I have a few places that I go from time to time, sometimes a same house or town or even a mall as I may have posted earlier. Last night I was reminded of another place. It was a large house that I lived in (in my dreamworld) that had an upstairs room that was inaccessible in previous dreams. Last night though I saw the house and said something like "hey there's that house we used to live in!" to the person I was with (don't know who it was). I saw a guy climbing into the room by lifting the wall on hinges or something, so I could see in the room as he climbed in. It looked nice in there the way he had it set up. I said "oh that's clever, I never thought of that, we could have been using the room before. it looks nice the way he set it up... " or something like that. I do remember living in that house before and being frustrated that we couldn't get into the room. It seemed such a waste of space that we couldn't use it.

Originally posted by Ellie Sagan
I have a few places that I go from time to time, sometimes a same house or town or even a mall as I may have posted earlier. Last night I was reminded of another place. It was a large house that I lived in (in my dreamworld) that had an upstairs room that was inaccessible in previous dreams. Last night though I saw the house and said something like "hey there's that house we used to live in!" to the person I was with (don't know who it was). I saw a guy climbing into the room by lifting the wall on hinges or something, so I could see in the room as he climbed in. It looked nice in there the way he had it set up. I said "oh that's clever, I never thought of that, we could have been using the room before. it looks nice the way he set it up... " or something like that. I do remember living in that house before and being frustrated that we couldn't get into the room. It seemed such a waste of space that we couldn't use it.

Holy frijoles! I used to have a recurring dream of being in a house on a stairway/landing trying to gain access to a hidden/inaccessable room, the entrance to which was a secret panel/door on the stairway/landing. I had that dream over and over. Sometimes I could get into the room, but don't remember what was in it. Thanks fo reminding me. Freaky.

I have had a specific "dream town" for over five years now. It started out in a quaint residential area of tree-lined streets and single storey houses that looked like they were built in the 1930s. In the first dream, I was with my wife and son on foot, and we were trying to find an address, but I don't know why. In another dream, my son and I had walked across some railroad tracks to a plot of rural land, dirt roads, etc. An older couple picked us up in a huge 1960s Ford Galaxy convertible. In all the other dreams since then, that car seems to be mine.

It's strange because after five plus years of dreaming this town, I could almost draw a map of it, but it doesn't remind me of anyplace I've ever lived before.

This is quite the interesting thread. I too, go to the same metro area every time I sleep. But first off, I've been going there for at least 6 years and my recollections are a bit more detailed. Like others, sometimes I'm chasing someone or are being chased. I seem to be a civic leader of some kind. Always in need of defending the town and sometimes, being the target of the bad guys. There are two very distinct houses and one of them contains a ghost who looks like Winona Ryder. She used to scare the crap out me for fun but I had a confrontation with her, where I touched her and now she's gone. Sometimes, dead relatives are there. And an ex-wife, who I never see face to face but is more like a presence in the room, just as when you know who's standing behind you even though you're not looking at them. It's a long story. But I always, ALWAYS, go to this small town, filled with old houses and narrow suburban roads. I enjoy it very much. I imagine, one day, I'll go there and never return.

I found only now this thread and I add my experience.

From many many time I dream of the same Area.

Different dreams but always in the same unknown Area....

I don't find this strange or unusual. We have the real world and we have our dream world, in RL you also visit the same places over and over again. Work, your house, same shops, sometimes you travel but most of the time it is one 'small' area you're in.

I have been writing down my dreams for 20 years and i have a lot of them. Not so long ago i managed to draw a map of my dreamworld, and it resembles RL. There is a central house, streets, highway, sea, mountains, paris france, other houses, a supermarket a dreamt for over 20 times etc.

It was difficult to start because i had no starting point but i thought my sea must be in the south and mountains on the opposite side. I'm in europe so i connected my dreamhighway with paris in france since i dream about that a lot. Just tried to use logic even though it's not logical at times.

Try it people it's fun

An old thread dug up today - and I love it! Starring and flagging.

Yes! I also go back to the same places at times. Two places are currently featuring very prominently in my dreams.

The one is a plaza of sorts - in a metropolitan area. I have a feeling that it is a place of study / education, like a university of sorts. Lots of reasonably young people are always congregating in this place when I am there. I always have the feeling that they are habitual visitors themselves. We are visiting for a reason - a meeting or some important event.

