Do mobility-impaired people dream of walking?
Asked by
Jeruba (
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January 29th, 2011
I would have thought so. I would have thought that someone who can no longer walk would be ambulatory in dreams, that a person who has lost the power of speech would speak in dreams, that a person who has gone blind would see in dreams.
I would have hoped that dreams would, for a little while, restore a lost freedom or power to an individual who has become impaired.
Now I’m wondering because of my own experience. A few weeks ago a hard cast was put on my leg, immobilizing it from toe to knee. I’m spending 8 weeks getting around on crutches and trying to keep weight off the injured foot.
That first night I started dreaming of walking with crutches. By last night my routine anxiety dreams had morphed to use this theme: I was dreaming about losing my crutches and being helplessly immobile, naturally while trying to go somewhere in a hurry.
Do people with functional losses typically dream of themselves in a whole state, or do their dreams incorporate the reality of their limitations?
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9 Answers
I have known people that are ambulatory in their dreams (sometimes the occasional dream, and sometimes in every dream), but not in waking life. So, yes.
I would think that it would be more likely for someone who has lost their mobility to be ambulatory in dreams than for someone who’s never been. But then, a lot of people dream that they’re able to fly and do other “superhuman” things, so maybe it’s just as likely.
Since being diagnosed with MS two years ago,I dream of running often.Sprinting is more like it!
By summer,I won’t have to dream anymore.I will be doing it.
Dreams for me are a beautiful thing. :)
When my mother most lost of her sight to macular degeneration it happened quite rapidly (over a few months) and for years afterward she talked of dreams being full of crystal clear visualizations of ordinary things, bright green trees, turquoise swimming pools, almost anything that was vividly colored and detailed.
This is a question I have discussed with a number of different people. One friend, who was in a very bad accident in which she broke her neck (and was paralyzed) told me that for the first several years after her injury, she walked in her dreams.
I asked a born-deaf friend if she signs in her dreams and she had to stop and think about it. She thought not but did mention another born-deaf friend who “talked in her sleep” and used sign language to do so.
Like Jill above, a friend of mine blinded in later life still had vivid visual dreams (because she had seen the things before in her life).
I also know that after I had surgery on my foot/ankle and was on crutches for 5 months that had dreams similar to those you are describing. I think, for me anyway, it was because my lack of mobility weighed very heavy on my mind and I worked out some related issues in my deeper sleep states. It didn’t help that during one rather long flight the flight attendant took my crutches and put them somewhere to far away for me to hop to retrieve them. I was livid because I felt trapped as a result.
I dream of flying.. so I’d assume it’s possible to have abilities one doesn’t have in real life..
My SO broke his neck over 20 years ago, in dreams he is mostly in his chair. I believe that sometimes in dreams he is in that kind of disembodied state where he is more floating then anything but it is very rare for him to dream of himself walking. When he was first injured he did have a very vivid dream about leaving his wheelchair behind and walking away. As far as we have discussed though, that is an exception.
What I find interesting is that whenever I dream about him he is walking. The first couple of dreams I wondered (in the dream) why he was walking, now I just go with it.
My father has been in a wheelchair for 8 years, but in his dreams he is never chair-bound.
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