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Has anyone noticed that when they read fiction before bed, they have more vivid dreams? I have a theory that since fiction forces you to visualize what is happening in the story, it would develop whatever brain area is tied to dream visualization as well. I'm going to try it soon.
I think daydreaming about fiction, fantasy and the like work too. I imagine these things non-stop. ;)
It might be that people that don't visualize well dont have as vivid of dreams, but I don't know. I have always loved visualizing. :) reading, drawing, and just plain daydreaming have always been things that I enjoy.
I don't know if you'd call it visualizing, but I write music so I'm always trying to hear new things in my imagination. It hasn't really helped much with hearing things in dreams though. I'll keep working on it.
Actually I would say the difference. When I imagine stuff too much before going to sleep it dulls my mind. The mind then somehow get used to the imagination instead of checking the feel of reality. For me better approach is to focus on reality instead of imagination to become lucid.
Personally, i remember dreams as i remember waking life. It's exactly the same vividness (unfortunately, mine is far below average on every modality).
The sad fact is that, due to lack of funds, we don't have any long term studies on "Can we improve vividness of our imagination or not ?", so the answer is unknown yet. The longest study i've seen lasted 2 weeks (i looked like 3-4 years ago).
But, drawing students report that learning to draw somehow helped them visualizing better, so... it wouldn't be weird if writing a journal/reading fiction with intent on visualization could help you visualize better.
And, my intuition tells me that vividness of your visualization is a deeply learned habit, it is not totally hardwired in your brain.