Can a taste transit the boundary of a dream?
August 10, 2013 7:51 AM Subscribe
I recently woke from a dream with an unusual, lingering taste in my mouth, after dreaming about tasting something. Could the dream have caused the aftertaste, or vice-versa?
In the beginning of the dream, someone jokingly squeezed me in a way which made my veins pop out of my skin, Total Recall style. I was distressed but realized it would subside after awhile. (Probably unrelated anecdata, but my bed is hard and often I sleep on limbs, entrap nerves, etc.)
In the next part of the dream, I pass a toothpaste dispenser (?). This toothpaste is clear and tastes slightly bitter, like an ointment, and sort of gross. The next dispenser is labeled "Bacon-Flavored Toothpaste". Hell yes, I try that, but I mix it with the ointment-paste. It's a strong, vivid, bacon-y taste, but also gross. I can't spit it out, so I wake up.
After waking, I have a taste in my mouth that I can't place, and it lasts for about a minute. It's not bacon, but it's not a typical "bad taste in mouth" taste.
I've read about taste sensations in the brain being persistent and causing taste illusions; could my dream-taste have crossed over to the real world and become something different? I suppose it's more obvious that an existing taste caused me to taste something in my dream, but I remember intentionally choosing and only then tasting the toothpaste.
(Or is there a problem with my brain...?)
In the beginning of the dream, someone jokingly squeezed me in a way which made my veins pop out of my skin, Total Recall style. I was distressed but realized it would subside after awhile. (Probably unrelated anecdata, but my bed is hard and often I sleep on limbs, entrap nerves, etc.)
In the next part of the dream, I pass a toothpaste dispenser (?). This toothpaste is clear and tastes slightly bitter, like an ointment, and sort of gross. The next dispenser is labeled "Bacon-Flavored Toothpaste". Hell yes, I try that, but I mix it with the ointment-paste. It's a strong, vivid, bacon-y taste, but also gross. I can't spit it out, so I wake up.
After waking, I have a taste in my mouth that I can't place, and it lasts for about a minute. It's not bacon, but it's not a typical "bad taste in mouth" taste.
I've read about taste sensations in the brain being persistent and causing taste illusions; could my dream-taste have crossed over to the real world and become something different? I suppose it's more obvious that an existing taste caused me to taste something in my dream, but I remember intentionally choosing and only then tasting the toothpaste.
(Or is there a problem with my brain...?)
I have heard of strange sensations in the real world feeding back into dreams, which is essentially the opposite of what you're talking about. Stuff like dreaming of being wet, then waking up to being rained/slobbered upon.
I'm wondering if something might have happened which produced this unusual taste in your mouth which then caused your dream circuits to try and make sense of this strange stimulus.
This is rampant speculation.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:57 AM on August 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'm wondering if something might have happened which produced this unusual taste in your mouth which then caused your dream circuits to try and make sense of this strange stimulus.
This is rampant speculation.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:57 AM on August 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Happens to me all the time -- mostly the taste of booze, especially after I quit drinking, but also random other tastes. I once off-handedly mentioned it to a neurologist who waved it off and said, "Dreams, y'know..."
posted by Etrigan at 8:00 AM on August 10, 2013
posted by Etrigan at 8:00 AM on August 10, 2013
This has happened to me; I have particularly vivid, complex, and sensory dreams. Sometimes I will be dreaming intently and, upon waking, exist for a few minutes in what I'm thinking is an awake state, but I'm still thinking in the logic of the dream.
A mundane example - if I've been dreaming of the world having tetris rules, and things keep falling that I have to rotate to put in the right slots where they fit, I will feel my pillows and hurriedly try to arrange them such that they all "fit". This will make perfect sense to me at the time and then five minutes later I'll actually wake up with my pillows flung wildly around my room. This has happened with tastes, as well as smells, sounds, and tactile sensations. Once I awoke tasting something spicy, and I didn't feel normal until I'd gotten a drink of milk to "cool down" the completely illusory spice sensation. I've woken up with the taste of dirt and stone from gritty winds blown into my face (I have a lot of architecture dreams.)
