Your senses while dreaming

I am just curious here: do you have control over all of your 5 senses while dreaming? I ask because I have had dreams before where I could actually taste things while dreaming, and I am wondering if this is something that happens to most people?

funny you say that, there have been times ive been dreaming of eating and ive woken up chewing on nothing

i think some senses you have yes, like when i get drunk and then drink lots of water to stay hydrated, i have the control not to wet the bed, regardless of how many times in my dreams i actually pee and feel like i do pee but i wake up and no pee on the bed

i think smell would go into affect to as in some people wake up smelling smoke to find their house ablaze

As far as I know I can use all five of my senses are working in my dreams. Sometimes they are even better then they are in the real world. Like my smelling for instance, I've had dreams where some smells are so intense I almost can't even handle it.

Thanks for the quick reply. What I was getting at, however, is senses WITHIN your dreams. For example, if you are dreaming and you smell, touch, tase, etc. something in your dream. Thought I should clear that up

I never thought of it, but would it not be 4 senses considering sight is a sense and when you are dreaming (dreams as in sleep, not daydreams) your eyes are closed and you are not able to see.
But now that i have thought about it, i have had dreams that feel more real than reality did.(Not sure if it would be a correct reply to your question though)

Yes, touch, emotion, smell, I could feel the air against my skin, the hard wall against my hand. I have heard the most beautiful music.
When I fly I even feel Gravity force! just like you would if you could fly in real life. It's really fun!

You ever had those dreams where your falling of a building or something, and just before you hit the groud you wake up, your so glad you alive, it really feels like I would imagine it in real life.

[edit on 9-1-2008 by _Phoenix_]

ill agree TOTALLY with you on that

depends on wether it was a good dream or bad on wether Id like to remember it

flying is the best, the pull of gravity and the force of actual getting and staying in flight is a tremondously great feeling and sometimes frustrating

but also nuclear. destructive and fighting dreams are the worst

i had one last night as a matter of fact, i had to kill some warriors of some kind with a long spear and she was like 9 feet tall and built thick and when i stabbed her multiple times and she was dying, she was fragile and sad, she even kissed me, i woke up remembering the kiss like it just happened and thought my wife kissed me in my sleep but she was with her back to me snoring away

[edit on 9-1-2008 by MurderCityDevil]

It truly is strange. Whatever purpose dreams serve, and what mechanisms occur are mere speculation. I know that in the stages of REM sleep the body actually inhibits movement (violent) regrding physical reaction to what the person may be dreaming about (fighting, running, etc.) to limit the possibilty of injury. In some instances people wake while in this stage and report a "sleep paralysis" which in some other instances people report the phenomena of being visited by "aliens" (that's another subject).

But yes, the senses seem to in some way still function without our immediate conciousness. Dreams of sexual intercourse with accounts of actually "feeling" have been reported. Dreams involving pain as well have occured. Very strange occurance and good topic !!

Yes I have experienced all of that, except the aliens, Ive seen aliens in dreams thou, scary stuff lol.

reply to post by MurderCityDevil

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I once had a dream where i was being crushed under a boulder and right after that i woke up and my body was in so much pain that i could not move(i could move but it hurt to move).

To _Phoenix_: This is off topic but your avatar is awesome how it incorporates "Death Note" and "The Llama Song".

Edited spelling error

[edit on 1/9/2008 by gkgoten100]

i have severe TMJ and sometimes when my dreams seem real my jaw clenches up and i wake up sore

maybe the fact you dreamt you were being crushed your muscles locked in to a fight or flight state therefore exhausting the amino acids in the muscle and causing them to sore

(not sure if amino are the ones that are spent while doing physical or muscle activity, but that would seem reasonable of why you were sore

reply to post by MurderCityDevil

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That does make alot of sense, considering the amino acids are building blocks of the body and when they(the many different amino acids) form together they make other chemicals which do nearly everything in the body.

For my opinion you can use all your 5 sences. The funniest thing is that if you expirience something you never done and then do it in "real" world you will feel the same.

I do sometimes. This is during lucid dreaming of course. Colors have been so vivid, the touch and taste of things/food so real. I'd feel awake fully, but later to find it was a long dream, which it is said a long dream only lasts a few minutes or so in real time.

Just a quick thought: If all your senses are active in your dreams, then isnt it possible to experience the after effects of certain events that happen in your dreams? For example, is it possible that the brain would mistake an event (getting shot in a dream, for example) to be real and react accordingly with the physical body? How are these limitations set by the brain so it can tell if one is dreaming?

Let me rephrase: If a person is dreaming and experiencing the sensations of touch, smell, taste etc. then how is that at all different from reality? What I am getting at is if your dream state is another reality into which you are transported while sleeping. Its a far-fetched thought, but think about how "weird" it is that you have these senses while your body is imovile in your bed. The brain is picking up these sensations from somewhere, another dimension perhaps? Just a thought

I dont think I have ever smelled or tasted anything in my dreams. I have sense of touch, hot/cold, pain, pleasure, etc. I dream in color, contrary to that old saying that we only dream in black and white. I also hear in my dreams. I can't say I have ever smelled anything or tasted anything.

I have had the pee dreams a lot and never wet the bed either...

well there is speculation if you die in your dreams then you die

wether thats true, who knows, it makes it a little plausable as you wake up before an actual deadly event

ive been shot in the leg and stabbed and still kept dreaming, but when i woke that area was either sore and had fallen asleep

anyway the point is the point of injury was in reality affected after waking

Great topic.

I only have 4 senses when dreaming that I can recall. Just a few weeks ago I was asking my wife the same question, she has all 5. In my case, I don't taste, maybe I just don't eat anything in my dreams.

Take care,

I cant recall eating in my dreams. I don't have dreams involving food. I know I feel pain. I have been shot before. But when I wake up I dont have any pain in the places I was shot.

I know that sometimes my alarm clock will go off and it will manifest in a dream, I will be dreaming about the noise, but it will be manifested as part of the dream, then it will get louder until I realise what it is and wake up. I often dream of music and will wake up with a song stuck in my head. I also feel emotions at an almost heightened level, I remember dreaming of sublime peace and also of paralyzing fear. When this happens I wake up and usually feel drained, the emotional effects seem to last well after I am awake. I don't seem to be able to feel pain, but other sensations I can feel, like flying through the air, the wind blowing on my face, although it is more of an emotional feeling than physical. It can be very confusing.

One strange thing I have noticed, if I commit a crime in a dream I always feel guilty immediately and think to myself, "this is only a dream, you can change it" then I will "replay" the dream in my head and correct my actions. I don't know if I am conscious when I do this because I feel partly awake or if I am still dreaming. I hesitate to call it lucid dreaming, but the only ones I seem to have control over are the ones where I wrong someone, then I always have an overwhelming urge to fix the wrong I committed so I seem to be able to.