Well, as I was walking with a friend downtown yesterday, this question came up. I was wondering if any of you could help me answer this (I don't know any blind or deaf people). Do blind people see when they dream? And do deaf people hear when they dream? Also, would a blind and deaf person even dream? How would that work?

hehe quite interesting questions :thumbup:

How many of these threads do we get a year? :|

 

 

 

Anyways I think they see what their whatever their brain decides to cook up. It may not look realistic at all but it'll just be projections in their brain.

Next time I see my uncle I'll ask him. Most blind people can see a little bit though, to be legally blind you just need your vision to be impaired to a certain degree.

 

 

 

In North America and most of Europe, legal blindness is defined as visual acuity (vision) of 20/200 (6/60) or less in the better eye with best correction possible. This means that a legally blind individual would have to stand 20 feet (6.1 m) from an object to see itwith vision correctionwith the same degree of clarity as a normally sighted person could from 200 feet (61 m).

 

 

 

People with that type of blindness as compared to total blindness probably see in dreams. I'd imagine the same is true for deaf people.

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

 

 

 

Well say a person is completely blind to the point where they cannot see anything and have been that way from birth. How can they see, for example, a red car in a dream, if they don't know what red or a car looks like?

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

 

 

 

Well say a person is completely blind to the point where they cannot see anything and have been that way from birth. How can they see, for example, a red car in a dream, if they don't know what red or a car looks like?

 

Well of course they wouldn't dream about objects in the world like that. I imagine that they would dream, but it would consist mostly of random colours and shapes. As someone else said - whatever their brain can conjure up without the influence of objects/sights in the world.

I watched a programme about a blind artist recently. He could recreate landscapes quite accurately despite the fact that he was born without eyes. The stunning thing about it was that his artwork (which was mostly unimpressive aside from the fact that it was done by a blind man) obeyed all laws of perspective. Lines converged into the distance and objects in the background were smaller than those in the foreground.

I watched a programme about a blind artist recently. He could recreate landscapes quite accurately despite the fact that he was born without eyes. The stunning thing about it was that his artwork (which was mostly unimpressive aside from the fact that it was done by a blind man) obeyed all laws of perspective. Lines converged into the distance and objects in the background were smaller than those in the foreground.

 

 

 

woah. do you remember the name of the program?

I watched a programme about a blind artist recently. He could recreate landscapes quite accurately despite the fact that he was born without eyes. The stunning thing about it was that his artwork (which was mostly unimpressive aside from the fact that it was done by a blind man) obeyed all laws of perspective. Lines converged into the distance and objects in the background were smaller than those in the foreground.

 

 

 

woah. do you remember the name of the program?

 

 

 

A quick Youtube search yielded this. The commentary is way over the top, but it's an interesting watch nonetheless.

I don't know if it counts, but i can't hear from one ear. When I dream, I still only hear with the one ear that's not lost the hearing.

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

 

 

 

Well say a person is completely blind to the point where they cannot see anything and have been that way from birth. How can they see, for example, a red car in a dream, if they don't know what red or a car looks like?

 

Well of course they wouldn't dream about objects in the world like that. I imagine that they would dream, but it would consist mostly of random colours and shapes. As someone else said - whatever their brain can conjure up without the influence of objects/sights in the world.

 

This is incorrect. The most common belief amoung biologists and researchers is that people who are born blind do not see in their dreams. This is because they do not retain any sense of visual imagery, due to them never having visual imagery. If you are blinded after infancy then you retain your sense of visual imagery and thus do see things in your sleep. If you need proof I can can cite numerous studies, however nothing very recent.

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

 

 

 

Well say a person is completely blind to the point where they cannot see anything and have been that way from birth. How can they see, for example, a red car in a dream, if they don't know what red or a car looks like?

 

Well of course they wouldn't dream about objects in the world like that. I imagine that they would dream, but it would consist mostly of random colours and shapes. As someone else said - whatever their brain can conjure up without the influence of objects/sights in the world.