Basically: I don't think you were fully awake yet during that one minute of unplace-able taste. If you don't often remember your dreams, or you don't regularly recall the less common senses being involved in them, it might throw you off, but I don't think there was any crazy mouth chemistry happening.
posted by Mizu at 8:02 AM on August 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
A mundane example - if I've been dreaming of the world having tetris rules, and things keep falling that I have to rotate to put in the right slots where they fit, I will feel my pillows and hurriedly try to arrange them such that they all "fit". This will make perfect sense to me at the time and then five minutes later I'll actually wake up with my pillows flung wildly around my room. This has happened with tastes, as well as smells, sounds, and tactile sensations. Once I awoke tasting something spicy, and I didn't feel normal until I'd gotten a drink of milk to "cool down" the completely illusory spice sensation. I've woken up with the taste of dirt and stone from gritty winds blown into my face (I have a lot of architecture dreams.)
Basically: I don't think you were fully awake yet during that one minute of unplace-able taste. If you don't often remember your dreams, or you don't regularly recall the less common senses being involved in them, it might throw you off, but I don't think there was any crazy mouth chemistry happening.
posted by Mizu at 8:02 AM on August 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Yes, this can happen, and there's an anecdote that also helps to explain why, but it's about locked-in-syndrome--people who are totally paralyzed and cannot communicate (even with a computer or eye gaze--totally completely frozen and unable to speak or move or control any body part).
So, some pretty smart people figured out that the acidity in your mouth changes to prepare yourself for what you are going to eat, to aid digestion. Digestion starts with saliva mixing with your food to help break it down, and different acidities help break down different foods better. So, if someone is totally paralyzed, you can ask yes/no questions and instruct the paralyzed person to think about lemons in the answer is yes, and think about chocolate if the answer is no. They can measure a baseline of pH and then measure again after the person has thought about their answer. It's amazing! (I don't remember the link/source, but it was on boing boing about 5 years ago when I was in grad school studying speech pathology.)
My guess is that your dream was vivid enough to make your brain think you were about to eat the bitter bacon toothpaste mixture, and that the pH of your saliva changed to prep for it, resulting in a different taste in your mouth. Combined with thinking intensely about the toothpaste from your dream and the grogginess/confusion of just waking up, you get a weird taste in your mouth.
(After I told my sister about the pH change, she said she dreamed about olives, and she felt SO READY to eat olives when she woke up.)
posted by shortyJBot at 8:46 AM on August 10, 2013 [6 favorites]
So, some pretty smart people figured out that the acidity in your mouth changes to prepare yourself for what you are going to eat, to aid digestion. Digestion starts with saliva mixing with your food to help break it down, and different acidities help break down different foods better. So, if someone is totally paralyzed, you can ask yes/no questions and instruct the paralyzed person to think about lemons in the answer is yes, and think about chocolate if the answer is no. They can measure a baseline of pH and then measure again after the person has thought about their answer. It's amazing! (I don't remember the link/source, but it was on boing boing about 5 years ago when I was in grad school studying speech pathology.)
My guess is that your dream was vivid enough to make your brain think you were about to eat the bitter bacon toothpaste mixture, and that the pH of your saliva changed to prep for it, resulting in a different taste in your mouth. Combined with thinking intensely about the toothpaste from your dream and the grogginess/confusion of just waking up, you get a weird taste in your mouth.
(After I told my sister about the pH change, she said she dreamed about olives, and she felt SO READY to eat olives when she woke up.)
posted by shortyJBot at 8:46 AM on August 10, 2013 [6 favorites]
Best answer: I have no sense of smell and I don't know what a skunk smells like. One night I dreamt about a skunk, woke up, walked out on my porch and there was a skunk there. Only time I have seen a skunk in my ten years of living here. So not common. I can only think that my brain can smell, and smell while I am dreaming, and there is some disconnect in my waking life.
But I am afraid you may have eaten a bug while you were sleeping which is a common occurrence and I believe you can experience taste while you are dreaming. Sorry.
posted by cda at 11:40 AM on August 10, 2013
But I am afraid you may have eaten a bug while you were sleeping which is a common occurrence and I believe you can experience taste while you are dreaming. Sorry.
posted by cda at 11:40 AM on August 10, 2013
Silly question: is there any chance you sleepwalked into the kitchen?
Perception of time in dreams is supposedly not the same as elapsed time.
posted by tel3path at 2:16 PM on August 10, 2013
Perception of time in dreams is supposedly not the same as elapsed time.
posted by tel3path at 2:16 PM on August 10, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
I don't know what you mean by "something different." If you wake up and are remembering an image from the dream, that is visual sense crossing over. Same thing for taste. Is there something else going on here?
posted by 3FLryan at 7:57 AM on August 10, 2013