# Do you look different in your dreams?



## No-Sturm-und-Drang (Jan 21, 2009)

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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

My dreams are usually in the first person so I don't know if I look different or not.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

i hardly remember my dreams


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## VCL XI (Jan 19, 2004)

In my dreams I'm beautiful...and _bad_.


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## IllusionOfHappiness (Sep 6, 2007)

I've never really seen myself much in my dreams...my guess is I look the same.


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## Desperate (Apr 3, 2009)

I love dreams!!! I've been trying to have lucid dreams but I keep forgeting to write my dreams down when I wake up and so I can't remember them that well. I don't really know what I look like in my dreams.. They are usually a blur..


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

I don't know what I looked like. In my dreams I am just living, but around people I have no idea who they are. Last night I approach this counter with two women working behind it. I told them that they won the bet and that I would do their job. The two women should be what I had to do and left. I had an appointment book in front of me I had to write down when people called on the phone the time they were suppose to show up. I don't know what the business was. Also, there was this really snotty young girl sitting at the counter. She told me to turn to give her the remote for the tv and I gave it to her. She didn't even say thanks. Then this woman with a Hispanic accent came behind me stroking my hair and I said hi to her and also said her name which I can't remember.


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## scaredtolive (Mar 19, 2009)

copper said:


> I don't know what I looked like. In my dreams I am just living, but around people I have no idea who they are. Last night I approach this counter with two women working behind it. I told them that they won the bet and that I would do their job. The two women should be what I had to do and left. I had an appointment book in front of me I had to write down when people called on the phone the time they were suppose to show up. I don't know what the business was. Also, there was this really snotty young girl sitting at the counter. She told me to turn to give her the remote for the tv and I gave it to her. She didn't even say thanks. Then this woman with a Hispanic accent came behind me stroking my hair and I said hi to her and also said her name which I can't remember.


Interesting dream. Often when I wake up from a good dream I wish I could fall back asleep and pick up where I left off. Never happens :no I don't know what I look like in my dreams. I don't recall ever seeing myself.


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## Brax (Jun 15, 2005)

If I ever notice my own self in a dream at all, it's because I'm somebody different. Usually because at the time I was a woman in the dream. Once, however, I recall being a guy with short black hair and smaller face; I was a secret agent in that one, heh. When I dream of being a woman, it's usually one with long dark hair (she was Latino once, which I'm not) and twice, oddly enough, I was a lesbian.


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## coldmorning (Jul 4, 2007)

shyvr6 said:


> My dreams are usually in the first person so I don't know if I look different or not.


^Same here.


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## smalltowngirl (Feb 17, 2006)

coldmorning said:


> ^Same here.


Yeah, same with me. I certainly _feel _the same in my dreams.


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## Perfectionist (Mar 19, 2004)

I'm way prettier and thinner in my dreams. Both regular dreams and lucid dreams. And I have awesome, awesome hair.


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## Freedom2010 (Jan 29, 2009)

I usually can't even see myself in my dreams, and when I do see myself, I am usually pretty fuzzy (like how I would probably look like from several hundred feet away). Sometimes I might get a general outline of myself, but that is pretty much it.

I bet Freud has something to say about that. What it would be, I have no idea.


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## Typical Guy (Mar 30, 2009)

Desperate said:


> I love dreams!!! I've been trying to have lucid dreams but I keep forgeting to write my dreams down when I wake up and so I can't remember them that well. I don't really know what I look like in my dreams.. They are usually a blur..


I'm really into dreams as well. I find them fascinating and I think they do have some kind of meaning. I've been trying to have lucid dreams myself, so far with no luck.

I have been keeping a dream journal, though. For about a year now. It's really interesting to go back and read them later.


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## yellowpaper (Nov 13, 2007)

I hardly ever remember my dreams. And I've never seen myself really... I have had disfiguring things happen in my dreams though.


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## Social Loner (Apr 26, 2009)

scaredtolive said:


> Interesting dream. Often when I wake up from a good dream I wish I could fall back asleep and pick up where I left off. Never happens :no I don't know what I look like in my dreams. I don't recall ever seeing myself.