 

This is incorrect. The most common belief amoung biologists and researchers is that people who are born blind do not see in their dreams. This is because they do not retain any sense of visual imagery, due to them never having visual imagery. If you are blinded after infancy then you retain your sense of visual imagery and thus do see things in your sleep. If you need proof I can can cite numerous studies, however nothing very recent.

 

 

 

Agreed. People born blind don't have a working optic nerve that leads to the brain, and so they have had no visual input. Of course they can't dream; their brain is incapable of 'seeing' thing!

uh, yes. since all of it is in their mind........................

 

 

 

Well say a person is completely blind to the point where they cannot see anything and have been that way from birth. How can they see, for example, a red car in a dream, if they don't know what red or a car looks like?

 

Well of course they wouldn't dream about objects in the world like that. I imagine that they would dream, but it would consist mostly of random colours and shapes. As someone else said - whatever their brain can conjure up without the influence of objects/sights in the world.

 

This is incorrect. The most common belief amoung biologists and researchers is that people who are born blind do not see in their dreams. This is because they do not retain any sense of visual imagery, due to them never having visual imagery. If you are blinded after infancy then you retain your sense of visual imagery and thus do see things in your sleep. If you need proof I can can cite numerous studies, however nothing very recent.

 

I wasn't claiming that they could dream. I was simply stating that IF they could (because I had no idea if they can or can't), they certainly wouldn't dream about objects that exist in this world, since they would have never seen them. I wasn't claiming to know anything about the matter so sorry for the confusion ;)

I would imagine they can hear and see in there dreams as your not using you eyes/ears. Although im not an expert.

depends on the deaf person. if a person became deaf (not born with it), than most likely that he'd be able to "hear" in his/her dream.

 

 

 

same with blind people.

I'd say it's pretty obvious that someone who has been blind since birth would still be able to dream, yet not "see" anything in his dream. Just as for us, dreaming i¡would just be a surreal version of his daily sensations, so he would still hear, touch and smell in his dreams.

 

 

 

They couldn't possibly dream of random colours and shapes because they are unkown to them (just as we can't imagine a new colour we've never seen before). Rather, they'd just experience their dream reality through textures and so on. The same would happen to someone who's been deaf his whole life.

I saw a documentary which said the cut off point is about 4-5 years. If a person is blinded before reaching the age of about 4 or 5 they are unlikely to have a visual element to their dreams.

I have (I think) a 50% loss in both ears and I wear hearing aids. However, I'm not entirely sure if I hear when I dream, I've never really paid attention to that. I know that in some dreams I know what people are saying, but I can't remember if I just knew or if I heard them. I'm curious now, so I'll get back to you tomorrow morning.

I would have assumed that the optical or auditory portions of the brain might still be functional and thus active while dreaming. But, if someone where blind from birth or deaf from birth (100%), then I would expect those portions of the brain to never develop which would mean they would not see anything or hear anything while dreaming. I don't see why being able to hear or see is reqired to dream, there are still 4 functioning (3 if your both blind and deaf) senses to work with. You would probably see random colours or hear random sounds if you lost a sense after birth. You use the areas of the brain related to the sense to dream as far as I know, so not having eyes would mean nothing if you lost them at one year old.

 

 

 

I find it interesting how people blind from birth can still grasp the idea of perspective. There have been studies where they find the blind person using their hands moving them back and forth for a while and then drawing two objects in perspective. Thats just incredible.

I agree with Meol's post. The only reason we can visualize things in our mind is because we've already seen them before. And as for visualizing something that doesn't exist, such as a dragon or goblin, you're merely mixing things that you have seen before.

 

 

 

Another thing to note is that dreaming isn't restricted to seeing and hearing. Part of dreaming, for me at least, also consists of your thoughts. While, I'm dreaming I see stuff, hear stuff, and think about stuff. For example, in one dream I recall it being a specific day of the week, even though I never saw or heard anything that lead me to that conclusion. I just *knew*. Maybe blind and deaf people dream like that.