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As they have no visual memory, those born blind do not dream with images – but with the other senses: they hear things, have tactile sensations and smell. They also dream that they are making some movement and, like people who can see, it is common for them to dream that they are flying or falling from great heights. “These sensations are also present in the dreams of people with normal sight. However, in them the sense of vision predominates, occupying 70% of the dream, while the other senses often go unnoticed”, says neurologist Rubens Reimão, specialist in sleep disorders at Hospital das Clínicas, in São Paulo. If there is a sense that tends to predominate in the dreams of the blind, it is that of hearing. Those who were not born blind, but lost their sight due to illness or accident, have visual memory and can dream with images. The amount and form of these images will depend on when the person lost their sight.
If, for example, she became blind when she was less than a year old, the images will be very rudimentary, as babies still cannot see properly.