There is a massive rounded staircase in front of one of the buildings. This building seems to be the most important one in the area - it is built colonial-style. I also remember always walking past a statue of a man in the centre of the plaza - this man is also dressed in colonial-style clothing. I have a feeling though that when I am there, that I am visiting in "our future" and not in "our past" from a time-perspective, if that makes any sense.

Second place I have been visiting is the roof of a sky-scraper in a war-torn city. I have been going there a LOT. The city is an empty shell - having been bombed to bits. One can see where some people have tried to make do in rigging in living spaces for themselves. I have a good view of the city from where I sit. I can describe the place perfectly - the smell of the concrete staircase going to the top, the heat of the sun, the pits and unevenness of the worn concrete pier. The feeling of misery and utter desolation.

Isn't it strange? I am glad I am not the only one with these type of "dream experiences". I would love to see this thread resurrected and hear more tales of similar going-ons from other ATS members.

To the OP - I am interested to know whether you have found that you are still visiting the same places that you were describing when you first created this thread? Or have your places changed?

I stumbled across this through a google search looking for other people who has "dreamworld cities or town" that most of their dreams take place in. I'm glad to hear that other people experience this as well.
I started dream journaling and using lucid dreaming techniques in high school because I would have the most intensely vivid dreams. They weren't nightmares, emotionally they were pretty even-keeled, but when I would wake up I could remember so much detail from them. At first I never really noticed if my dreams were taking place in the same specific area until my senior year of high school when all my dreams, for months on end, took place in a town in Italy that I knew did not exist in the real world. For some background here: I'm not Italian or have ever been to Italy. I simply had a dream I traveled to Italy and then, apparently, my dreams stayed there for about six months.
I'm almost 30 now and I've kept as close of an eye to my dream city as I can. Now, my dreams don't go there every night but I am pretty regularly in this same dream city (or was, I'll get to that in a bit). This city started out small but over the course of 12 to 15 years now has grown incredibly huge. When new neighborhoods emerge I try to visit them as soon as possible to learn my way around and get this: my city has really good public transit (no one seems to drive ever) and I've made it pretty regularly to central transit stations and studied the whole system map. I've also noticed that some sections of town were ethnic enclaves with immigrant families from different parts of the country.
Now, earlier this year my dreams started happening in a different city (I took a train too far and ended up in a sister city). This city was grittier, more crime filled, and while I enjoyed that for a while, I got tired of it. But I couldn't just returned to my old city. Somehow my mind won't let me occupy more than one at a time. So since I didn't like this new city, I spent a few dreams tearing it down (there was an "occupied zone" reminiscent of Palestinian camps with huge walls and it took time to tear those down and free those people) and then waited.
For months, my dreams didn't happen in dream cities but real places from my waking life (I don't find those as fun). But now just recently a new city has emerged! This time around I'm gathering as much info as I can and will wait until the name of the city reveals itself. I've only had time to explore three different neighborhoods in one distinct "north borough" and they are all very ethnic diverse. There's what's called Cresent because the roads curve and the neighborhood shaped like a cresent moon, where lots of Gypsies and other spiritual, pagan/occultist people live (side note: unlike what I've read from others on here, my friends and even family members from real life, also inhabit these places. I helped my college roommate, for instance, find an apartment in Cresent). Next to Cresent is "The Tracks," it's a big square neighborhood with its own ethnic enclave, The Bead District, centered inside it. The Tracks and the Bead District are not generally safe. They are economically depressed and have high crime rates. Right now I live in a walk-up in the tracks but my dream last night alluded to more parts of the city, accessible by train, so as soon as I get some funds I'm gonna check out other places.

This post is extremely long, my apologizes, just wanted to share. But since I have been dream journaling, lucid dreaming and interpreting for years now, I have my own theories about this phenomenon that I'll be posting soon.

Do dreams that I'm still married to my ex-wife count? Nightmares, actually.

But seriously, yes. There are two houses I frequent in my dreams--not every night, but often enough that I recognize them. One is in the city and takes up a city block. It is at least four storeys tall and has large sets of stairs at either end. The attic is filled with antiques. The other is in the country and has an elaborate "suite" of rooms and is home to an extended family, not just my own. I wonder sometimes if this is not "home" that I will get to eventually. I know that I enjoy exploring both buildings and that they are both kind of "busy" with people.