I do that all the time, except quite often my dreams do pick up where they left off if I go back to sleep straight away.

In my dreams I look different depending on the nature of the dream. A couple of nights ago I was a gargoyle, but I was also me, depending on what I was doing I looked different, I could also see myself from a narrative position sometimes... Dreams are weird; I can also fly in most of my dreams! :boogie


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## Hananah (Apr 30, 2009)

I like to day dream that I'm beautiful ( while away from a mirror ) IN my "asleep" dreams or shall I say nightmares Im usually HUGE ugly and have hairy legs :?... I always have nightmares my legs are hairy...no idea whats up with that , I'm sure it must have some other meaning ......


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## Fluffy Bunny Feet (Aug 21, 2008)

Anyone ever look at themselves in a mirror during a dream? I do that a lot, usually my hair is a different color or length but otherwise I look like me...


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## Zeddicus (Apr 1, 2009)

Well, for the most part, I look myself as I do in waking reality whenever I have a dream, but oft-times I have lucid dreams in which I can manipulate certain aspects of my appearance to a variable degree, depending on how "awake" I am in the dream.


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

Fluffy Bunny Feet said:


> Anyone ever look at themselves in a mirror during a dream? I do that a lot, usually my hair is a different color or length but otherwise I look like me...


My parent's had this mirror at the top of the stairs. I use to dream climbing those stairs and looking at myself in the mirror then screaming, and then I would wake up. I can't remember what I looked like. I only remember screaming and then waking up in a cold sweat. I only had that dream when I was a kid. I haven't had it since.


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## jezbu (Jan 18, 2012)

yea i tend to look in the mirror every now and then, i usually look a little different- hair will look different, facial features slightly off, as well as my height or body proportions. I am usually not as attractive as I am in conscious reality but do not focus or really care about my appearance in my dreams.


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## Akane (Jan 2, 2008)

*tries to picture self beyond overall shape without looking in a mirror*
*fails*

Don't have a clue if I look the same.


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## wrongnumber (May 24, 2009)

Often I look distorted. Sometimes I look deformed, balding, or my teeth are falling out, other times I look like a more attractive version of myself. It's usually the former though.


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## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

No clue how I look in my dreams, but it must be damn fine.

Otherwise, why would all these attractive people be asking to have sex with me!


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## tbyrfan (Feb 24, 2011)

I'm usually faceless in my dreams.


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## Evo (Jan 1, 2012)

I always dream in first person but I guess I look the same.


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## rawrguy (Mar 29, 2008)

Sometimes I'm a whole different person in my dreams.


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## Boring Loser (Oct 21, 2011)

I hardly ever remember what i look like in dreams, even though it is in third person a lot of times. When i do, it's more of a slightly better looking version of me. Sometimes i'm not me though. Sometimes I'm someone else.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

Holy necrobump, Thanatos! 

Can't say I've ever seen myself in a dream. I've always felt & acted the same, though... It'd be nice to be SA free for once!


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## DeeperUnderstanding (May 19, 2007)

Sometimes I'm myself. Sometimes I'm someone else.

Sometimes I'm a girl, sometimes I'm a boy. 

It is always different.


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## Ashley1990 (Aug 27, 2011)

Naah I look the same but yes I m the lead actress in my dreams haha


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## Cyber Lume (Sep 19, 2010)

I generally look like me in my dreams. Once in a while, I'll be some guy or an animal or something. I remember when I was little, I got to be young Simba. XD

You know, I can't remember really looking at myself in a reflective surface in my dreams; or rather, I've seen myself do it from third-person perspective, as most of my dreams are in, but my reflection wasn't really the focus.


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## meeps (Dec 5, 2011)

My dreams are usually from my perspective and I'm not always me in them. I've only looked in a mirror once, and one of my eyes was creepily huge.


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## Catnap (Dec 5, 2011)

Sometimes I dream in first or third-person perspective and often switch back and forth in a single dream, like I am starring in the dream but also watching myself. Sometimes I'm not even me, but another race, gender, species or even a cartoon, though it's been a long while since I was anything other than myself. Some dreams haven't even had me in them and I observed everything from some kind of undetectable, omnipresent location, like how the camera follows actors in a movie. My dreams also "change scenes" a lot, with pieces that might be totally unrelated.

