Senses - How do they feel in a dream?

[adraw]

Hi friends. Senses in a real world are pretty well known, and we know what to expect from them. How would you describe the feeling of senses in your dreams, and how would you describe your lucid dream senses. Do they differ from ordinary dreams? Do they differ from reality? My experience: My senses are pretty confused in a dream. It seems like as if I didnt feel them. And lucid dream senses. So... What should i say I had only one 3 sec LD so ... Better not talking about my senses in LD. Thank you

[DrTechnical]

My senses tend to be very well simulated in my dreams. Little to no difference from the real world.

[Luminous]

They do feel a little different, which is what makes me realise I'm dreaming. My vision tend to be different, things might change and morph into each other, and I can't always focus as well as I can in real life. However, colors appear to be just as bright. I rarely smell anything in even my non-lucid dreams, but I can taste just as in real life. My hearing might be a little different, but I'm not sure how to explain it. And when I touch things in my lucid dreams, it's like I'm touching something that isn't really there, even though my senses tell me it's there. Still, all my senses vary in my lucid dreams. Sometimes they are really vivid and just as "realistic" as in real life. But there will be an extra feeling, the one that's there, telling me this only a dream.

[skysaw]

Depends on the dream, but they can sometimes be very realistic, especially my sense of touch. Vision is usually exaggerated... either too dark, or intensely colorful. I'm not sure if I've ever smelled anything in a dream, though. I'll have to try that.

[adraw]

It feels like as we would move to the dream smell. Or how could i express it. Maybe thats what the naturals and experienced dreamers use to wake up in a dream. That inherent difference. Hmm. What do you think?

[bro]

Well, in normal dreams, at least for me, it is like I'm watching a dull movie. Not much sensation. but the SECOND I become lucid, I experience it all, excluding perhaps smell. But you really can feel and see and hear and all that other good stuff, even taste, though I haven't tried that yet. In fact, using your senses is a wonderful way to prolong and make your lucid dreams more vivid.

[Luminous]

Come to think of it, I can remember some dreams where I have definately smelled something, but it has never been a big part of the dream. I'm a "natural" lucid dreamer, and it's always that "unreal" feeling that I seem to only be able to explain to myself while lucid dreaming, that makes me lucid in the dream. Unless I willingly induced the lucid dream, knowing I'll dream once I fall asleep...

[adraw]

Well, in normal dreams, at least for me, it is like I'm watching a dull movie. Not much sensation. but the SECOND I become lucid, I experience it all, excluding perhaps smell. But you really can feel and see and hear and all that other good stuff, even taste, though I haven't tried that yet. In fact, using your senses is a wonderful way to prolong and make your lucid dreams more vivid. Wonderful response. Thanx for it. Why do you think that using your senses helps to prolong the dream? I even dont understand the instability of the dream. Why is it so? I know it happens, but did someone try to think why actually the senses are used to stabilize lucid dream? Maybe this question is pointless, but it corresponds my lack of experience. Still I would be interested in your opinion.

[Redrivertears]

Hey there, I find that my senses in dreams are pretty much the same as they are in waking life, except ofcourse that it's possible to 'feel' 'hear' 'touch' 'smell' 'taste' things in dream that would theoretically be impossible to experience in real life, so sometimes things go overboard a bit I tend to think that the sensatory experience of a dream is very strongly linked to your recall of it. I think we experience every dream as strongly as we do a waking event, but the worse or recall is, the more we think of it as dull and vague afterwards. The same is actually true for waking events, the worse or recall of it is, the more dull it will seem to us (think back about standing in a long boring que or to a moment where you were really drunk). Now as to why using senses helps prolong dreams: because you're giving your dream your attention, which at the same time implies you're not giving attention to other things (the thought of waking up, the external stimuli that your body is still emmiting to your brain, the feeling of having to go to work in waking life). Your body doesn't wake up because by focussing on your dreamsensations, you make sure your mind remains fully in the dream and the body remains asleep. Just my 2 cents, -Redrivertears-

[Adam]

I find for normal dreams, I am unaware of my senses and rarely pay attention to them, or notice them. When I am lucid, I only tend to notice them if I think about them. For example if I fly, whe I think about feeling the wind on my face, I will feel it. If I smell something specifically in a dream, then I will smell it. It seems I have to engage my mind when lucid to promt these sensations.

[mylucidworld]

My senses in lucid dreams and normal dreams are very life like (perhaps because i pay atention to them).

[Meakel]

I guess my senses kind of leave until I expect them to come. Say I'm walking through a city in an LD. Until I think "Hey, shouldn't the city smell like [whatever a city smells like] ?" Then, it I slowly start to smell it.

[adraw]

I guess my senses kind of leave until I expect them to come. Say I'm walking through a city in an LD. Until I think "Hey, shouldn't the city smell like [whatever a city smells like] ?" Then, it I slowly start to smell it. Pretty interesting. You have to remember to use your senses. Thats interestin. Everytime you remember, its like you would activate part of your sleeping brain. Its something like reality checking. Maybe its connection here. What if somewhere we define whats part of our conscious. When we do reality check, part of our waking functionality awakes. But not all. And we must learn to activate it when we do reality check. And maybe this is how we increase our ability to dream consciously overtime. We add new dream abilities by simply remembering to use them in dream. What do you think?

