In a dream I had last night, I talked to somebody about lucid dreaming, and they said: "Oh, like xxx!" (I've forgotten what xxx actually was.)
I asked: "Who is xxx?" He: "You know, the sesame street character?"
I didn't know xxx and I don't think the character actually exists. But in my dream, I googled it and found out that xxx had a different name in every country sesame street is shown in. I remember reading the names, one of them was "Phlox", like the Star Trek character.
But can we actually read in our dreams?
As far as I know, the language areas of the brain are less active in sleep than in waking life. Like Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area – the first is what connects meaning to words, and the second is what allows us to put the words together in meaningful ways. Which is why in dreams, we supposedly make less sense when we talk, and most dreamers cannot read or write in their dreams.
But I've also read that there are people who can read and write in their dreams, and a lot of them are writers and generally people who think a lot about language. I have a book blog and spend a lot of time writing book reviews, which involves thinking and writing about how language is used by the author. Maybe that's why I can read sometimes in my dreams – but only sometimes. Oh, ok, let's be honest, hardly ever.
Reading in dreams falls into these categories for me:
I cannot read and the dream explains it away. The print I'm trying to read is too small or smugded, the paper it's printed on is torn or somebody has spilled ink on it, the form is not actually filled out, the sender's address is missing etc. In a recent dream, I walked past a bookstore and all the books on display in the window were upside down. (In real life, you would still be able to read the titles, but in my dream, it made sense to me that I was not able to read them.)
The dreams skips over the part where I actually read. I decide to read something and suddendly just know what I've read, so I assume I must have read it.
I read, but my gaze and focus are erratic. I read a sentence but not as you would from the first word to the last. Instead, certain words and phrases jump out at me. Like in the sesame street dream – I found the character on a wiki page, and I know that I wanted to read its profile, but I could only clearly see the names of the character in different countries.
I actually read, I can see the letters and words in my mind, but the meaning of the sentences seems weird in some way, and sometimes they change while I'm still reading.
I have managed to read text in several dreams, but sometimes it looks distorted or is nonsense. In one, I was reading a notice that had a list of names, and I sotted that my name had been spelt wrong, but then as I looked, the letters changed. I think that also happens quite a lot, like the digits on a digital clock.
Honestly, I love reading and writing, I used to write alot for Roleplaying, it was a dark side of my past but it still was a enjoyable one. I remember, opening up a social media app and I saw messages between my dad and someone else and as I scrolled down... it just made less and less sense.