Dreaming without the Light

[Note: I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Maneckji F. Apoo; Clinical Psychologist, for providing me with the necessary material. Aliya, Safirah and Adeel; with whom I met in July 2010, for the first time while working as a volunteer at Ida Rieu School and College for Blind and Deaf, for agreeing to an interview, without which, this piece would not have been possible.]

How can a blind person dream? This is often asked by sighted people who for the first time, come into contact with a visually impaired person. The first thing, however, that usually comes to mind with respect to dream is the story of Joseph, according to the ‘Book of Genesis’ as per the Judaic tradition, or Hazrat Yousuf, name used by Muslims, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, but rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh because he possessed the gift of dream interpretation. Interestingly, another historical figure known for dream interpretation was a prophet in Greek mythologies, but was visually impaired, Tiresias.

                The present piece attempts to explore the dreams of a visually impaired person and addresses the issues with respect to the attitude of the society towards the visual impairment. The first step, however, is to understand the experiences of ‘sleep’ and ‘dreaming’ before moving onto this particular subject.

Understanding the Phenomena

Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary puts Sleep in the category of Verb and defines it as ‘to rest with your eyes closed and your mind and body not active.’ It, however, puts Dream in the category of Noun and defines it as ‘a series of images, events and feelings that happen to your mind while you are asleep.’

It is discussed in the Introduction to Psychology (1983) by Rital L. Atkinson, Richard C. Atkinson and Ernest R. Hilgard, that through electroencephalogram (EEG) electrical activity of the brain can be monitored throughout the night as a person first passes through the four NREM stages of sleep before REM sleep is attained. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is the sleep stage, characterised by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate; erections; and the experience of dreaming.

Dreaming, however, should not be confused with ‘daydreaming’ which is a shift in attention to the fantasies instead of focusing on the task at hands while being awake.

In the Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior (2001) by Dennis Coon and John Mitterer, theories on the topic of dreams have been discussed, starting from Freud’s Unconscious wish-fulfillment theory which proposes that dream represent unconscious wishes that a dreamer wants to fulfill by manifesting latent content (disguised meanings of dreams, hidden by more obvious subjects) and patent contents (the overt storyline of dreams) while asleep.

Alternative to Freud’s theory is Reverse-learning theory which suggests that dreams have no meaning in themselves, but instead functions to rid an individual of unnecessary information which is gathered during the day. Hobson’s Activation-synthesis theory tells that dreams are a result of random electrical energy in which stimulating memories lodged in various positions of the brain is weaved into a logical storyline.

Dreams-for-survival theory suggests that dreams permits the reconsideration and reprocessing of the information which is critical for an individual’s daily survival, during the sleep. Individual’s survival can also closely relate to the understanding of the nightmares.

Nightmares, according to the threat simulation theory, deals with evolution, proposing dreams as an ancient biological defence mechanism, because the threat simulation during dreaming rehearses the cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and threat avoidance, thus, enabling a human mind to adapt to the threats of life.

The answer, therefore, is in affirmative regarding a visually impaired persons being able to dream since dreaming is a normal state of human conscience. However, true efforts can be made in the right direction by understanding the process of dreaming by a visually impaired person.

Dreams of a Visually Impaired person

According to an article in Sleepmedicine, researchers, in an observational study, divided the participants into congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB), and age-and sex-matched sighted control (SC) who were asked to report  sensory, emotional and thematic content of their dreams, as well as a possible occurrence of nightmares, by answering a questionnaire.

According to the results, blindness considerably alters the sensory composition of dreams as CB participants reported more auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory dream components when compared to SC participants, while LB participants, in contrast, only reported more tactile dream impressions. Although visually impaired and SC participants did not differ with respect to emotional and thematic dream content, CB participants reported more aggressive interactions and more nightmares compared to the other two groups. 

The nature of dreams highly depends upon the fact that whether a person is, first, completely or partially visually impaired, and second, whether visually impairment is since birth or occurred later in life. Also, the age during which the process of losing the sight started and the experiences of the waking life also aids in understanding the nature of the dreams. The same conclusion was reached by Hurovitz, C., Dunn, S., Domhoff, G. W., & Fiss, H. in their paper, the dreams of blindmen and women: A replication and extension of previous findings, that those who were visually impaired by birth or very early childhood, firstly, had no visual images in their dreams, and secondly, gustatory, olfactory and tactual sensory are extravagantly referenced.

The paper also quoted empirical realisations from the Psychology of Blindness by Kirtley, Donald D. stating that those who become sightless between age five and seven may or may not retain visual images in their dreams, but those who lose sight before the age of five seldom experience visual images in their dreams. It further stated that those who lost their vision after age seven continue to experience at least some visual images but there are none in the dreams of those born without any ability to experience visual images in waking life.

