Recently, a friend in the UK emailed. Her six-year-old girl had had a dream in which I could hear everything in the whole wide world about everything!
This made me smile, as Elina (the little girl) is a big fan of mine and donates her ‘princess bed’ every time I visit.
She’s not the only one to wonder about my hearing – a family acquaintance once asked the intelligent question of whether I could hear in my dreams.
Thinking about it, I realised I can hear in my night-time dreams – and interestingly, the face of the person who’s speaking, isn’t always visible.
Another bizarre fact about hearing in my dreams is that sounds are heard literally. Many times I’ve woken, wondering if that was a noise in the room.
This is probably due to receiving hearing-aids at an early age (18 months) when my brain’s neurological pathways for hearing were still developing.
In other words, the hearing-aids helped ‘wire’ my brain for speech and sounds, so that’s why my dreams have full hearing even though I’m deaf.
Years ago, a friend asked if I could hear myself ‘think’. That’s the same thing, the neurological paths helping my brain to think in terms of speech.
Instead of regretting what I lack (in hearing terms), I focus on what I do hear, and enjoy the irony of dreaming in sound. It’s better than nothing …
