reading?

As far as these horrible images popping in, I don't believe they are directly as a result of trying to read. Maybe they came from you being nervous. When you become nervous and think that something might go wrong, that means that something might! Your dreams follow your orders. If, after you saw these bad images, you thought that they were going to get worse, then that's what they were going to do. Next time this happens, force a peaceful image into your mind, even if it's for a second. Then use this peaceful image to calm yourself down.
You are in control. I cannot stress that enough.

-sloth

P.S. MY ANUS IS BLEEDING!

I have a theory about this.

I do read in dreams, except I can only do it without really trying. What I mean is, if I'm semi-lucid (sometimes I'm only kind of aware it's a dream) and I try to read something, it doesn't work. Otherwise, it does work. My theory is that when you read in dreams, you aren't actually using the reading center of the brain, the dream just puts the thoughts in your head. If your lucid and you try to read, you try to use the reading center of the brain, and it doesn't work. For me, the words either fade away while I'm trying to read them, or they are just random and make no sense whatsoever.

I don't know if that made any sense.

I wrote this response before I read Sloth's response, and now I see that he sort of said the same thing I did, about not actually seeing the words in front of you when you read. That's what I meant.

You can read in dreams, but you can't reread in dreams. Well not everyone can read in every dream, but there are so many things not everyone can do in every dream right. You can't reread in a dream, because you need a part of your brain for it that is not working at that time. When you try to reread in a dream your subconsious has to make the exact phrasing as you just read. It is hard to remember in a dream exactly what you just read. Therefore it is hard to reread in a dream. Short words or sentences are often still possible, but what about a long text. Even in waking life it isn't easy to remember what it exactly was that I wrote as first sentence of this post. But now the text is stable, it won't change because you don't have to remember it. In a dream everything is based on what you remember and think, so there it is important.

Originally Posted by Hinducow

I've always heard that trying to read while in a dream is a good way to realize your dreaming but this did not happen to me. I was reading a book that was similiar to that of House of Leaves(anyone who has seen or read this book will know what im talking about) in which it was very crazy. Every word i read developed into a scene that was extremely real and this was pretty cool until it started to get strange.
When i turned the page there was a note that said "NOW YOU KNOW THE QUESTION, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?" this was related to whether a character lives when she was shot in the story but it was not as strange as what happened next.
Fucked up pictures. Each one getting progressively worse and they were disgusting (it makes me a little sick just thinking about them)
The first one was a woman holding up her child and the child's face was covered in this white cheesy pus and i could see it running down the picture behind her.
The second was a couple covered in some type of green shit and i could not look into their eyes without completely freaking myself out.
and it got worse and worse and stranger.
That is when i woke up.

Has anyone here read in there dreams before (without the turn into fucking strange-ville)?
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Yesss
Once during a Lucid dream..
I decided to try to read something, since I've always heard about how impossible it is
The book I read was crazy
mixed up jumbled up words that sometimes resembled real words
It was insane
and none the less, impossible to read.

There was a thread like this one somewhere...

Anyway, I don't know about the 'reread' thing, as I usually just repeat the words to remember then as I wake up, but...

There are several dreams that I read many things (short sentences...), and it looks 'normal' to me. I just read, memorize, wake up, and write it up.

I had a dream today where I could find some game instructions written on a black board, with yellow letters. The numbers also had a sequence. I saw the sequence, it was 1 2 4 3 5... and I got the number 1 2 4 4 5. So in the game I got 4 numbers out of 5, and I would win a prize. But if this 're-read' thing is true, how could I get the numbers, check them, and win the prize? Wouldn't be the numbers all messed up after that?

I think it all depends on the 'stability' of the dream. Oo

Originally Posted by Frosty

There was a thread like this one somewhere...

Anyway, I don't know about the 'reread' thing, as I usually just repeat the words to remember then as I wake up, but...

There are several dreams that I read many things (short sentences...), and it looks 'normal' to me. I just read, memorize, wake up, and write it up.

I had a dream today where I could find some game instructions written on a black board, with yellow letters. The numbers also had a sequence. I saw the sequence, it was 1 2 4 3 5... and I got the number 1 2 4 4 5. So in the game I got 4 numbers out of 5, and I would win a prize. But if this 're-read' thing is true, how could I get the numbers, check them, and win the prize? Wouldn't be the numbers all messed up after that?

