Realism of tactile sensations in dreams

[Peregrinus]

I was just wondering how realistic people’s tactile perceptions in dreams are. I’ve heard that some people don’t even dream in color, but am skeptical of that claim. My perceptions are usually quite vivid. What really got me wondering about this was a dream I had last night in which I was bitten by a snake and felt the bitten finger grow hot, swollen, and stiff as the venom began to circulate. I looked down and saw that it had turned red, and then my whole body started to tingle both internally and externally as my joints grew stiff. I thought, “So this is what it’s like to feel the body shut down…” After a few minutes, the sensations passed and my dream logic concluded that I had somehow beaten the poison. Although my dreams don't often involve pain and sensation-intense situations, when they do, those tactile perceptions are of about the same realism as those experienced in last night's snake-bite dream. So, what’s the level of realism for other people in normal (non-lucid) dreams as compared to waking life? Are they comparable, more vivid, less vivid?

[Dracarys]

I had my leg chewed off once. That REALLY hurts. My dreams are usually VERY real, sometimes so real that I wake up and think, "whoah, I thought that happened!" Lots of color, and all the senses.

[Clairity]

My lucid dreams are also very vivid and realistic. :-)

[sme_bro]

I love the realisim of dreams, once spent a whole LD just looking at and feeling the textures of a big log of driftwood. It was amazing to think that i created it.

[Alric]

Mine normally feel pretty real. One thing I noticed though is that pain and stuff fades quickly. I guess when you can forget an entire dream in minutes its easier to forget the pain too. I wonder if you had really good recall if it would last longer.

[sensi]

Lucid dreams are more vivid for me, I think because it is a new experience each time and I am not use to it like everyday life so that makes it more intense. Normal dreams usually blend in, if it’s not a normal scenario usually it triggers lucidity straight away. I was bitten by 5 snakes in a dream just before Christmas it was a crazy experience. Peace Sensi.

[Tornado Joe]

Has anyone ever felt something in a dream that they never felt in real life - then felt it in real life to see if it was accurate to the dream? I mean like a material. I'm just wondering because wouldn't it be impossible to experience something in an LD (or dream, I guess) without knowing what something really is like? Does your mind just make up the sensation or does it somehow know..... hmmm......

[Peregrinus]

Originally posted by Tornado Joe Has anyone ever felt something in a dream that they never felt in real life - then felt it in real life to see if it was accurate to the dream? I mean like a material. I'm just wondering because wouldn't it be impossible to experience something in an LD (or dream, I guess) without knowing what something really is like? Does your mind just make up the sensation or does it somehow know..... hmmm...... I've been shot in dreams before, and it felt like a quick impact and then a suction, not very painful, but it made the shot limbs weak. Having spoken to people who've been shot in real life, my dreams are much more pleasant experiences. I think maybe if you have some reference for it, your dream would be more likely to match reality. For instance, if you've felt coarse fabric but never specifically burlap, your mind could better extrapolate the feel of burlap in a dream than if you've never felt any course fabrics before. Since the only thing I've ever been shot with is a strong paintball gun, my mind didn't have a lot to go off of when creating the sensation of being shot by a .45.

[White Shadow]

It looks like I'm the only one who's lucid dreams aren't really that vivid. Except one, that one was wierd - and it was the only time I'd WILD'ed properly. In fact that one felt so real at the time I was sure it was!! Well, actually as it was quite a bizarre situation (4 guys had just burst into my flat and one was standing infront of me silently shouting something!) I was sitting on my bed completely confused, trying to put my finger through my hand, without success! But generally I have experienced realistic pain in normal dreams (I also got shot once, with an arrow - it was in a kind of 'Indiana Jones'-style dream, quite cool), but just not in lucids. I've managed to stop and feel sand before, which was cool, but it wasn't completely vivid at the time, I was just amazed I could feel something! WS

[Rakkantekimusouka]

Well, somehow I usually always feel relatively stiff, and tingly -- even though I'm mobile, I still feel the sleep paralysis.

