From my studies aphantasia (the lack of visualization) is a separate part of the brain from where our dreams are handled, so from what we can tell aphantasia doesn’t interfere too much with the process of dreaming?

Anecdotally, I find myself rarely dreaming (daily herbal vaporizer user) but can under certain methods (like the lucid dreaming method wake and back to bed). Very very rarely I’ll get visualization right before falling asleep, and dreams I do remember are effectively like I’m living in them, but for as long as I can remember my dreams have been in black and white (sometimes with red skies). When I do dream they are also always very chaotic, usually being chased, running through forests and hiding in cabins or fighting giant monsters. But always fairly detailed just in grey scale. That said, just like life, remembering my dreams is the same. I can only describe what I remember and I don’t visualize any of it again.

I have aphantasia and the most visualization in the waking world that I have is understand space - the layout and size of objects in a room for example - however beyond a rough “knowing” of the shape and size of a chair relative to the size of the room and other objects is all based in memory. It helps have my eyes open to reference other things. But anything beyond can this box fit in there is pretty much a blank (black with static, rather).

In regards to cannabis, THC in the majority of people inhibits our REM cycles which can prevent the process of making/remembering dreams. I’ve pretty much had roughly the same experience with dreams since I started smoking around 16 though, and still when I switch to vaping at 19ish, although consumption has gone up since those ages (and subsequently down a little bit lately).

All in all, anyone who wants to consistently dream should look into incorporating lucid dreaming techniques, writing down whatever they do remember when they wake up, and maybe looking into other aids like mugwort.

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