I think it all depends on the 'stability' of the dream. Oo
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4 out of 5. Boy, you're really bad at these sorts of games, huh.
Just kidding.
As was said, a short passage or sentence can be remembered. It also depends on how lucid you are. I believe that in a truly lucid dream, the part of your brain needed for reading could be opened up. But I don't know these things for sure. Ask Google. Google knows all.

-sloth

Yeah reading is a hard thing to do in a dream. If you're lucid try to look at a page then try to re-read it, its probably totally different. The reason for this is that the mind is too busy creating the dream world and whats going to happen next in your dream that it isn't powerful enough to create the small details like the letters on a page. Well thats my idea anyway, it sounds smart enough for an answer though

Hope this helps

Originally Posted by sloth

4 out of 5. Boy, you're really bad at these sorts of games, huh.
Just kidding.
As was said, a short passage or sentence can be remembered. It also depends on how lucid you are. I believe that in a truly lucid dream, the part of your brain needed for reading could be opened up. But I don't know these things for sure. Ask Google. Google knows all.

-sloth
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Well it was like a roulette I didn't get to choose the numbers lol they were all random xD... and well... I wasn't lucid at all... I'm used to read/memorize everything I can in dreams, i kinda trained that...

And about the rereading, this is just a theory, but I think the message can be the same. It's like looking at something in a dream (someone? a wall? the sky?) and looking it again. It may change. It may not. It all depends on the situation. Dream environments are usually pretty huge, complex, and weird, and usually our minds can keep them without much effort. Texts are just...well, high-resolution graphic details engraved on a surface (at least, you can define them like that in dreams).I think it all depends on how your mind handles the texts - as an instantaneous message, or as a fixed object. Reading may be like looking, or touching, or whatever.

Get lucid, look at your surroundings...close your eyes (if you can do that without waking up), open them, and look again. You may notice differences, like different people, different activities, but well when I open my eyes, the scenery is just the same, unless I want it to change. Same colors, materials, objects. So, if texts are treated like... matter, concrete matter, they won't change. Well maybe it's just me , but everytime I read in a dream it only becomes easier and easier.

Coming to think of it, I actually do it while awake. I try to observe and memorize everything I see/read. I don't write phone numbers in any note, I don't use calculators very often (I prefer to use my own mind, and if I can't, i get paper+pen and do it), just for the sake of my own memory ^^. I guess it helps a lot.


Frosty Chaotix



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I've done this quite a few times over the last 10 years.
I'll see words in single lines maybe five words usually 3/4 words I can make out at leas one word in any set at one time. I know it has to do with the current book or other things I'm reading. I'm learning to use this as a sign to know I'm dreaming, this increases my chance of becoming lucid. (I don't relay know as much as others here, at DV's, it's just my experience thats all.)

I think reading in a dream is the equivalent of the Stream of Consciousness technique sometimes used by writers. Below is the Britanica definition

"stream of consciousness

Narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to render the flow of myriad impressions — visual, auditory, tactile, associative, and subliminal — that impinge on an individual consciousness. To represent the mind at work, a writer may incorporate snatches of thought and grammatical constructions that do not seem coherent because they are based on the free association of ideas and images. The term was first used by William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890). In the 20th century, writers attempting to capture the total flow of their characters' consciousness commonly used the techniques of interior monologue, which represents a sequence of thought and feeling. Novels in which stream of consciousness plays an important role include James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929), and Virginia Woolf's The Waves (1931)."

And I agree that re-reading is not possible, but doing so is a very good dream sign.

I have dreamed about reading and sometimes reading aloud.

last night i had a dream of reading some book. well not exactly reading, but jus the meaning of the words came to me (it was one sick book, which is probably why i can remember it) so i dreamt that i went on wikipedia and typed the words in. and i remember pretty clearly seeing some words (i forgot what they were). but i still am sure that i saw words ther, and i was able to read them.

I once had a non-lucid dream in which I was trying to read a book. The works kept changing, so it was a struggle to read. It didn't make me lucid though, despite my in-dream knowlage that it should make me lucid.