is a blind man dreaming at night?
96301
When I dream, I don't just see things, I also feel them.  I remember dreams that I've tasted food, felt pain, smelled flowers, and heard noises.  I would imagine that in a blind person's dreams, that is how they dream, the same way they experience the world.
623764
if a person has never seen anything before, they're perception of things is quite different than ours. even by touch, they still cannot form images like we do. our dreams consist of everything we've ever encountered, so our imagination cannot be limited.by not having that sense of image your brain relies on other stimuli to interpret their\nenviroment.
1152765
Totally blind from birth have no idea what colors are.  As you they dream what they know.  People that loose their sight later will dream in color because they have seen color.  It is very difficult for the seeing to understand those that do not.
470702
the part that make us dream is in the brain. it's got nothing to do with the mechanic of sight loss and audio lost...
1072338
Yes they can.\nThey dream of sounds and feelings and smells they grew up with, but no one's for sure if they can see anything. Some experts just believe that all they see is nothing since they don't know what things look like.\n\nMy mom works with sleep research and she has told me that blind people during sleep have the same brain stimuli that regular people have when they are dreaming.
542533
Is that where you re color blind? I suggest going to a college that people study to be an eye doctor and ask if that is in their curriculum. Its cheap and they can fix you blindness. also you are helping a student achieve their dreams
489633
While there may be exceptions, in general the dreams of the congenitally blind contain no visual elements and consist predominantly of sound plus smell, touch and the sense of movement.\n\nPlotwise they tend to to be reality-based--e.g., a reprise of the events of the day--with less of the fantasy you find in the dreams of sighted people. There's also more conversation.\n\nPersons who become blind after birth often see in their dreams, although it depends on (a) how old they were when they became blind and (b) how long it's been since. If you're blinded before the age of six or seven you generally see little or nothing in your dreams.\n\nDreams of people who become blind when older are often indistinguishable from those of the sighted, but as time goes on many "see" less and less.\n\nTo some extent, I gather, the lack of visual elements in the dreams of the blind can be counteracted by force of imagination. Helen Keller, who became blind at the age of 19 months, claimed to have "visions of ineffable beauty." These ran to things like pearls.\n\nTo my mind this betrays a certain want of ambition. A man's reach should exceed his grasp, right? So I'd want to see what I could work up along the lines of Jacqueline Bisset. But at least we know there's hope.
1074522
All people dream.  People that have never been able to see, "see" what they perceive they are seeing.  Blind people can read books, stories, news and other articles in Braille.
563366
No, because they don't know colors, you dream what your mind knows. I have a friend who went blind and he dreams in color because he knew colors. He has a couple of friends who were born blind who said they dream in soft, sorta grayish movements, kind of like a dimly lit room that has movement, like things skirting around, moving and lots of voices. To me that sounds errie, and nightmarish but to them, they don't know any different because they've never seen. They see with their hands but when asleep, they don't use their hands. I guess they go by memory, (the picture they got when they ran their hands over something).
1083220
It depends on what kind of blindness they have.  If they are born blind because of a problem with the areas of the brain that control sight, they will not have any sort of visual images in their dreams. Their brain cannot make the images if those areas are damaged.\n\nIf they are born blind because of a problem with thier eye or visual nerve, they may get "flashes" from the visual areas of the brain when random activity fires across them during sleep. But, they won't know what it is, and very little is remembered from most dreaming, anyway. They may even perceive, in their dream, that the "flash" is from a different sense that they DO have images and vocabulary for (sound, touch, taste, smell). They won't have any memories to pull on of real visual images. So even though they may "see" because of dream activity in that area of the brain, it isn't a "real" experience in thier dream.\n\nSomeone who was born with sight, and loses their vision later, WILL have dreams with visual images, because they have the memory to pull on, and images attached to language so that they can understand and remember.
723280
They do not and cannot "see in their dreams."  People who have been blind a long time, and who get some kind of operation that permits vision, do not "see" either - because "seeing" requires a very great deal of learning by the brain to processes visual input into accurate spatial/motive relationships.\n\nSuddenly having the visual ability restored is upsetting to blind people.  Not only does it frighten them because they cannot interpret things correctly, but it disturbs their sense of self and their sense of how they relate and fit into the world, which has always been for them a question of sound and touch.
440030
very detailed answer with links to look at:\n\nhttp://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=99188\n\nanother link:  \n     "The answer, simply put, appears to be "no." When people born blind were questioned about what they "see" in dreams in several studies, their answers indicate that the experience of vision first is needed before it can be translated into a dream. Those blind for a lifetime instead experience other keenly developed senses in their dreams--i.e., the sensation of moving around, the emotion of joy, etc.\n\n     Dream images of the blind instead seem to be reconstructions of objects based on sensory input such as touch and sound, just as occurs in waking life. But can these images be accurately described as visual? Can an object be recreated in detail if the dreamer has in fact never experienced seeing it?\n\n     Other studies indicate that individuals blind at birth do see visual images. But it can be argued that these images are constructs based on input from other senses (and on what the dreamer has been told by the sighted about what these objects look like)."\n\nhttp://vision.about.com/od/severevisionloss/f/blinddreams.htm
17254
People blind from birth have no visual dreams, though they do have dreams, rich in other senses. Those who loose their sight after a certain point (around 3) dream visually.
337202
I've read a book on this and if I can find the copy I'll tell you the name of it.  No, a person who has been blind since birth do not actually see but they dream of their auditory senses, smell and touch.  They experience what life has given to them.  \n\nThere has been acutal sight incidences with blind people who where blind since birth in a near death experience.  They said that what they saw was a blinding light, something that they have never experienced in life.
481346
Not just those born blind, but people who become blind before the age of 5 or 6 loose the visual component of their dreams.\n\nEverything else remains the same.  See the reference below:
671337
You really seem like a kind soul. These days people have become selfish and go-getter with no time to spare a thought for another person and here you are wishing for everyone's dream to come true! Great! Well, I like it best when i have dreams at night (which i have most of the nights). The nights without dreams are like so vacuous. I look forward to sleeping at night so that i can see a new dream. For me dream world has much more charm than the real one.
740529
Yes, it would be possible, depending on the reason for blindness.