For the most part, when I'm myself in the dream (and not something or somebody else), I don't seem to be defined in any absolute terms like body shape or age, other than I know it is me. I feel unhindered and say or do things that I don't think I might normally be capable of doing, especially physically (lots of running, acrobatics, being good with weapons or vehicles, etc), but I do seem to have a positive view of myself in my dreams, even if its a nightmare. I am not thinking of myself and am free to focus on the situation of the dream.


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## lightsout (Jan 8, 2012)

pita said:


> No clue how I look in my dreams, but it must be damn fine.
> 
> Otherwise, why would all these attractive people be asking to have sex with me!


Hey-oh!

Put me with all the other people who see it from POV


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## Sunshine1 (Jan 20, 2012)

shyvr6 said:


> My dreams are usually in the first person so I don't know if I look different or not.


Yes, this is typically the case for me.

The strange thing is, I find that the other people in the dream don't always embody the same features they do IRL (and I don't even realize it until I wake up!)


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## One Man Wolfpack (Aug 11, 2011)

I forget almost all of my dreams but in the few I remember they're always in first person so I have no idea what I look like, I never seem to have anxiety in my dreams though.


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## AllToAll (Jul 6, 2011)

I was once Asian in a dream. Never actually saw myself, but somehow I just knew.

:stu


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## shelbster18 (Oct 8, 2011)

I have never seen myself in my dreams. lol I love to hear about other people's dreams.  It's interesting.


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## LynnNBoys (Jul 13, 2011)

WintersTale said:


> Sometimes I'm myself. Sometimes I'm someone else.
> 
> Sometimes I'm a girl, sometimes I'm a boy.
> 
> It is always different.





AllToAll said:


> I was once Asian in a dream. Never actually saw myself, but somehow I just knew.
> 
> :stu


Usually I'm me, but sometimes I'm different. I don't think I've ever been a boy. I sometimes dream in first person and sometimes in third person. If its in first person, I don't usually see myself, I just know that I'm me or I'm a different person.


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## Pennywise (Aug 18, 2011)

I don't see myself in my dreams.


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## melissa75 (Feb 16, 2010)

I don't see myself in dreams, however, I don't have insecurities like I do in my every day life like I don't think...ugh, I feel so fat or these jeans are tight or I wish I was pretty, etc. 

I am different ages. Like the other night, I was younger, in college. Last week, I was in junior high still living with my grandparent's, and the house was surrounded by wolves.


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## mezzoforte (May 16, 2010)

I can never see myself in my dreams...


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## anotherusername (Nov 5, 2011)

Same here, I never see myself in my dreams.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

All of my dreams are in first person mode.


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## Tangerine (Feb 16, 2010)

I'm usually different people or things. Could be different genders, different characters, and change within the same dream. Sometimes I'm something like a teddy bear, or some kind of animal, or thing.


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## visualkeirockstar (Aug 5, 2012)

Its impossible to see yourself


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## Unknown88 (Aug 21, 2012)

In my dreams I sometimes seem to be in other people's bodies, like I'll be in a man's body or a fictional character's. It's strange, but when I am me I just look like myself.


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## Kakumbus (Mar 27, 2012)

Im usually a better version of myself, I do see myself in dreams tho.


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## lettersnumbers (Apr 15, 2012)

In my dreams I'm usually saving someone or falling in love, I don't know what I look like though.


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## Strwbrry (Jun 28, 2012)

I almost never see myself. Only the spiders or murderers.
The only time I saw myself, I looked quite good. ~____~
Scumbag brain.


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## Raphael200 (Aug 18, 2012)

I once saw myself flying while holding a car,i was HANDSOME!hahahahahaha,not really i looked like my self... not saying im not handsome!!!!........just ten feet taller,than usual....


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## FireIsTheCleanser (Aug 16, 2011)

I don't really know. Most of my dreams are in the first person, but when it isn't and I'm seeing myself, I don't know what I look like. It's like if I don't have a face, but at the same time a do, that it's not my face, but I'm recognizing it as my face.


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## JustKittenRightMeow (Jul 25, 2011)

I'm not sure what I look like since it's first person, but sometimes if I look in a mirror in them, I am really beautiful. Sometimes I think I am ugly in them. I hate waking up from dreams where I am beautiful (or ones where I have a really good singing voice) because those are always such nice dreams and I hate coming back to waking life/reality. >_<


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## meeps (Dec 5, 2011)

i was a seagull in my dream two nights ago


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## Lemonoftruth (Dec 1, 2018)

In my dreams, when I consider me, the dreamer, to be myself and not someone else or a character I am acting as for the dream, my appearance does not look like the real me. Even though it feels like me, and the hair is about the right length, everything else is strangely simplified. I am my real height, and my body is about the same shape as well, but it is simplified and an off-white color, like a clay figure without detail. No clothes, but not exactly naked, since there's nothing to cover, really. My face is flat like a mask, with nothing on it except two circles for eyes. My ears are normal, though. Even though I have no nose or mouth, I find I can still breathe. But, every dream I have when I look like this, I dont ever speak, since I have no mouth. It's never distressing to me, but I still find it strange. I wonder why my dream-self is so vivid and almost cartoonish?


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

I don't usually see myself in dreams unless it switches to third person or there's a mirror around, in which case I think sometimes I might be me but it's hard to say because I can't remember well (I pretty much only remember when I'm someone particularly different to how I look irl, or someone famous) one time I saw myself in a reflection and I was the member of Veruca Salt with the dark hair like she looks here:






another time I was a ten year old with long blond hair (it was weird because I was topless but my chest was binded with bandages which is a bad idea but I was also 10 so..? It wasn't me either some random 10 year old with really long blond hair which I've never had.) I think one time I was Steven Wilson too. But like 99% of the time I don't see myself.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

I never see myself in dreams (first person view), I feel though the "I" as an individual isn't that overly important, though I'm gonna try to look at myself next time, instead of doing what I was doing last night, arguing with an old woman about going to a shop to buy her some groceries, cause she couldn't walk very well but I didn't have time.


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## Karsten (Apr 3, 2007)

I don't see myself in my dreams.


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## Memories of Silence (May 15, 2015)

I never see myself in my dreams, but most of the time, I'm floating above the floor instead of walking normally. I turned into a man in one dream I had, so I would have looked different then.


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## sad1231234 (Jul 10, 2016)

Dreams are most likely the cause of various naturally-occurring hallucinogenic drugs being released into the sleeping brain at night. So yes, you can look different. You can look like someone you know, you can be an object or another person or a concept, you can be in a semi-conscious trance or train of information, etc. You can view yourself in 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person, etc. You can view yourself from an unconscious perspective, or view yourself with an entirely different "life", etc.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

I have hundreds (thousands?) of recorded dreams*. In most of them I'm roughly 'me', though something might be different, like my age or hair (I'm often much younger in my dreams than IRL). In a few of my dreams I'm biologically female. And in a few of them I'm some kind of animal or something else. Most of the time my dreams are in first-person, but it's not unusual for me to see myself in third-person, either. I'm more likely to switch to third-person when my dream self is someone other than my real self.

A few nights ago I was a pair of green-skinned, three-eyed cat-woman twins (seen from outside). And a couple nights before that I was both a rabbit and a monkey (both from the inside). I've had quite a few "animal running" dreams, in which I run around like a dog, frog, or other animal. I had one dream in an old abandoned Buddhist temple where I was running around as a Foo Dog (from inside). Animal running is a lot of fun and one of the very few positive dream experiences I have.

* My friend and I interpret each other's dreams 4-5 days a week and we've known each other for 4 years and I used to keep a dream journal.


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## tehuti88 (Jun 19, 2005)

I usually don't see myself in dreams unless I look into a mirror, though I'll often look at my arms/legs or the rest of my visible body. It's kind of hard for me to describe variations in my dream appearance, because my IRL mental image of myself doesn't match up with my actual appearance. I actually "idealize" my looks in a way. In my mind, I don't look so bad, and I'm not obese or awkward, plus I'm a lot younger. Only others' observations about me, and photos/videos (to a lesser extent mirrors, since my view in those is a bit skewed too), show me the truth, how fat and old and unattractive I really am. It's almost like reverse BDD, too high a mental opinion of myself.

So, I can only assume that in my dreams, my actual form is this "idealized" form, unless I witness something specifically different. I don't seem to deal with the side effects of weight, in particular cumbersome movement or looking down at my protruding belly, very much in dreams. And I always seem to consider teens and twentysomethings my "peers." (Being in school/college is a recurring theme, and I never feel out of place in terms of age.) So I'm probably thinner, younger, and prettier in my dreams.

Another recurring theme, though, is that of weird or disturbing changes taking place to my body. My hairline will advance (so I have a monstrously tiny forehead) or retreat (nearing baldness); my limbs or torso will stretch/elongate; hair will appear where it shouldn't be, creepy holes or wounds will open up, teeth will fall apart. (That last one isn't too unrealistic, considering the poor state of my teeth, but in dreams they fall apart in particularly gruesome ways.) Etc.; in short, in my dreams, the changes that take place to my body are usually frightening and unwanted.

I remember ONE dream where I looked at my body in a mirror and I was slender and sexy. I was so amazed and happy. Other times, my hair is long and shiny and beautiful, or even attractively curly. (My hair can't hold curls, and I don't want them, but my mother always wanted me to have curls when I was little and I think my real hair disappointed her.) I usually have clothing problems in my dreams (they'll be full of holes, or bloodstained, or won't fit), but once in a while in a dream I look good in something, which I've always longed for IRL. (My mother used to try to dress me up, too, but it made me miserable, since I'm not girly and dress clothes are so uncomfortable. I never feel or look good in anything, anyway, so I don't try.) Feel kind of let down when I awaken to my fat-bodied, dull-short-haired, frumpily clothed reality. But waking up from the dreams with receding hair or weird wounds or crumbling teeth, which are far more common, is a relief.

Maybe my dreams are trying to bring my too-high mental view of my physical appearance closer to the truth which I've found in photos and others' opinions of me...? :stu

EDIT, oh. I'm usually myself/human, but in one dream, I was a gray rectangle or something, in a Modernist painting. 



truant said:


> My friend and I interpret each other's dreams 4-5 days a week and we've known each other for 4 years and I used to keep a dream journal.


Jealous. ops


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

I've never not been Human in dreams (at least as far as I remember,) ironically since I don't feel like one most of the time. Must be interesting.


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## roxslide (Apr 12, 2011)

Mm yeah. I'm often a completely different person in my dreams. Sometimes I'm a middle aged man, a bulky jocky type guy, a generic female video game character protagonist. Sometimes my perspective completely shifts from one character to another within the dream, as if it's a story line narrative. Even though I'm controlling and feeling the things of the person, about half the time I see myself from an outside view... as if I was almost playing a video game or watching a movie.

I've definitely not been human in some dreams, like a magical humanoid creature, or humanoid species... but I don't think I've ever not been humanoid. 

I'm not really interested in not being more of less humanoid so that suits me fine.

edit: wow I'm surprised that most people seem to not see themselves in their dreams. I have dreams like that too but even if I'm myself in the dream the perspective sometimes jumps away and I can see myself from third person (usually zoomed in on whatever my focus is on).


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## ShotInTheDark (Nov 4, 2017)

I don't look different in my dreams, if not even worse, mostly it's just nightmares, just like my life, nowhere I can escape it and never will be able...


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## zonebox (Oct 22, 2012)

I hop between different characters in my dreams.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

tehuti88 said:


> my IRL mental image of myself doesn't match up with my actual appearance. I actually "idealize" my looks in a way. In my mind, I don't look so bad, and I'm not obese or awkward, plus I'm a lot younger. Only others' observations about me, and photos/videos (to a lesser extent mirrors, since my view in those is a bit skewed too), show me the truth, how fat and old and unattractive I really am. It's almost like reverse BDD, too high a mental opinion of myself.


My mental image isn't even the same sex. When I daydream or think about the future I'm biologically female. That's not something I do intentionally, it's just what always happens. And then I have to remind myself that I don't actually look like the person I think I look like to correct my expectations. Looking in mirrors and photos, and hearing the sound of my own voice (which I also hear inside my head as a woman's voice), is enough to trigger feelings of alienation, disgust, anger, and loathing. Which is why I don't take and share pictures of myself. When I have to interact with other people IRL it feels like I'm a completely different person, which I hate. I think this is a dissociative phenomenon, since I've never heard anyone else talk about anything like this.

Yet, oddly enough, when I dream, I mostly dream about having the body I have IRL. I think that's because when I'm dreaming I believe what's happening is really happening, so in my dreams I'm still dealing with the agony of having the wrong body. It's very disappointing, though, since I can't even escape this body in my dreams.

Sometimes people (almost always women) will hit on me in my dreams, though, which certainly never happens IRL. It's like dream characters respond to how I feel about myself instead of the way I look. I think that's just my narcissism, though, since I'm actually pretty cocky for an ugly person.



tehuti88 said:


> Another recurring theme, though, is that of weird or disturbing changes taking place to my body. My hairline will advance (so I have a monstrously tiny forehead) or retreat (nearing baldness); my limbs or torso will stretch/elongate; hair will appear where it shouldn't be, creepy holes or wounds will open up, teeth will fall apart. (That last one isn't too unrealistic, considering the poor state of my teeth, but in dreams they fall apart in particularly gruesome ways.) Etc.; in short, in my dreams, the changes that take place to my body are usually frightening and unwanted.


I have dreams about weird illnesses, too. I had one not long ago about strange mushroom/fungi 'spikes' growing out of my body. And another where I had deep pits that let you see my insides. But most of the time someone or something is trying to kill me. I probably spend at least half my dreams running away from psychos, wild animals, ghosts, tornadoes, etc. I get killed a lot, too, but I always wake up when that happens.



roxslide said:


> edit: wow I'm surprised that most people seem to not see themselves in their dreams. I have dreams like that too but even if I'm myself in the dream the perspective sometimes jumps away and I can see myself from third person (usually zoomed in on whatever my focus is on).


Me too. Your dreams sound like my dreams. When I see myself from outside it's a bit like having a game avatar or watching a movie but I feel what they feel and it feels like I'm acting when they act.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

I think I usually have a 1st person perspective in my dreams. So I wouldn't know.


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## Suchness (Aug 13, 2011)

I don't remember ever being someone else even when I'v had lucid dreams I never thought of being someone else. Perspective is either 1st or 3d person.


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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

shyvr6 said:


> My dreams are usually in the first person so I don't know if I look different or not.


Hrm, almost ten years later and I still haven't seen myself. This thread got two big necro bumps, lol.


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## Zatch (Apr 28, 2013)

I can't fathom dreaming about being someone else or even looking different considering how self-absorbed my life has been for the most part. If I have it was while I was very young or thinking about how I'd look in the future.

Idk.


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## Deaf Mute (Jun 12, 2017)

In my dreams I've sometimes been other people, beautiful/ugly/disabled etc and then sometimes I'm just 3rd party viewer and other times I've looked like my ideal self


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## Solomoon (Dec 29, 2017)

One time I was a Pokemon but only in very rare cases is my body a factor at all.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

In a lot of my dreams, I take on a different persona. Quite a few of them, I can fly and have invulnerability. :lol


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## 0589471 (Apr 21, 2012)

unfortunately no, for all the strangeness and unrealistic nonsense that happens in mine, they all like to remind me I am a vulnerable, insecure, ugly and untalented human being.


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## GeomTech (Sep 29, 2015)

Mhm. I recall there being one dream where I looked into a mirror, and saw a "dreamed" version of myself, and I have to say; I looked slightly different, but didn't deviate too far from my general look. But usually, my dreams are from a 3rd person perspective.


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