[311/365] here's a piece of grit

[cosmolinguist]

I don't read stuff written about blind people directed for a general audience very often, and when I do it's only when I feel like seeing how terrible it is.

This is such a terrible article. It's very binarist about blindness/sightedness, it's very sighted-gaze, it's very dull.

Until the last few sentences, which I wish had citations so I could use them for my work, which is trying to make transport and streets better for blind people.

Research has found that blind people have more dreams about travel that involve unfortunate circumstances. Some of these dreams could potentially be considered nightmares. One hypothesis is that the nightmare content may mirror the difficulties blind people face while getting around in their waking life.

Huh. Until the pandemic, most of my nightmares were about travel, usually on planes. But I'm only one person, one data point.

I wonder if there's any truth to the barriers we experience in our journeys are so profound that they populate our nightmares.

I've been thinking about this for many days, since I first saw this terrible article.

Comments

[lilysea]

I have recurring nightmares about being separated from my power wheelchair,

about my wheelchair being too far away for me to walk to,

about not knowing where my wheelchair is.

I also (since COVID started) have recurring nightmares about not having a mask/not wearing a mask in a crowd of people not wearing masks.

[davidgillon]

I'll bet wheelchair/flying ones are common!

[lilysea]

I don't doubt it!

I don't have wheelchair/flying nightmares

my most common wheelchair nightmare is that I've gotten up, walked away from it, and now I don't know where I've left it or I am too exhausted to walk back to it

[cosmolinguist]

Makes a lot of sense that you'd have that anxiety about the presence and usability of your wheelchair.

I'm really surprised that masks haven't featured more in my dreams -- I've had one memorable one where I thought I was wearing a mask but it was somehow floating away all the time. But mostly I am in buildings and crowds and don't mind at all, in my dreams. It's very weird.

[ashelterofpages]

…Wow, I pulled up that article, and the title made me twitch on sight.

I don't have nightmares about traveling exactly. Mine are more centered around people touching me and trying to steer me one way or the other or doing something I didn't ask them to do/help with. Sometimes I'll dream about being lost or forgetting where I am but that's not tied to my blindness, I think.

[cosmolinguist]

people touching me and trying to steer me one way or the other or doing something I didn't ask them to do/help with

Ugh, yeah, this is also something I hear about all the time for work! As well as experiencing in my everyday life of course (I screamed at the last person who grabbed me when I was ignoring his demand that I get on the bus before him).

Sometimes I'll dream about being lost or forgetting where I am but that's not tied to my blindness, I think.

Yeah, maybe the details are a little different for us but I think everyone gets to enjoy those. :)

[ewt]

(I am not blind; I didn't read the article, because if you say it's terrible, I probably shouldn't read it and accidentally pick up or reinforce some kind of terribleness.)

I have travel nightmares occasionally. Most of them are around cycling, or rather not cycling because there's no safe infrastructure for the route I need to take, and I can't walk far enough due to some jointcrap injury, and there isn't any public transport. (Only in the nightmares there will be a sea of rats or pillars of fire or something too, because my brain turns anxiety into other anxiety, thanks brain.) They were more frequent when my walking mobility was worse than it is now.

I live in London, so there usually *is* public transport, but it's definitely less accessible to me when certain walking mobility problems flare up.

[cosmolinguist]

And again I hear a lot about the problems with cycling infrastructure for work. It does sound incredibly stressful.

My brain also does that thing of turning intangible anxiety into almost cartoonishly visible anxieties. Such fun.

[jesse_the_k]

In the past I've had pedestrian nightmares, full of too-steep curb ramps and right-turn-on-red monsters.

At the top of the list of why I love my psych meds: I don't remember my dreams. I do have dreams, and they fade instantly. I don't have sleep terrors anymore, and I sure don't miss them.

(BTW, I had three pointless "hlepy" interactions today and each time I thought, I wish Eric was here to lay snappy comebacks on these clueless non-disabled people!)

[cosmolinguist]

Haha I love that I'm like a talisman of this in your brain.

(I'm not being sarcastic, I do really love this.)

And we'd sure have a fun time if we were hanging out together, I am sure.

Your "hlepy" frame

[jesse_the_k]

Made sense out of decades of annoying interactions, so of course you're the avatar of disabled snark!

Although I'd love to meet you sometime when you're proximal, I'm at my best in text.

[momentsmusicaux]

On the one hand, it doesn't strike me as far-fetched that people would have dreams about situations they find difficult and traumatic. On the other hand, I, a regular city cyclist, have never had dreams about getting knocked off my bike.

But then again, I rarely remember my dreams and when I do they are very elaborate and fantastical and nothing to do with my daily life.

[forests_of_fire]

Anything that can be severe and distressing can lead to nightmares, so I'm not surprised.