As I have given more attention over the years to recalling and working with my dreams, I’ve noticed changes in a few areas: Most notably, I remember more dreams each night, more details of dreams, and I can retain the memory of the dream longer. I’ve also experienced more lucidity in dreams, as well as more episodes of precognition.
Another increased capacity has been my sensory experience. Or, at least, I am remembering more dreams in which I am having sensory experiences. In particular, I am having more dreams in which I definitively hear music, smell, and taste.
For most of us when we remember dreams, we remember story. Recalling narrative or interpretation takes precedence in dream reporting, too, even if the details are strange and the events non-linear. Consequently, unless the sense experience is particularly emotionally compelling (ie. “we slow danced to my favorite song playing overhead”), we don’t tend to focus on it when we report a dream.
Instead dream reports typically go like this:
“I was in the basement of a house.”
“I was walking down B-wing and I knew I was late for class.”
“It was night and we were in a car driving when suddenly…”
Further, when we do have sense experiences in dreams, let’s say “hearing a sound,” the memory of the sound is often indistinct. You might remember a dream character saying “something like” this or that to you, but you likely don’t remember the precise wording or dialogue.
Or if we have touch experiences in dreams — let’s say rain is coming in through a window — we may typically be more concerned with the mess the water is making (an anxious reaction that continues the storyline) than feeling the raindrops slowly drip onto and run down our arms.
All of that is narrative-focused, not sense-focused. We are giving attention to our reaction to the sense experience, not the feeling or the sensing itself.
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For me, the first sense to appear more often and stronger as I worked my dreams was sound.
I would hear music in dreams and be able to report the next day which song I heard inside of a dream. Next came taste; though I seemed to recall unpleasant tastes at first moreso than pleasant ones: for instance, gum that I couldn’t get rid of or a need to brush my teeth. Eventually, the more pleasurable tastes arrived … like a moist and delicious chocolate cake! (Recently, I wrote about smelling my Bubbi’s brisket in a dream, despite her being gone for more than a decade.)
Isn’t it curious that some of our strongest remembering capacity in waking life is linked to sensation (most notably the sound of music and the smells of childhood or tastes of food) and yet when it comes to dreams (at least for sighted individuals), we don’t seem to recall smell and touch from our dreams as much as we recall images?
Sound (especially music), taste, and smell are known to trigger long forgotten memories, too. (The same goes for remembering events accompanied by intense emotions, which I am sure you’ve realized.)
I wonder about sensory experience inside of dreams. Why is it so different from waking life? And why, as I have begun to work my dreams and focus more on the senses, have more sensory experiences entered my dreams?
Does it have something to do with to what I am giving my attention?
In a 2009 study by Kelly Bulkeley, it was reported that while sighted individuals mainly experience the visual sense in dreams, congenital blind individuals report senses of sound, smell, touch, and taste.
Perhaps blind individuals are used to giving greater attention to other sensory experiences in their environment and are already therefore prepped for such experiences in dreams.
It’s a topic I am very curious about. I can talk about it for hours.
In fact, while I am interested in the developing neurocognitive theories about sleep and dreaming, as well as the physiology of dreaming, I am much more interested in the experience of the dreamer in dreams, the content of dreams, and our recall of and feelings about the experience following a compelling dream. I find it remarkable how dreamers dream differently and how shifting our focus about our dreams in waking life can start to alter our experience in dreams themselves.
Would you like to start having dreams with more sensory experiences? What would that be like for you?
Imagine holding your now grown son as a baby again or hugging your long-since-passed grandmother at the holiday table before sitting down to eat. I would like that. I haven’t yet gotten to the point of touch in dreams being so strong a sense for me that I can have a long, drawn out hug with my grandmother, who died more than ten years ago. On multiple occasions, however, I have had the experience of meeting an old friend I am estranged from and hugging in a dream. The reunion brought me to sweet tears of relief, and upon waking, offered me a vision of hope for the future.
Of course, the more we work to increase our sensory experiences, the more we may be exposed to unpleasant ones, too.
For instance, I have a lot of bathroom dreams, and recently they started to get a lot messier and stinkier!
But I think that’s ok. I think that’s part of the work: opening up to more of all of it. More feelings (joy and pain). More images (beautiful and terrifying). And more senses (pleasant and not-so-pleasant.)
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If you’re seeking to increase your sensory experiences in dreams you can also take up a hobby in waking life that engages the senses: try painting, cooking, hiking in nature, taking care of animals, or gardening. (Making art, listening to music, and dancing also have proven to increase neuroplasticity and improve mental health.)
We naturally end up more sensitive to the sensory experience those activities engage and require simply by participating in them. However, try to give more attention to the sensory experience you would like heightened in the dream. If in nature, as one example, spend more time petting the bark of the trees. Dip your hand in the cold creek in winter. Sit on a rock and listen to the wind.
We can also work dreams in which there is evidence of a “light” sensory experience and try to return to the dream image with a focus on the “sense.” We can try to imagine sensing it more strongly.
This may be easier for you with one sense than another. If you can recall taste better than touch, start there.
So if you had a dream where you were having coffee with a friend, try returning to the dream and giving more attention to the coffee. Experiment with pausing the action or the dialogue and looking at the cup of coffee in your hands. Imagine taking a sip. Slowly slurp the coffee from the glass mug. Is it hot or cold? Bitter or sweet?
You may argue that this didn’t actually happen in the dream. You might be right!
Or, perhaps you simply don’t remember drinking the coffee because you were too focused in the dream on the action or people around you — basically, the visuals.
Even if it didn’t happen, studies and anecdotal evidence both show returning to our dream imagery has an impact on future dreaming. Experimenting with this practice may lead you to more coffee tasting in future dreams.
