Several years ago, I noticed a recurring issue in my dreams. Often, when I’m with dream characters, I don’t actually see them; I hear their voices and sense their presence nearby, but I’m not looking at them. And in situations where I do see DCs, I don’t tend to have any visual recollection of any mannerisms or movements or changes in facial expression. Nothing strikes me as unusual while in the dream, and I still get the sense that they are doing stuff, but after waking up, I tend to just have a static mental picture of the person.
I’ve wondered if this is due to being kinda introverted and not socializing in person as often as others. If that’s the case, this pandemic is definitely not helping that. I have noticed similar issues in my dreams lately, though I can’t tell if it’s any worse than it’s been in the past.
I was kinda drifting away from lucid dreaming around the time I first noticed this, so I never put in any effort to fixing it, but I figure it might be a good time to try.
Not sure how common that is, but I’ve had dream characters change appearance halfway through the dream. When normal dreams were more common, I’d often continue on as normal if the mannerisms were close enough, though nowadays in lucid dreams it’s more deliberate. But in general I have a decent recollection of the same types of things I’d be likely to remember and place importance in IWL. So, voice and mannerisms being first, followed by any distinct features.
And I’m also faceblind (prosopagnosia), so I’m not the best person for specific face recollection
I mean, how good is your recollection in waking life? Do you tend to remember people’s clothes and mannerisms?
For most of my childhood, I had to look at people from the shoulders down because if I looked up at their face, i’d immediately wake up due to sensory overload. Even now, my dreams seem to have a couple basic DC templates that show up repeatedly, with a couple striking exceptions. Also because of me being on the spectrum my character’s actions and dialogue rarely make sense, so I just roll with it lol
Come to think of it, I’m trying to visualize mannerisms of people I know, it’s harder than I thought; I guess I just don’t retain that very well, or maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to it. That said, I’d probably be able to tell if someone’s mannerisms were different than usual. As for clothes, I often don’t pay attention, but if I make a point to notice, I don’t really have any trouble recalling an outfit.
I’m on the spectrum too; maybe there’s a connection. I will say that in dreams a big part of the issue is I do a bad job at actually looking at the people I’m talking with, and I’ve been told before IWL that I have a similar issues (though I don’t think as pronounced, and I don’t think it’s all the time).
Same, I dont generally look at people when I talk to them, especially not eye contact unless i really have to. Its interesting how the DCs can behave so randomly- its like the Dreamscape takes that mild confusion over human behavior during WL and amplifies it tenfold
