Although the specific content varies to a greater degree, the dreams of both, blind and deaf people also seem specially attunded to their condition. How blind people dream, depends primarily on when they lost their sight. Those born blind have no visual dreams at all, but instead have more vivid auditory dream experiences that sighted people. Children who lose their vision between the ages of five and seven may dream in pictures later, but as they grow older, other sensory elements including touch, taste, and smell take center stage. Most people blinded after the age of seven continue to dream visually and in some cases create images in their mind\'s eyes of people they have met after losing their sight.
The dreams of deaf people similary reflect the circumstances of their disability. In one study, the congenitally deaf and those who had lost their hearing before the age of five, reported dreams with more vivid colors and more three-dimensional detail than individuals afflicted after in life - almost as if the dreaming mind had done a better job of compensation of the missing sense when the dreamer had no real-life experience or little memory of it. As for communication, even deaf people who could remeber hearing, tended to use sign language in their dreams.
|