Are dreams influenced by sensory input?
It seems to me that it is not unusual for some sound, for instance, to make its way into a person’s dream. I was wondering if this might be used to help with some sleep disorders. Suppose that when a person’s REM indicates dream activity, some pleasant smell or sound was introduced. It is important to target the input to the right time, because we tend to filter out constant stimuli after a while.
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Well the premise is sound but how would it help with sleep disorders? Most sleep disorders are just chemical imbalances I think. Well, maybe that wouldn’t even constitute a sleep disorder… Anyway, psychological reasons for insomnia might be helped by it.
I can imagine that if someone were for instance plagued by repeated nightmares that timing introduction of gentle music and smells of baking cookies might help, but then again, remember the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters? Maybe even the best intentions would become warped as the sleeper starts to dream about a murderer who likes gentle music and bakes cookies.
@GeorgeGee And then you would never be able to enjoy music or cookies again!
@LostInParadise Congratulations, worst idea ever.
Why can’t people just get a little high before sleep like me?
Your dreams come from inside you. If there is a lot of bad stuff there, you will have bad dreams. And yes, the pleasant things could easily get recast to fit you.
I actually think that this is an excellent idea!!! Would be worth do some serious research… Smells can evoke strong memories as we know and if we can pinpoint these then they may have the effect of calming the nervous system during sleep. Although I see @anartist‘s point, I don’t think we as yet know enough about dreams to assume, bad stuff is just bad stuff. I opften think that dreams no matter how disturbing are actually there to help us, not to frighten us… I really think this is an excellent idea!
Yes, external stimuli can affect dreams, although this is not constant from person to person.
I, for instance, will react to different smells and sounds, and incorporate them into my dreams. For instance, when my husband farts, various foul smelling things will occur in my dream. When he leaves the TV on, the audio enters my dream and if an infomercial is on, my dream will repeat, endlessly. That causes me to grind my teeth, and the main reason I insist that he TURN THE TV OFF!!!! ARGH!
Anyhoo, moving along.
Reasons for dreaming are very obscure and deeply rooted and I don’t think trying to manipulate them in this superficial way has any real value.
As an aside, when an outside stimulus is incorporated into a dream of mine I often have the illusion that the dream begins before the stimulus. This is presumably some kind of illusion of the mind. I wonder whether anyone else has ever noticed this?
@flutherother For some people like me, who dream lucidly, manipulating dreams is just matter of fact.
Just mentioning this because you spoke as though manipulating dreams was superficial or bad.
@squirbel I didn’t mean it is bad just that I don’t think there is much point to it. Manipulating your dreams from the inside through lucid dreaming is something I’ve always wanted to do but it very rarely happens with me. I am quite envious of you.
It’s been done. You idea has already been studied and found to be true. Smells do influence dreams.
Smells, sounds and temperature all can affect the dreams.
Yes, sensory input can influence dreams. As @wundayatta said ..there’s been studies on it. Interesting topic though :)
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