Do people with AS dream differently?

[indiscreet]

I wonder because while I dream a lot my dreams seem to be quite different from those of other (neurotypical) people.

 

Although there are people in my dreams they never talk to me or I to them. I always feel anxious and isolated and I'm often lost - sometimes because the people I was with have gone ahead somewhere and while I can hear their voices I never catch up with them. Other times I'm just lost and can't find my way to a station or if I'm in a station I can't find the platform.

 

The odd thing about it is that everything is very detailed - the buildings, the landscape and the layout of th station but it's all strange to me, both in the dream and when I recall it after I wake up. I know I've never been in these places in real life.

[RainbowsButterflies]

I have unusual dreams, but not like that. I tend to dream in the third person - more an awareness of what is happening as if I am watching a film, or reading a book - somehow detached rather than being /in/ the dream...

[HollowFingers]

Although there are people in my dreams they never talk to me or I to them

 

All of my dreams are the same as how you described, but my girlfriend and my friend say that their dreams feature conversations

[coolblue]

Although I can see why people use the concept of neurotypical, it's actually quite misleading. There isn't such a thing as a 'normal' human being, although you could get a 'typical' human being in respect of a particular characteristic. In a large population you would get considerable variation in brain function throughout that population so you would expect to see considerable variation in dreaming - from people who didn't dream at all/remember their dreams to lucid dreamers who experience their dreams as they do real life.

 

AS simply represents a cluster of people with similar characteristics. Their dreaming might be similar to each other's, or might also vary considerably - I'd predict the latter.

 

cb

[Tally]

I don't very often remember dreaming at all. When I do it's just about very normal things like doing some ironing or going to the shop. Sometimes I actually think a whole day has passed because my dream was so vivid it felt like it was real.

[Sammysnake]

My 10 year old daughter regularly retells very detailed dreams to me. She remembers them vividly, says she dreams in colour and smell and that she can control her dreams, directing how they go. Occasionally she has one which is a little upsetting so she simply changes the direction of the thought processes without waking up. She rarely wakes in the night but if she does in the middle of a dream, she can choose to go back into it. He dreams are fully fledged stories.

 

With my dreams on the other hand, it's very rare for me to remember details - I have to try very hard. They are also really mixed up with bits of people, places and events from my experiences mixed up in ways that they shouldn't be and the 'story line' is always really random!!

 

My daughter has AS, I am NT but I don;t know if that's relevant at all. I do wish I had her ability to dream though!

[BaffledOwl1970]

I have quite a few recurring dreams - one involves me being at the wrong railway station and frantically trying to get to the right one, another features planes and another involves me driving a (usually red) car when I know I can't (in the dream and in real life).

[greasemonkey]

I have never thought about this, I don't dream much at all (or just don't remember) but when I do they feel very vivid. I do not know what most people dream like as I have never been someone else so I find this question hard for a comparison. I do have a set of dreams that can happen but it is rare for a new one to be added, previously I had a set of 2 or 3 dreams but that has expanded to 3 or 4 (I may be forgetting one). I have noticed that 2 of the original ones did include some of my actual life (my house was in there) with one of them actually being a bit of video of past experience. Here is a list of ones I can remember (most are just random so I have only written the main events):

Being on my bike and cycling down a 20cm step (this is actual experience, it is like a video of it) hasn't happened in a long time.

Giant odd fire thing in my drive? Odd, colurs in this were just orange and black (others include green and other colours) (This includes my house and actual drive). This one happened a few years ago and hasn't come back recently.

This happens a lot: Falling of a cliff (I have never done this although I have fallen from a distance before (not big just 1m or something)) actually, I think this may be a clip from a game I played once)

This one is odd (and newest): a garage floating on a cloud and I (the camera maybe) am floating. It's like half-rendered dream.

 

There are NEVER people, there was once or twice, they NEVER talked.

I've once got close to dreaming about Minecraft, I was almost playing Minecraft in a dream. It didn't last long. Recently I think I have been going mad, I somehow think I can command my brain to place a block or use a compass with a mod to teleport. Nothing actually happens though.

 

I have notices all my posts are much longer than others, it's like me talking.

[AdamJ]

I sometimes dream that people are doing things or behaving in a way I don't like, causing me to descend rapidly into a big meltdown. I had one like that a few months ago where my parents visited unexpectedly and set about rearranging everything in my flat. Thankfully, dreams like that don't cause me real-life meltdowns.

 

Here's a small digression. There is a theory that if you have a falling dream and you land, then you will die of shock in real life. This is definitely untrue! I vividly recall once landing in a falling dream. I admit that it did cause me a massive shock. Bizarrely, I instantaneously awoke to find myself several inches clear above my bed, onto which I came back down to rest. I can only assume I convulsed so violently that I 'bounced' myself clear of the bed!