What sorts of things do 5 month old babies dream about?

Their time spent in the safety of the womb, with all the ambient noises they heard from within, soothing, peaceful times.

I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say breasts and the faces of their parents and maybe those weird black and white and red toys that research suggests we should expose them to. They sleep an awful lot, so they may dream more often. But now that you’ve made me think about it, I wonder if an adult had the same dream, if it would seem like a nightmare!

Who says they dream at all? Maybe it’s just blissful sleep and busy growth time.

Do you dream about music / or mathematics / or planets too far for the eye?
Do you dream about Jesus / or quantum mechanics / or angels who sing lullabies?

… It’s my favourite Barenaked Ladies song, and it became a lullaby to my son when he was little. It’s fascinating to think about, but when it all boils down to it, I know my son was dreaming about nursing. Mouths and hands give it away.

I wonder at what age a child is able to distinguish dream from reality

I don’t know how anyone would know the answer to this question.

It seems to me that I was still comforting my kids with “It was just a dream, honey, it wasn’t real” when they were as old as four or five. I think they knew it by then, but they still wanted to hear it.

Sometimes I even still need to hear it.

I remember telling my younger son, who was plagued for a while by a recurring dream about a witch when he was about three, that he could say to her in the dream, “You’re not real. Go away.” I had no idea if that would work, but he said it did.

Three week old puppies and kittens.

Boobs. Just like me.

I was thinking this over this afternoon while looking at pictures of my nephew at 5 months and at 12 months. They’re right next to my keyboard. At 5 months he’s got this huh, what am I looking at look. He was noticing stuff around him but I doubt he knew enough to dream. Maybe some basic stuff, but that’s it. At 12 months, he’s having a good time.

Perhaps they dream of the “whoosh whoosh whoosh” noise of the womb, or a favorite rattle toy, or mmmmmmmmm nipples mmmmmmmmm.

Young babies probably have dreams similar to dog or cat dreams (no offense to babies or pets), which are known to occur. Dreaming during sleep has characteristic patterns of EEG, muscle activity, etc., shared across many species including humans. Do infants have the same kind of explicit episodic experiences that older children and adults commonly describe? Who knows? It’s certainly plausible.

I’d suggest that, like a lower animal, a human baby has dreams constructed by its brain from a limited repertoire of whatever sensory and cognitive experiences that it has already encountered – growing ever larger by the day in the case of the baby. (Even a mouse, however, leads a complicated life.)

This is pretty much what @whitetigress surmised in the OP.

Boobs. Milk flowing from a mountain. Hugs, kisses, being wrapped up nice and cozy and mommy and dad’s faces. Followed by more hugs and kisses and milk. All the milk they want and a dry bottom, and moms scent, which is her own smell mixed with milk.
Oh, and I suspect a good poop. Ever watch them smile in their sleep when they poop?

Well when I was 5 months old I was dreaming about my next meal. Actually at 67 I still dream about my next meal!

Id say they dream of the things they’ve seen and heard so far…faces, objects, sounds…. babies are highly sensitive. They can feel when the mother and father are present…and they probably have nightmares because their minds are constantly processing their new found environment and feel discomfort. It must be overwhelming really..