What is the difference between dreams and reality?

[smithhanson]

I have been thinking about this for quite some time now...

What we think of as "reality" is simply our brain telling us that what we are perceiving is real. However, when we're dreaming, our brain is also giving us that very same message.

Sometimes dreams can be a lot more fun than reality for some people, and sometimes scarier. Generally, people tend to think of dreams as a mere fantasy; simply a creation by the mind. But it's possible that what we perceive as reality is only that, too, since the only way we can possibly think that something is real is through the same way we dream, isn't it possible that dreams can just be another reality, and everything within them is real?

What are your thoughts on this?

[RagnaToad]

The only way we know that our dreams are actually just dreams, is waking up.

When you're in a dream, you're not thinking about the fact that you're actually sleeping and laying still. That will just wake you up most of the time.

Since we are in what we call reality, and we haven't woken up yet, it is not really relevant whether this is a dream or not. Normally we would wake up once we thought about this being a dream, but it may be not as simple as that (Cf. The Matrix or theories about us being in someone else's dream).

So since we're not expecting to wake up from this reality, there's really nothing we can do but live our lifes, and assume that all this is real. Which is of course all relative. But it doesn't really matter.

If all this were a dream, you'd do exactly the same as you would if this reality was real.

[Alpha]

We can physically and mentally sense reality, but we can only mentally (and perhaps spiritually) sense non-reality. This for me is the difference between what we dream and what we are 'really in'.

Hmm. Short post. Not much else I can say here.

[RagnaToad]

We can physically and mentally sense reality, but we can only mentally (and perhaps spiritually) sense non-reality. This for me is the difference between what we dream and what we are 'really in'.

Hmm. Short post. Not much else I can say here.

But in your dream, you think you can physically feel too...

So there's no certainty that this is not a dream.

But it's not relevant, since you can't do anything about it anyway.

[nix]

From what i have gathered, Dreams are spyholes into our Unconscious. The only way for our unconscious to communicate with our Conscious self is through dreams, the unconscious mind doesnt speak any verbal language so communicates with us via symbols.

Thats why psychologists often focus on their patients dreams, and even go so far as to hypnotise them to try and communicate with the unconscious mind.

[Alpha]

But in your dream, you think you can physically feel too...

Have you ever felt pain in a dream that is comparable to 'real' pain?

[RagnaToad]

Have you ever felt pain in a dream that is comparable to 'real' pain?

That doesn't make sense.

You only know that the pain isn't real once you wake up. DURING your dream, you might be in agonising pain too.

It's all relative.

[Alpha]

You only know that the pain isn't real once you wake up. DURING your dream, you might be in agonising pain too.

You can't say you have felt pain with the same intensity in a dream as in reality? Compare getting a 'real' burn with any 'dream' pain. Plus, real pain doesn't go away in an instant (generally) and has lasting impacts. For a dream, you just need to wake up. Ergo, it can't be real.

[RagnaToad]

You can't say you have felt pain with the same intensity in a dream as in reality? Compare getting a 'real' burn with any 'dream' pain. Plus, real pain doesn't go away in an instant (generally) and has lasting impacts. For a dream, you just need to wake up. Ergo, it can't be real.

Why are you comparing 'real' pain to dream pain?

I mean, in your dream, you don't know it's not real.

If this world would be a dream, and you woke up tomorrow, all the pain you have felt in your life would be fake too.

Or is it not a relative but an absolute thing? Like the pain in this world is too bad to be fake?

(But even then, you might think the same thing in a dream.)

[Alpha]

Or is it not a relative but an absolute thing? Like the pain in this world is too bad to be fake?

Yes, and the fact that I can't say I've ever felt much pain in a dream. Have you?

The existence (dream or reality) that has the greatest level of sensory experience (pain is the most obvious, but smell, taste, etc. can be included) to me, must be more real. I suppose I can't say that reality isn't a dream, but the concept of such a detailed dream, filled with intense sensory experiences, is plainly absurd.

[Locke4God]

The answer to how you know which is real and which isn't is simple. You're smart. You're smart enough to know who you are, and that you're alive, and you're smart enough to understand concepts such as death, and space, and time. Time isn't even a real element. It's made up, and yet you can understand it. If you can be self aware of a concept such as time, you can certainly be aware of the difference between dreams and reality. Your question then is a ponderence of why we're the only beings capable of utilitizing such mental power. If cats could do it too, you wouldn't think it was so special nor mysterious.

A dream is merely your brain repairing itself as you rest. As it does this, various sections of your brain are stimulated and thus you see images and hear sounds related to the information stored at or near the part of the brain being repaired. The reason many dreams make little sense is that different types of information may be stored near the same area being repaired, and thus they blend together, and you create a weird circumstance to tie them together and make sense of them, the very same way your brain makes recognizable shapes out of random cloud formations. You also dream about recent events because those are sections of the brain recently used, and thus in the most pressing need of repair.