thinking

[Mr Creosote]

i think the reason we can't remember being really young is because we think in such a profoundly different way that our brains simply can't process that sort of information any more as we get older and our thought processes change, the memories are there, but we just can't understand them, like when you wake up and you can remember what you were dreaming for a couple of seconds then your mind readjusts to it's normal functions and you just can't comprehend what you were dreaming about anymore.

[xglitter-me-upx]

The science of modern dream and sleep research really leapt forward when Eugene Aserinsky, working as a researcher in a sleep laboratory, noticed that his eight year old son's eyes moved while he slept. Later it was found this was due to the eyes following activities taking place in a dream, and that these rapid eye movements (REM) were a sign of dreaming.

From this it was seen that even newborn babies dream. In fact, although adults only spend about a third of their sleep period dreaming, babies spend 50 to 80 percent of sleep in dreams. Some researchers, carrying their investigation into the womb, state that at 24-30 weeks gestational age the unborn baby dreams a 100 percent.

Also I think someone mentioned this earlier too...

For instance a baby and child who have not learned to speak cannot think. We think with words. So during pre-speech there are only feeling responses or instinctive urges and fears to guide the child. The development of thinking only phases in gradually, and prior to that we learn from events and relationships, not ideas.

edit- I have watched my son sleeping and I know he is dreaming, he smiles and giggles in his sleep , and has the occasional nightmare, and he is just about to be 1. I like to think they dream about bottles and hugs from mummy and daddy and milkybar buttons.

[DissolveD_JameS]

Originally Posted by strangest_angel

I've often wondered, how do blind people dream? Like I dream mainly in pictures. I think most people do too, if not everyone.

I think it must just be soley sound they hear throughout the dream. Kind of like an audio book. maybe?

Nada... you won't dream mostly in pictures, they're probably just the easiest thing

While you're sleeping your brain makes the best of the spare time to organise all your memories from the day so you can wake up with a clear head for the next day (kind of like a computer backing up the RAM onto the hard drive when idle) - as all the important data is moved from place to place little snippets of it get caught by the part of your brain that's still awake making your senses and organs work etc. When this happens your brain will visualise most of the things directly related to that small piece of data, whether it be an image, a smell, a sound, an emotion, a conversation you had with someone the other day etc. Say for instance, you have one of these little flashes of data every second it becomes like a slideshow, but as your brain is catching up with all of these images, memories and feelings they all blend together - your brain makes up the gaps, which is why you can end up having some really fucked up dreams. The key parts in each of the dreams will have been things on your mind that day, whereas the wierd things that link them together will be your brain interpolating it, turning it into a story.

Sorry, I digress, blind people - will not just dream in sound - their dreams are the same as anyone else's - the only thing missing is the visual but the thought process while dreaming will still trigger all of their other senses and all their memories of events, emotions, situations, conversations.. and so on.

[Laura*]

Originally Posted by DissolveD_JameS

Sorry, I digress, blind people - will not just dream in sound - their dreams are the same as anyone else's - the only thing missing is the visual but the thought process while dreaming will still trigger all of their other senses and all their memories of events, emotions, situations, conversations.. and so on.

Okay, so forgive me if I sound stupid.

But, how can their dreams be the same as anyone else's without the visual part? That's the only part I remember, with some dialogue about the place too.

[DissolveD_JameS]

Originally Posted by strangest_angel

Okay, so forgive me if I sound stupid.

But, how can their dreams be the same as anyone else's without the visual part? That's the only part I remember, with some dialogue about the place too.

Well, I imagine that's because your brain relates to visual easier than anything else... (I'm guessing you spend more time on TV than reading). A blind person's brain won't relate many memories (or any i guess, if they have always been blind) to visual imagery.

Say for instance, you and a blind person had the same dream (impossible, I know... but for instance...) - the bits of data that make up the dream are the same - however your brain adds lotts of visual to it, and thats what you remember when you wake up. The blind person's brain will add more audio, and feeling because that's what they percieve the world in.



... I think.