In my dream I find myself coming out of a tunnel. A swirling mass of mist makes up the tunnel it is a bright white. Once thru the tunnel I come to a plat form which you walk off onto. Then I find myself on a road that leads by a house with a wrap around porch. I always have the feeling that inside that house is a place where you stop in for imformation or something on where to go. I've never been in the house to my knowledge because I know where I am going. I always end up in a area thats like a big meadow with all kinds of flowers the likes I've never seen but so much more vibrant in color than what I see out my back door here.

There are houses but they look more like huts then houses. There is someone there they call the Old Man. Sometimes I'm tending the flowers other times I talk to someone. He tells me things but I can't remember what my replies are to him. He shows me things. Sometimes it's like I am there some times it is like I am watching myself. There is a river with a bridge over it to cross at the mouth of the river is a cave with a waterfall that runs over the mouth of the cave. If you are there at the right time you can go to the eastern edge of the meadow and watch what looks like fireworks coming up from the valley below. They aren't fireworks I'm not sure what they are. You exit the same way you got there back to the platform and back thru the tunnel of what looks like some kind of swirling mist.

I thought this was my own personal dream land until one day my son was drawing. He loves to sketch. It was his art assignment for the day. I home school him. I've never mentioned this place I dream of going to. As he was sketching I was looking at his work. I saw he was sketching my dream land. I asked him where he saw this place or if he just was making something he thought looked beautiful. He said I go here in my dreams. I'm not sure what to make of it. Two people from the same family that go to the same place in there dreams. He does not know how he gets there he just remembers the place.

My theory as to why some people have dream cities doesn't have to do with parallel dimensions like someone else on this thread suggested (and I mean no disrespect to that person, we're all entitled to our opinions and they can all be equally valid).

Sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, geographers, and urban-land use engineers spend a lot of time studying how people come to know their environment and how they figure out how to navigate it. Some, or most people, do not use logical or geometric frames in which to view their surrounding and instead use relational ways of looking at their environment ("This building is near that landmark thing."). When we use landmarks to navigate around they become an "axis mundi," meaning that from any angle you can view a landmark you can also assess where you are geographically. For instance, I used to live in Austin, TX and the Texas Capitol Building is right in the center of downtown. So if I was ever lost I would just have to look for the capitol and depending on what angle I was looking at it from I could figure out where in town I was at. I think this same process can happen in dreams.

While dreaming, our brains can do a lot of (and for some people, more than) what we do every day in our waking life. So maybe having frequent or regular dream cities is just an extension of how we view relational geography?

In college I met one other person who had a dream city and they could, quite quickly, draw a detailed map of it. This person also had a really good sense of direction, knowing which direction they were headed, not getting lost, giving other people directions on how to get somewhere. Now, I'm not the best direction-giver but I notice how often I rely on landmarks and axis mundis when giving directions (for instance, "take Road A until you get to a stop where there's a statue. The statue should be facing away from you. Turn left there."). And, when visiting a new place, it doesn't take too long before I figure out how to get places.

I'm wondering if some of the other people on this thread who have regular or frequent dream cities also have a good general sense of direction in waking life or use mental axis mundi to orient themselves in their physical environments.

Have you thought of going lucid to try to find out where you are? Then you would be able to ask others in your dream for help, look for street signs, etc...
Just a thought.....
Good luck.

Originally posted by TabKat
Have you thought of going lucid to try to find out where you are? Then you would be able to ask others in your dream for help, look for street signs, etc...
Just a thought.....
Good luck.

I've thought of that many time while awake, but I can't seem to implement any lucid dreaming techniques while asleep.

I go to school a lot in dreams. all different kinds but each time it feels like "I'm here again, another day" it's really one big school with a lot of different parts.

Kinda like the world I guess.

O god, the world is school. I knew it.

I am trying to learn to lucid dream too. I get frustrated sometimes because I think I am close but I just can't break through. I bought this book on Amazon last week, and it has been pretty helpful so far......
Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge. (only like $3.00/used)

I think it is something we all do every night, its just a matter of learning how to tap into the dream when it's happening so that we can participate. Sounds simple, huh? Not!
**Also, melatonin and valerian root have helped me so much with dream recall so that I can keep a dream journal.
There are other supplements that may help you.
Best of luck to you... Please let us know if you become successful!