I appreciate you’re not giving your dreams too much credence, and I’d agree that if it seems like there’s a conscious person in your dreams, it’s closer to the activation of a memory of how people are, rather than an actual person living in your head.
In fact, I’ve often wondered if we’re conscious at all when we sleep. We wake up with all these memories of having experienced things, but that’s not the same as having actually experienced things. You can have false memories, which means you can remember experiencing things you didn’t. It may be the case that (unless you’re lucid dreaming), you’re not really conscious at all while dreaming. In which case your weirdest experience really wasn’t.
Clearly some parts of your mind are switched off when you sleep. Your reasoning faculties aren’t working correctly, which is why you can be unsure whether or not you’re dreaming, but know with near certainty that you’re awake. Maybe the parts of the mind involved in consciousness are off as well?
On the other hand, I often wonder what people having a seizure experience. Opposite to people dreaming, they often report experiencing nothing. But is this true? Or do they just not remember?
I appreciate you’re not giving your dreams too much credence, and I’d agree that if it seems like there’s a conscious person in your dreams, it’s closer to the activation of a memory of how people are, rather than an actual person living in your head.
In fact, I’ve often wondered if we’re conscious at all when we sleep. We wake up with all these memories of having experienced things, but that’s not the same as having actually experienced things. You can have false memories, which means you can remember experiencing things you didn’t. It may be the case that (unless you’re lucid dreaming), you’re not really conscious at all while dreaming. In which case your weirdest experience really wasn’t.
Clearly some parts of your mind are switched off when you sleep. Your reasoning faculties aren’t working correctly, which is why you can be unsure whether or not you’re dreaming, but know with near certainty that you’re awake. Maybe the parts of the mind involved in consciousness are off as well?
On the other hand, I often wonder what people having a seizure experience. Opposite to people dreaming, they often report experiencing nothing. But is this true? Or do they just not remember?