# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion >  >  Reading? I thought that was impossible.

## DingoBoy

I read several times that text in Dreams is impossible. However, I had an interresting dream tonight where I did read. Very clearly in fact.

I had uncovered a Ancient (Stargate SG1+Atlantis. They're an ancient civilization...) schoolbook, that could potentially contain much knowledge. When I got around to reading it, there was actually text. I didn't directly comprehend all of it, but I remember I did understand the basics of it. Even better, the entire book was in crossword form. The information in itself was some physics formula, as well as some other specifics I don't remember. 

Wasn't reading In dreams impossible? 

Comradely, 
DingoBoy.

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## XxJOxX

Reading in dreams isn't IMPOSSIBLE, but it is VERY LIKELY that the text you "read" will either be illegible or will change after you read it. However, if you did read it, maybe post as much as you could remember.... that would probably give us some idea of what's going on... :wink2:

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## Unelias

If you think it is, it is very likely  :smiley:  in non-lucid dreams, as stated above, words usually are quite cryptic. I have recalled succesfully certain favorite books of mine in LD though. ( of course not the WHOLE book, but pages of it.  :tongue2: )

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## Daniel33

I've experienced this as well. It's partly why I have such a hard time achieving lucidity using most of the typical cues. 

I don't think it has much to do with actual syntax as it does with how your mind assumes an understanding of what it is "reading". I've had a dream in which I've read a sign, looked back and it said the same thing but whether or not the words or letters or symbols were the same the second time as the first, I have no idea;

It's possible that the words/letters/symbols do in fact change on you, but their meaning is buffered or filtered by your having the habit of understanding these things so easily - and with little to no effort involved, mind you, hence the acceptance of their meaning without any question. Make sense? That's my theory, anyway.

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## Forsaken

I spend tons of time at the computer, chatting with people through text. And because of that, I frequently have dreams involving chatting online, and all the text seems perfectly normal, even though the dreams aren't lucid.

The "can't read in dreams" thing doesn't apply at all to me. It varies from person to person I guess.

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## Sotik

Reading text in dreams is not impossible. Though "some times" it will appear ineligible or will change when you look at it, look away and then look back. In fact looking at text and looking away then looking back to see if it has changed is a common reality check that people use along with other reality checks. So to do such a reality check would mean that text could be read in dreams  :wink2:

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## Yosemine

Reading in dreams is not impossible. Sometimes I admit I find it harder, but it's not impossible. I have a feeling most people find it impossible to read in dreams because people kept telling them "reading is impossible in a dream" and those people eventually took it as fact. I mean, it's not like it's a really bad thing, considering it gets lots of people lucid, but some things you read in dreams can be pretty funny, so its a shame others miss out on it.

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## Reanchi

Reading is possible, just unlikeley that it would be completeley legible, i mean, if you took the time to memorize a short book, down to the punctuation, and read it in a dream, it would be more legible, since you brain knows exactly what it looks like.

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## thedreamingwolfess

I've read at least a couple times in non-lucid dreams. I'm not sure what I've been reading (too hard to remember). But I do think it's been stuff that I've read the night before. What's also cool is that in my vision I can also see what's going on in the book happening. :]

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## miraclesnmagic

I have had a few dreams as well where I was reading in text in my dream. One that I particular remember it text was actually encoded in numbers & I had to decoded it to find out what it said.

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## John11

> I spend tons of time at the computer, chatting with people through text. And because of that, I frequently have dreams involving chatting online, and all the text seems perfectly normal, even though the dreams aren't lucid.
> 
> The "can't read in dreams" thing doesn't apply at all to me. It varies from person to person I guess.



This is how it is for me.  I never seem to have a problem read text in a dream with a few exception.  In my non-lucids, the text usually makes a fair amount of sense too.

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## Zhaylin

Not being able to read in dreams used to be a given for me.  But lately, I can.
In one of my more recent dreams, I dreamed my hubby and I were at a Chinese restaurant in Italy and we were part of a tour group.  I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses in life, and in the dream I was given a paper that asked me about my vacation experience and if there were enough food options for my religion.  I thought it was funny because we don't have any food restrictions unless it's blood sausage or something  ::D: 
I read the form perfectly.
Since I was a kid I've had a recurring dream of being in a huge library with all the knowledge of the ages but I was never able to read any of the books.  I hope to have the dream again and actually read something interesting  :smiley:

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## Tim0g

It was interesting. The other night I had a dream where I was reading- I cannot remember exactly what it said, but I know at the time I understood what I was reading. The interesting part was as I was reading the page of the book, my "eyes" focused on the line I was reading but not the ones under, and as I read the words did not change below the line I had just read, but came into better focus, but were not so out of focus in the first place that I could not make out the letters. It was trippy to think that my brain may have somehow had the whole page written out before I knew what it said. -If that makes any sense.

