What Are the Differences Between Dreams and Hallucinations?

Dreams are like when your brain is playing a movie inside your head while you're sleeping. Hallucinations, on the other hand, feel more like movies being played while you’re awake. Dreams usually make sense in their own world, but they can be strange and wild, like floating or flying. Hallucinations might look or sound like real people or things around you, even though they are not really there. Both dreams and hallucinations happen because your brain is making pictures out of nothing, but one happens while you're asleep and the other while you're awake.

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. When you dream about flying on a giant horse, it feels real while you're asleep. When you see a ghost in your living room during the day, that’s a hallucination.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity