Dreaming in neurotypical ways?

Post Reply New Topic

When I dream, I don't have anxiety or trouble speaking. When I'm conscious, I tend to have a hard time getting my words out and I avoid eye contact--and have most of the other common autism symptoms.

Does this happen to anyone else?

In my dreams, I rarely speak to anyone and I don't remember a lot of dialogue, if there was any, once I wake up.

In the last dream in which I know someone spoke, it was someone speaking to me. They said a single sentence, an observation about their own life.

I may even speak more in real life. I occasionally have no anxiety around people in my dreams, but I act more impulsively and emotionally in my dreams.

I'm not sure if I'm on the spectrum though...

Trouble speaking and avoiding eye contact due to anxiety are not symptoms of autism - they are symptoms of social anxiety. I don't say you are not autistic - social anxiety is ofter comorbid to autism. I just point out a mistake.

Anyway, about dreams:

Sleeping body is relaxed, which brings similar effect as anxiety meds.

You don't feel anxiety that easily in your dreams(unless you are experiencing a nightmare). The sleeping mind is not clear enough to figure out to all possible outcomes. It is on track to just one outcome - positive or negative, depending on the kind of dream(nightmares are dreams where your mind is on basic track with a negative outcome).
Numbers of outcomes you are aware of might change if there is some sleep distribution that wakes up a part of conscious thinking but you still won't reach the fully conscious state of mind as you have in reality.

Also speaking in dream doesn't require complex body control that can be affected by anxiety. Communication in dream is like a telepathy - you might think you are speaking but in fact you only hear your own thoughts and make yourself believe the dream character heard you. You, the dream character and the whole dream world are actually one being - the sleeping you. It is only natural the character hears you when you think it did hear you because you are actually in control of the dream. The dream changes according to what the most conscious part (the dream "you") truly believes is happening. Lucid dream practitioners use this feature to control their dreams.


I am anxious person in real life but in my dreams I am pretty brave.

I don't talk to people more than I do in reality but I don't have social anxiety so it's not the deal, I don't feel need to talk much, just basic communication. For more complex descriptions I will just send other characters a mental image of what I want to communicate(I am visual thinker) instead of talking and as long as I am not aware it is impossible for them to understand that kind of communication they will react as if they got the message despite no words being said. It works both ways - when I am getting a complex message from other characters I will see their "thoughts" instead of hearing words. That kind of communication feels natural in my dreams.

My lack of anxiety appears in other situations. For example I would never stand up to a terrorist in real life but I do it repeatably in my dreams and while I so feel fear I don't feel anxiety. I know "I am off dead if the terrorist shots me" but I don't have the mentality of "I will better stay back and wait for help because it lessens the chance I am going to be killed". I see only two outcomes: I fight, make sure the opponent doesn't kill me and I win or I let him kill me and it's over. I don't see the possibility of "I can wait and hope someone is going to save me". It won't even get through my mind till the very end. I might get the thought of "It cannot end like this!" in the moment right before my death and it is going to change the outcome(my opponent suddenly gets shut by a sniper) but I am unaware of that possibility till I am really one step to death and the waking up process starts due to too much emotions - mind starts clearing up soon before you wake up but it is still possible to stop the process at that moment, and continue the dream with better thinking abilities.

Hehe. That reminds me. Recently I experienced an anxiety creating situation in dream - I was about to get into train but I realized I have a wrong ticket and no money to buy correct one which means I had no way to get home. It was scary and I was like "What I am gonna do, what I am gonna do." for a while. Then waking up process started but I successfully stopped it halfway and realized: "Wait a moment... I can just teleport myself, can't I? I did it many times before.". I was not aware I was dreaming and I couldn't remember my real life at all but I remembered a lot of previous dreams. I suppose dreams are stored in different part of memory than real life experiences.
So I teleported home.
LOL

I'm always interacting with and talking to people in my dreams, completely contrary to real life.

I get anxious a lot, but I also get anxious in dreams too. In fact, my dreams are often full of emotion, like panic, anxiety, stress, depression, fear, anger, and isolation.

Sometimes I dream of myself having massive rage outbursts, and yelling and screaming and making a scene, or even hitting someone I love. I would never do that in real life, but in my dreams I sometimes do.

Or I have dreams where nobody likes me and everybody's against me and I feel alone and isolated. I hate having those dreams.

I don't often have good dreams. Occasionally I do, but not very often. My dreams mostly reflect on my emotions in everyday life. I spend a lot of time in my dreams talking and listening too.

I am still me in dreams, even though I sometimes do things I wouldn't actually do in real life. But I mean I'm still in my body, and things what stress me out in dreams are what stress me out in real life, or would stress me out in real life if it was to happen. Whilst I'm dreaming, I think that it's really happening to me, until I wake up and think ''oh, it was just a dream!''