Dreams Could Be Hallucinations

[IsaacAsimov]

I think that dreams could be hallucinations because when you're dreaming, you don't experience with your body any of the 5 senses. The brain could start making up things.

 

People that were placed in isolation chambers had hallucinations for the same reason.

 

What do you think?

[DrmDoc]

I think that dreams could be hallucinations because when you're dreaming, you don't experience with your body any of the 5 senses. The brain could start making up things.

 

People that were placed in isolation chambers had hallucinations for the same reason.

 

What do you think?

Actually, the dreaming brain appears and behaves much like that of a schizophrenic, which are both prominently characterized by low prefrontal activation (hypofrontality). However, the specifics of what causes this low prefrontal activation between the dreaming and schizophrenic brain may be distinct.

[tkadm30]

Actually, the dreaming brain appears and behaves much like that of a schizophrenic, which are both prominently characterized by low prefrontal activation (hypofrontality). However, the specifics of what causes this low prefrontal activation between the dreaming and schizophrenic brain may be distinct.

 

It is important to note that this phenomenon is termed "transient" hypofrontality: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12763007

 

Sleep related hallucinations are usually hypnagogic or hypnopompic.

 

They are a parasomnia and totally unrelated to schizophrenia. http://www.sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorders-by-category/parasomnias/sleep-hallucinations/overview-facts

[DrmDoc]

 

It is important to note that this phenomenon is termed "transient" hypofrontality: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12763007

 

Sleep related hallucinations are usually hypnagogic or hypnopompic.

 

They are a parasomnia and totally unrelated to schizophrenia. http://www.sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorders-by-category/parasomnias/sleep-hallucinations/overview-facts

 

Indeed, dreaming isn't related to schizophrenia; however, schizophrenics do suffer certain sleep disorders. My comments comparing the dreaming brain to the brain in schizophrenia regards certain functional equivalents with the most prominent being hypofrontality--albeit transient amid normal dream sleep.

Edited January 28, 2017 by DrmDoc

[Lord Antares]

Can you clarify what you mean by ''dreams are hallucinations''? Of course they are. You see and hear things that aren't happening and aren't true. Hence, hallucinations.

[StringJunky]

Can you clarify what you mean by ''dreams are hallucinations''? Of course they are. You see and hear things that aren't happening and aren't true. Hence, hallucinations.

The difference is that hallucinations appear to come from a source outside of the body, so they aren't in the strict sense, in terms of how the mental health professions define them, I think.

[DrmDoc]

Can you clarify what you mean by ''dreams are hallucinations''? Of course they are. You see and hear things that aren't happening and aren't true. Hence, hallucinations.

 

SJ is right; hallucinations are conscious perceptual interpretations of external experiences that do not reflect true external sensory experience. Dreams are unconscious experiences that arise from metabolic activations in the brain amid sleep, which are then synthesized by the brain as perceptual experiences.

[Lord Antares]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the corrections.

So that disproves OP's argument as well. right?

[StringJunky]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the corrections.

So that disproves OP's argument as well. right?

Yes. It's important to be consistent with what the convention determines what particular words mean in science, and other technical professions as well. If everybody used different meanings for the same words or terms it would be like being in a band where everyone is playing different tunes at the same time.

Edited January 28, 2017 by StringJunky

[Thorham]

Dreams are unconscious experiences

 

Not all dreams are unconscious experiences. If they where, you wouldn't remember any of them after waking up.

[DrmDoc]

 

Not all dreams are unconscious experiences. If they where, you wouldn't remember any of them after waking up.

 

Forgive my directness, but you're wrong. Perhaps you misunderstand the nature of unconscious experience relative to conscious experience. Dreaming is an experience that occurs amid the cessation of conscious sensory experience and when we dream, we are unconscious. True dreams are mental experiences that arise from unconscious metabolic processes in the brain that occur amid the sleep process. Our memory of dreams is how our waking-state brain interprets the residual effects of those metabolic processes occurring in the brain amid sleep.

[Thorham]

Forgive my directness, but you're wrong.