The discussion in Richard Catlett Wilkerson’s paper, Dream of the Blind discusses Joseph Jastrow’s work, the dreams of the blind and In Fact and Fable in Psychology, confirms that those who go blind before the age of five to seven will not have visual dreams. The discussion further analysed a letter by Helen Keller stating that her haunting dreams ceases as she learned more about the objects around her, that is, after her teacher came into her life.

The paper further discusses that the elaborative narration of a visually impaired and sighted might remain constant, and that the congenitally blind without a history of ‘form vision’ were able to represent spatial relationships in dream experience without the visual imagery, while the congenitally blind with minimal form vision saw in their dreams only to the extent that they had been able to see in walking life.

The following visually impaired persons were asked to share the change, 
if any, in the nature of their dreams, as experienced by Helen Keller

Aliya Fatima, a 20 year old female who is visually impaired since birth and has light perception and colour awareness, discusses her nightmares that she is running from something, for instance in a jungle with wild animals, or saving herself from the kidnappers. She said that the nature of her dreams changed when she became friends with a person of same age at her educational institute. She also shared that she tries to control while dreaming by trying to use more vision.

Adeel Raja is a 24 years old male who is visually impaired since birth with only light perception and a very less colour awareness. He would usually be studying Arabic in his dreams which might be the result of him studying Islamic Shariah (in his opinion) or is having a discussion on Skype. He explained that his dreams have recently become like this as he has experienced a great deal of change in his personality and goals, especially by being able to discover what he is going to do in his future. According to him, his dreams changed simply by changing his educational institution as he is presently enrolled at Minhaj International University Karachi. His eyesight was much better before the age of 18 and would see the interviewer in his dreams with long hair which he had when they first met in 2010, since the eye sight was much better than it is now in 2014. However, Adeel would recognise the interviewer in his dreams through his voice.

Safirah Bibi is an 18 years old female who is visually impaired since birth with light perception and colour awareness but occasionally gets confused with similar colours like blue and purple. When asked about her dreams, she described that mostly she would experience that she is passing through difficult paths like mountains, forests, water, snake pits etc. In 2012, she got the chance to visit USA via Youth Exchange Study Programme at Kentucky where her goals, dreams and personality changed and she is now more confident, socialises with people, and participate in different community service related activities. She thinks that her present dreams in which she sees herself struggling through difficult paths is the result of her trip to Kentucky, USA. Previously, she used to dream about going out on a picnic with her family.

Adeel Raja (24 years) 

Safirah Bibi (18 years) 

Living in the world of sighted

A world dominated by the sighted can be a cruel place for a visually impaired person. A visual bias society would shun those who are visually impaired, especially in a society like Pakistan, where a visually impaired child is neither expected nor trained to perform in the outside world. Condition is improving, but traditionally, the only task a visually impaired person was entrusted with is to recite Quran by heart throughout his childhood and use its verses to heal the people of the village for the rest of his/her life. As far as educated people are concerned, the simple practice of using the term ‘visually impaired’ instead of the word ‘blind’ is neither encouraged nor taken seriously. The former is a practical and a formal term with a much wider scope than that of latter which is not only negative but is degrading in nature.

This attitude of visual bias further expands when it comes to the dreams of the visually impaired person. Questions like, ‘how can a blind dream’, or, ‘do they dream in colour or black and white’ are offensive as they are backed by the thought that a visually impaired person is unable to perform on a par with the sighted, which instead should have been that dreaming is a normal activity of human brain, being part of the human conscience and has nothing to do with being sighted or visually impaired.  The proper question would only relate to the contents of a visually impaired person’s dreams. There is also, however, another extreme end which expects a visually impaired person to dream visual images like a normal sighted person.

In the paper, ‘Do the Blind Literally “See” in Their Dreams? A Critique of a Recent Claim That TheyDo,’ by Nancy H. Kerr and G. William Domhoff, it has been discussed that since visually impaired persons are capable of drawing two-dimensional figures, sometimes even with similar depiction of depth, motion, perspective and other characteristics to the drawings of the sighted individuals, it should not be interpreted that a visually impaired person experiences visual images while dreaming.

The paper further discusses that a visually impaired person sometimes do employ visual language to describe their dreaming experiences, but if a researcher fails to exclude metaphoric uses of visual terms, it would then most certainly bias the results of the research. Phrases like ‘watching TV’ or ‘keeping an eye on things’ are an example of such a usage of visual language, used to describe the waking experiences but do not imply a visual content.

Consequently, if a congenitally blind who could not perceive light, cannot experience visual images while dreaming and, therefore, an elaborative narration with the usage of visual language by such a person about his dream should not be interpreted  literally.

Thus, dreaming is a phenomenon which is experienced by everyone and the human conscience is still being explored, but understanding the dreams of a visually impaired person can assist their parents, teachers and mentors in understanding their fears, learning experiences and goals, which is only possible through communication.