[InTheMoment]

Most of my dreams take place during late afternoon (dusk) and nighttime...but there is always some level of color. My last lucid experience took place in the morning (which is very rare for myself) and I found myself analyzing the texture of a freshly paved road still moist from the morning dew. The road itself was very vivid and contrasted greatly with the rest of my surreal looking environment. Tornado Joe wrote: Has anyone ever felt something in a dream that they never felt in real life - then felt it in real life to see if it was accurate to the dream? I mean like a material. I'm just wondering because wouldn't it be impossible to experience something in an LD (or dream, I guess) without knowing what something really is like? Does your mind just make up the sensation or does it somehow know..... hmmm......[/b] Excellent question! I was going to start a thread about this myself, but I guess will expand on your question instead. How many people have ever skydived, bungee jumped or hang glided? If so many people have dreams of flying and they have never really experienced that feeling...then I wonder how true the sensation is compared to really flying? Most of my anti-gravity dreams yield low altitude gliding and some random floating. The sensation is very convincing and comparable to freefalling or weightlessnes...much like bungee jumping...especially on the apex of the initial recoil.

[Peregrinus]

Originally posted by InTheMoment How many people have ever skydived, bungee jumped or hang glided? If so many people have dreams of flying and they have never really experienced that feeling...then I wonder how true the sensation is compared to really flying? Most of my anti-gravity dreams yield low altitude gliding and some random floating. The sensation is very convincing and comparable to freefalling or weightlessnes...much like bungee jumping...especially on the apex of the initial recoil. I've been skydiving. The main difference I've noticed between flying in dreams and flying in waking life is the lack of wind. Skydiving is like sticking your head out of the window of a car cruising at 120 mph. In my dreams, the flying is almost always more of a gliding motion and I don't recall the strong presence of a breeze.

[Alric]

I don't fly very often but your right, there never is a breeze. Though I did fall once and I could feel it.

[Tornado Joe]

I tend to think that my sensations come from rollercoaster rides and taking off/landing in commercial fets. I've had dreams were I've been catapulted and falling from great heights and it's ususally the same sensation of my stomach being pushed up (like going down a steep rollercoaster) and having a hard time exhaling. I bet fighter pilots would have kickass realistic LDs (of course, they get to do the real thing)!

[White Shadow]

The other day I got into deep relaxation, and while I was trying to WILD (by watching the hypnagogic imagery), I found myself inside an X-Wing with Luke Skywalker flying around snow-covered mountains and buildings. I actually felt the Gs on every turn - it was pretty cool! I wasn't LDing though, more of a daydream, because my body wasn't really asleep, just relaxed. ...although the funniest bit was hearing Han Solo over the intercom saying "great shot kid, that was one in a million!" ... I think that's what brought me out of it! WS

[Seeker]

My dreams, both lucid and non-lucid are so vivid, it is difficult to discern that I am dreaming. If anything, my senses are more hieghtened during a dream. I still hold to the theory that this is because you are not limited in a dream to what your nerve endings can experience. In real life, my eyesight is dimmer because of scarring on my cornea, there are callouses on my hands, my skin is aging. In general, the flesh limits what can be experienced, not the brain.

[Peregrinus]

Originally posted by Seeker My dreams, both lucid and non-lucid are so vivid, it is difficult to discern that I am dreaming. If anything, my senses are more hieghtened during a dream. I still hold to the theory that this is because you are not limited in a dream to what your nerve endings can experience. In real life, my eyesight is dimmer because of scarring on my cornea, there are callouses on my hands, my skin is aging. In general, the flesh limits what can be experienced, not the brain. I've never thought of that before. In waking life, I have terrible vision, but only in a minority of my dreams is my vision less than 20/20. I wish I'd paid more attention to my dreams when I was younger. I used not to wear my glasses even though my vision was bad enough that anything beyond about 10 feet away was starting to get blurry. At that point, I didn't have much experience with 20/20 vision, so I would think that my dream vision should have reflected this by being blurrier and then gotten clearer once I started wearing contacts. But unfortunately, I don't remember many dreams from my early childhood If it didn't have to do with ghosts surrounding me or vampires chasing me or disturbing things in general, it got flushed.

[TheUnknown]

The more you practice LDing.. the more it seems tactile sensory improves in dreams.. However, i've also had them improve in waking life, i'll notice things I did not notice before.

[Wicked]

My sensations are, unfortunately, less vivid. There is one word that I use to describe reality - *heavy*. It's hard to explain exactly, but reality is *heavy*, while dreams are not. Since joining this board and reading up about lucid dreams I have had 2 very vivid lucid dreams (before that all my dreams, lucid or otherwise, were mostly fuzzy). The difference between those dreams and ordinary dreams is in a GREATLY increased resolution, or, rather, focus. It's the same difference as between an object in your peripheral vision, and an object you intensely focus on. I was really impressed by the vividness, but it still wasn't *heavy*, so I could easily tell that it's a dream I'm having, not the real thing.