Thread: Listening to outside world during dreams

Hi, I haven't had a lucid dream yet but my dream recall has vastly improved recently and I think I may be getting close.

I was just wondering whether it's possible to listen to real sounds while dreaming. Dreams can obviously take in input from the outside world, and I was thinking how great it would be if I was able to listen to the radio during REM sleep. Has anyone ever managed anything like this?

Hiya, not_josh, and welcome!

I would say that it's definitely possible. I had an experience recently where my cell phone rang in real life, and in my dream I heard it ringing and pulled it out. The freaky thing was that in my dream, the same person was calling me that was actually calling in real life.

But I've seen many other members talk about how a song from the radio, or characters from a TV show appeared in their dream because the radio or TV was on while they were sleeping. In fact, I would venture to guess that this is fairly common.

Two things:

1) Last night I dreamed that I saw Eminem perform "Lose Yourself" feet away from me--I left my radio on when I fell asleep, and I can almost guarantee that it was playing this song while I slept. More than once I've had dreams involving music and found out that I'd left my radio on or that someone had come in my room singing.

2) I've also learned that I can trick myself into "alert sleeping." Well, that's what I'm going to call it, anyway. It won't work for nighttime sleeps, but when I lay down to take a nap, if I know I need to be aware of something when it happens, I will tell myself to pay attention. Just yesterday I had something just short of a hangover and I decided to take a little nap at work while we didn't have any students and while the main librarian was at lunch. I laid down on the desk and told myself that I needed to get up when the door opened. I took a 25-minute nap, but the minute the door opened I instantly woke up, and was able to shake off the sleep before I had to face anyone...neat, huh?

Well, I'd say that this would be possible, but since during REM you're the closest to being awake, you'd have to make sure that it wasn't loud enough or startling enough to wake you up. That's all I'd say.

-Amé

This is very possible beacse yoru ears do not shut shut off when you go to sleep. You prove that all the time when you wake up to someone calling your name or by an alarm clock. Or when you hear voices in a dream right beoftre you wake up that happned externaly. Immgine eaves droppign while you are asleep! lol.

yeah, i do this all the time. And here's something scary. Imagine you hear a song playing in your dream.
Someone close to you is nearby while you are asleep, and you wake up and tell them what song you heard.
They then tell you they were thinking of the exact same song!
Talk about putting thoughts in my head!

I sure did, but I never gave it much thought though...

6 or 7 years ago I was walking down the street when all of a sudden music started playing... a singer and a lot of other dancing people flooded the scene and before I knew it I was part of your not so everyday music video starring <put famous singer's name here> and me. It turned out to be my alarmclock.

I really thought it was kind of cool... 8)

Originally posted by not_josh
I was just wondering whether it's possible to listen to real sounds while dreaming.

i have many dreams like that. one time when i was little i had an alarm clock that played a trumpet sound. and in my dream out of a crowd of people came like 4 trumpet players playing my alarm clock sound. after a while i realized "hey thats my alarm clock" and woke up. i was at my friends house and his phone rang and i picked it up in my dream. the weird thing about that one is once it rang i was back in his basement and everything was real. i never knew what his phone sounded like but i knew i was sleeping in his basement and it must be his basement phone. then after picking it up and talking to a weird man only saying like a sentance i woke up.