 

No, I'm not. I have plenty of dreams where I'm quite aware of what's happening. In rare cases I'm also in control of what I'm doing. This isn't extremely rare, and has undoubtedly been documented.

[DrmDoc]

 

No, I'm not. I have plenty of dreams where I'm quite aware of what's happening. In rare cases I'm also in control of what I'm doing. This isn't extremely rare, and has undoubtedly been documented.

 

What you are describing is called lucid dreaming, which is also a type of dreaming that occurs unconsciously. When you have this experience, you are indeed not aware (unconscious) of your true sensory experiences within your sleep environment while asleep--you are indeed unconscious of the true physical/material nature of your sleep environment although you may be aware of being within a dream.

[Thorham]

What you are describing is called lucid dreaming, which is also a type of dreaming that occurs unconsciously. When you have this experience, you are indeed not aware (unconscious) of your true sensory experiences within your sleep environment while asleep--you are indeed unconscious of the true physical/material nature of your sleep environment although you may be aware of being within a dream.

 

Perhaps I'm mixing up the meaning of consciousness and awareness.

[Function]

 

Forgive my directness, but you're wrong. Perhaps you misunderstand the nature of unconscious experience relative to conscious experience. Dreaming is an experience that occurs amid the cessation of conscious sensory experience and when we dream, we are unconscious. True dreams are mental experiences that arise from unconscious metabolic processes in the brain that occur amid the sleep process. Our memory of dreams is how our waking-state brain interprets the residual effects of those metabolic processes occurring in the brain amid sleep.

 

It's clear that you are not conscious while sleeping, but, forgive me when I'm wrong, I thought there was indeed a certain degree of consciousness while dreaming? In which case I would completely distinguish it from "being conscious", "being aware" and "being wakeful"

[dimreepr]

 

It's clear that you are not conscious while sleeping, but, forgive me when I'm wrong, I thought there was indeed a certain degree of consciousness while dreaming? In which case I would completely distinguish it from "being conscious", "being aware" and "being wakeful"

 

But nonetheless hallucinatory.

I think that dreams could be hallucinations because when you're dreaming, you don't experience with your body any of the 5 senses.

 

 

What about the other 15ish senses?

[DrmDoc]

 

It's clear that you are not conscious while sleeping, but, forgive me when I'm wrong, I thought there was indeed a certain degree of consciousness while dreaming? In which case I would completely distinguish it from "being conscious", "being aware" and "being wakeful"

 

As I commented previously, what you're describing is called lucid dreaming, which is a state of being aware that one is dreaming while being within a dream. Lucid dreaming is also a type of unconsciousness or unconscious experience in that the dreamer is not consciously aware of what is happening outside the dream state in waking realty. When you are lucid dreaming, you are still unconscious of true conscious realty; therefore, consciousness within a dream is indeed an unconscious experience.

Edited January 30, 2017 by DrmDoc

[Function]

 

As I commented previously, what you're describing is called lucid dreaming, which is a state of being aware that one is dreaming while being within a dream. Lucid dreaming is also a type of unconsciousness or unconscious experience in that the dreamer is not consciously aware of what is happening outside the dream state in waking realty. When you are lucid dreaming, you are still unconscious of true conscious realty; therefore, consciousness within a dream is indeed an unconscious experience.

 

I wasn't speaking of "being conscious of your whereabouts in your dreams" while dreaming, rather of pure physiological presence of some characteristics comparable to consciousness (too general, but to get the point: an EEG pattern in REM-stages very comparable to those in wakefulness)

[DrmDoc]

 

I wasn't speaking of "being conscious of your whereabouts in your dreams" while dreaming, rather of pure physiological presence of some characteristics comparable to consciousness (too general, but to get the point: an EEG pattern in REM-stages very comparable to those in wakefulness)

 

Although our brain is as active while dreaming as it is while conscious and awake, it remains an unconscious experience in that real external sensory stimuli does not reach are awareness as it does when we are fully conscious and awake. At no time is dreaming a conscious experience.