[bro]

Indeed...you should certainly give it a try. The real truth is, is that it is the ONLY thing that's worked for me. Never has verbal commands, visual cues or anything like that worked for me. Typically what I do is, is I notice myself in a fading dream environment, and the last thing I want is for it to fade. So what do I do? I walk over to the hwall and run my hand across it, and it takes on qualities like real life, solidifying everything. It's true! Just the other night I had one of my best LD's, and I hadn't had one in a while when I found myself in just a grey tile room with fadin walls and nothing interesting. The dream was fading fast. I ran my hand across the wall, noticed that it had the feel of a corduroy pantleg and continued to do that. I opened my dream eyes wide, walked up to the window, felt the cool, clear glass, and everything got brighter, clearer and took on more color...it truly seems to be a magic action....I saw the most brilliant blue sky, a green courtyard flowering, and everything was just so real, a little eerie since I knew it was a dream.. I remember thinking the sky was TOO blue, solidifying my lucidity once again, heh. It was by far my best dream, or one of 2, and the practice of engaging senses allowd me to extend it indefinetly, probably in the 7-10 minute range... Give it a shot in your next LD, do tell how goes it.

[innerspacecadet]

My experience: Sight - normal, if not better than normal. I see with perfect visual acuity, as if I'm wearing glasses, but I never notice my glasses. I never see the way I do without my glasses. (Probably because I wear my glasses pretty much all the time when I'm awake.) Hearing: normal. Touch: Blunted. I almost never seem to feel wind, or itching, or pain that's sharp or at a very specific location. Any pain is dull and diffuse. On rare occasion I can feel textures, but that's about as uncommon as smelling something. Taste: Rarely experienced, or at least, rarely recalled. But when I experience it, it seems pretty normal. Smell: Rarely experienced. If experienced, lasts for maybe a second or two. I can't recall if I've ever had any taste, smell, or acute touch in lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are in themselves rare (although can occur at average rates of once a week or more with high interest), as are refined touch experiences, so the chances of the two coinciding are low. Kinesthetics: mostly normal, although when flying it's kind of altered much like when you're going downhill or free-falling or on an airplane experiencing turbulence or a change in altitude. Physical sensation of emotions: Some distortions. Acute fear seems kind of "slow-mo," often with a distinctive tingling sensation. Sadness and disappointment tend to be acted out in a more childish way.

[dreamscaper22]

same as RL for me.....although i didnt know what jumping off a building and hitting the ground would feel like until it happened in a lucid..

[seeker28]

When it comes to feelings and senstaions in dreams I usually see much better than I do in real life, even up close or very far away. I can smell very well (but sometimes I will smell the wrong thing, like cheese smells like almonds). I feel texture, heat, cold, pressure. I can taste. I hear more clearly than I normally do. Usually it is very easy to run, jump, fly, and move. But sometimes I can hardly move at all. It is like I am stuck in molasses. Rarely I have a hard time seeing, hearing, and so on. Usually the only time my senses are dull is when I am either sick (or really tierd) or I am about to wake up.

[TempleGuard]

Moving can be hard in my dreams. There were times in which i am running, and i fall and i start running slowly and only on my knees. And seing - really bad, when i close eyes I can hardly open them, and in my last Lucid i was seing too bright with my eyes, especially my left, and that probably caused the dream to end. It is so not like the real world.

[Kacper]

I've noticed that of all the dream-senses the touch is most stable. The sight and hearing can fade, but the sensation of the body and of the bodily movement remains - and is quite often as vivid as in the real life.

[arby]

My senses in dream used to all be really dull until I started really paying attention and doing on the fly visualizations for everything that I felt was missing. Your senses in a dream will tend to follow the pattern of how much you pay attention to them on a regular basis.Any sense you pay alot of attention to will be sharper (sight) and the ones that sorta ride it out in the background tend to be forgotten (touch)

[Jeff777]

tactile would be my best guess.

[Torcher]

It feels like as we would move to the dream smell. Or how could i express it. Maybe thats what the naturals and experienced dreamers use to wake up in a dream. That inherent difference. Hmm. What do you think? To this day, I have never smelled anything in a dream. I never even thought about it. Damn. That's a new challenge!

[adraw]

Pretty cool responses. I was just wandering, how is the connection between real senses and dream senses. You told, that you have to pay attention. Yeah. That works, but what if you payed attention to senses you normally are not aware of. It could be nice research to find out, which senses we use most and which least in normal life, and find out which senses are most stabilizing in our dreams. Kacper wrote: I've noticed that of all the dream-senses the touch is most stable. The sight and hearing can fade, but the sensation of the body and of the bodily movement remains - and is quite often as vivid as in the real life. Here would be interesting to find out, if his touch is his most or least percieved sense in real life. {sorry talking about you in 3rd person Kacper } What if our most used senses are too ordinary for brain to stabilize it? {crazy question i know}. Whats your experience?