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## Lucid Lobster

I guess if we couldn't read in dreams we wouldn't know if we were walking into a movie theater or a condemned building surrounded by warning signs about to be blown up. 
I can read. I just can't re-read because the second time the letters have changed. I think if you look away from your book long enough and look back you will see different text. 

That's pretty neat because in dream world you'd never have to ever buy another book. Simply read it and the next time you pick it up .. it's a brand new book. I wonder if movie DVD's work that way too.

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## konj

I didn't read other replies, though reading is very possible, I mean why wouldn't it be, I read things all the time in dreams.

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## shotbirds

o.O. I've never had trouble reading in a non-LD.

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## radical

hey, i'm going to show my noobness hear to ask, why can't, or supposedly can't, read in dreams. is it something to do with the different sides of the brain....?

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## Barbizzle

It has to do with the fact that there is NO text.  not really, its a perception of your mind that can change on a whim.  Since the writing has no physical grounding, its open to change at any moment.  You have to remember that in dreams, the text is just as much you as your dream body.  Its all one illusion of your mind  :wink2:

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## Lucid Lobster

Is it possible that we only think we're reading when we're not?  Has anyone read something then woken up and remembered the text of what they read?  Even if you could do that would it prove that what you "read" in the dream was real?  I do read in dreams but I've never remembered WHAT I read after the dream ended.  Perhaps when in I dream and I'm reading

"Qwriwer  swiet wiqoie2 kslsaaskss 8syssd"

My dream mind thinks it see's

"Free Credit Report Dot Com"

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## Lusense

> Reading in dreams isn't IMPOSSIBLE, but it is VERY LIKELY that the text you "read" will either be illegible or will change after you read it.



Ya, I'd say that too. If you look at it, look away, then look back it keeps switching up on you. Probably has to do with memory retention or something? I was trying to write down a license plate in this dream that was like 13 digits long and I tried like 10 times since it kept changing on me.

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## Niddiboy

text for me in dreams has never been illegible or blurry, the text has always changed after i have read it, whther it be contextual, i.e. the word changes before my eyes or the text changes to a different font, boldness, italics or underlined.

so no it aint impossible to read and understand, it can actually be quite to opposite.

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## Lëzen

I really wouldn't think one's literacy would be affected simply by the fact that your "logic center is switched off" during sleep. Raw logic really isn't all that necessary to be able to read, anyway - it's a skill that's pretty much with you for life once you learn it (unless of course you suffer from aphasia).

The thing is, in a dream, things tend to change rather rapidly - if you look at a street sign that says "Cow", chances are, if you look away from it and then look back at it, it'll say something completely different. The same tends to ring true with telling time - once, I looked at a digital clock in a lucid dream, and it displayed a coherent time; when I looked away and back again, there was only a '7' in the last digit.

Of course, I have had dreams before where I would fail to understand text, as hard as I tried to read it correctly. But usually this only happens to me when my dream has an air of urgency about it - like "I need to know what this sign says and I need to know _NOW!_"

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## Pride

I thought turning on a light was impossible to do, but much to my surprise i go to turn on a light in my dream, it comes on and i don't go lucid

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## The Cusp

As long as you stay focused on what you're reading with no interruptions the text flows along fine in a stream of consciousness type of way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness

But if you break that stream, what you've read will change.  If it's something really short like a stop sign, in might not change, but anything detailed will change for sure.

If you stop to notice those changes, you're going to find more of them.  Same with irregularities in the letters.  Once you start looking for them, you're going to find lots of them.

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## shannyball

Yes, I thought that too but just recently I also had a dream where I could read and comprehend what I was reading.  I am beginning to let go of my limitations I give myself in dreams and perhaps that has something to do with it.

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## Yoiee

I was reading the last Harry Potter novel, when the book started whispering satanically at me. I was so scared and then suddenly the book screamed at me. Panicked, I threw the book at the wall and I woke up.

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## tranquilitybytrey

I had a dream last night that I was having a hard time reading the name of a car that we were looking at. Then i knowticed that i was looking at it upside down and could read it perfectly. A really old purple sports car named The Mulan Rouge lol.

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## DarkLucideity

To be honest, I group things like this with "You cant turn on lights in dreams" and "you can't close your eyes in dreams or you'll wake up," or even "sex to orgasm is nearly impossible." They're just false limitations that somehow have spread through the community because people trick themselves into believing they're true. All of those I've done in dreams and lucid dreams alike with no issues. What you can do in real life you can do in dreams you can do in lucid dreams.

Anyway, reading is the same. I have read in dreams and lucid dreams, in fact I've read something clearly in a dream last night. In my experience, text does not change when you look away and look back. Also, when I read, I don't just get the meaning from the words telepathically. I actually look at them and understand them (as long as I recall the dream vividly.)

However, I'm not too sure about very long things such as reading a page of writing, so don't ask me about that.

Oh, one last thing about text: of course it can change but unless you expect it to, it probably won't.

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