Strange because it just wasn't...Strange!

Did you ever have one of those dreams which was so close to reality that when you woke up you weren't really sure what was a dream and what was reality? Nothing bizarre and fantastical happened, it was just a dream of an average day (an average week in my case) which so closely paralleled reality, with only subtle differences, that upon waking you had to consciously review events to decide which ones actually happened and which ones were part of the dream?

I had such a dream recently. I guess by the time I had fully woken up and was completely about my faculties it became fairly easy to sift through the various events and decide which ones belonged where, but it was a different story before I'd fully woken up. In my half-awake state shortly after arising I'd sat there rubbing my eyes and questioning the nuances of the preceding days. What was really strange was at one point I actually had to check the calendar to make sure I was thinking about the correct week. Somehow it felt like things had shifted exactly one week; I had the day right, but was questioning the week. It seemed like a week may have elapsed / gone by, when it really hadn't.

I guess the strangest part about the dream was...that there wasn't really anything peculiar or strange about it at all! I'm sure you know those dreams where everything seems normal for the most part...except you can fly (or see through walls, or your dog can speak fluent Mongolian, or some such). You know the ones, where everything seems business as usual except the car dealership who's giving you a hard time suddenly turns into a hot-dog vending stand and it starts raining Snickers bars...oh, and there's (3) Moons. Stuff like that. Those ones are pretty easy to unscramble. It's the ones where you're at work, have several meetings with no particular outcome (good or bad), nothing outstanding one way or the other happened; the days kind of slog by one after the other (and you don't have any magical super-powers). Those are the ones which are harder to sort out. You wake up an today is pretty much just like yesterday, or last week.

I tend to remember dreams in great detail, and I've been told this is fairly atypical (I'm not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV, but this is what I've been told). Consequently, I take notice of things which happen in dreams (in some strange sub-conscious way). It's almost as if when I'm asleep I can tell when I'm dreaming so I look for certain queues to confirm it. One thing I've noticed which is a dead giveaway (at least in my dreams) is writing on things like signs and text. In a dream all the fonts and formats look like I'd expect, but the letters make no sense. I've even done double-takes (in my dreams) trying to study something and understand why I can't read the words, even though I might know what they mean. It's weird, I know.

Anyway, rather than blathering on; did you ever have a dream which was so close to real events in your life that you wondered if real events were part of a dream and vice versa?

I did. And what was "strange" about it was...there wasn't really anything "strange" about it at all.

I get that type of dream at least once a week.

In fact, it is nothing unusual for me to only realise that I was actually dreaming when I wake up. The weird thing I find about them is that my 5 senses still seem to work, which is why they are so damned realistic.

In my opinion, life would not be nearly as interesting without some of the dreams we have during sleep.
I've had some lucid dreams and many vivid dreams. I've had sleep paralysis, nocturnal panic attacks(thanks sleep apnea!) and of course nightmares.

Some of my vivid dream experiences include continuation dreams that go on from where previous dreams left off.

Recently, I've had a new twist with what I guess would be called "Inception dreams" where I've actually had dreams within dreams. Never had those before, but more than 3 of them in the last few months.

I guess what I've had most closely to what you describe are just the kind where you think you've woken up and walk down to the hall to hit the bathroom and nope, you're back in bed. But this time, you REALLY get up and walk down the hall and nope you're back in bed. So finally, you wake up so frustrated that you haven't been able to get out of bed and this keeps happening and you walk down the hall and nope, you're back in bed. I've had that go on for an hour or more before. Astral projection? Maybe, but I don't think in those personal cases.

One particular dream had me live out an entire life. Nothing amazing or anything. I married a woman, got a farm by a cliffside and raised 7 children over the years. And I mean years of day after day living in this simple lifetime with my wife and kids and farm. Eventually, I just changed back to this existence one morning while looking out over the field. Never been married/kids in RL. Woke up very tired from that one. And very calm like I had gained a new level of wisdom.

Yeah, I've definitely had a dream within a dream on a number of occasions. That is always extra bizarre!

I'd be dreaming and having some kind of a nightmare, and wake up from that nightmare, and think to myself..."whew, it was only a dream!"...only to wake up later from the real dream! Those are when you sit there on the edge of your bed and just say...WOW!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Anyway, rather than blathering on; did you ever have a dream which was so close to real events in your life that you wondered if real events were part of a dream and vice versa?

I did. And what was "strange" about it was...there wasn't really anything "strange" about it at all.

Kind of like a replay but it is tweaked a bit here and there so you can experience how you think it would go if this had been done that way...so on so forth ? Maybe you aren't exactly happy about the outcome or how things went in the awake situation and your mind wants to play it as it thinks/feels it should of went ? Or you are working out your fears of the outcomes of the particular situation ?

I've had dreams like this too and when I have them I think about them for days or longer trying to figure them out... to no avail.

It's kinda weird about the writing/text in your dreams, not being able to read the letters. What does that mean ? Is some part of the brain not working while we are sleeping ? Which hemisphere operates our reading capability ? The left ? Are our dreams come from our middle part of the brain ?

leolady

leolady

I also get those types of lucid/real dreams, they can be confusing cause you know your in bed yet nowhere near it at the same time,, albeit a different time/place.

My dreams are usually realistic, at least in the sense that the things that happen in them are generally normal, as opposed to something crazy like being able to fly. I've actually been having a series of dreams off and on for quite a while where I feel emotion within the dream, and I wake up feeling just like it was a real experience - perhaps even more "emotionally" real than this reality. There have been times I've woken up crying because the dream felt so real. The experience of the dreams themselves have been so powerful that they fully carried over into my waking life, just like I'd actually lived them. I keep having these dreams about some girl (different body/face but the same general feeling, like the same ...soul?) and it seriously feels like I know her in some other dimension of reality or time or something. It's been a bit of a mind**** at times that I'm experiencing emotions in my dreams that are beyond what I think I can even feel as a physical human being.
My friend suggested that this may be an actual person... I have no idea what's going on. I just know I keep having mostly-realistic dreams about some girl that have an actual emotional effect on me.

I also occasionally have dreams of being accosted by some sort of evil spirit and wake up nearly screaming in terror with a feeling that there is something in my room watching me.

You all are lucky! I rarely, RARELY ever dream. Or rather, I never remember them. I go to sleep and wake up what feels like 1 second later.

I dream every night and I remember most of them (the majority of course fade over time, but some stick)

The weirdest ones, i've encountered, are the ones where life seems normal. And when something happens which could quite easily happen in everyday life... you wake up and you don't know if it was a dream or a memory.

I'm with you. and I love dreaming.

But it's awful when you've lost someone/something and in the dream you're together again and you wake up. And it wasn't real. They are the worst. I'd rather have zombie riddled, murderous nightmares.

originally posted by: MrConspiracy
But it's awful when you've lost someone/something and in the dream you're together again and you wake up

I had to put a pet cat down once and the next night I had a dream of her and she "told" me that she understood and that it was ok.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

When i was in my teens i used to have realistic dreams that i remembered when i awoke and pondered on the meaning of it....only for the dream to become full on reality in my waking life several weeks later.

I really did dream my own future and id know instantly as i was experiencing these moments that i had dreamt these moments only weeks before, time would slow down in reality as i analysed the situation, i could always finish peoples sentences for them as i knew what was going to be said or what was going to haplen.

The only disappointment about me dreaming my own future was that the dreams were always everyday normal things like walking down the street talking to a friend while a certain car would drive past. I only ever had one dream that prewarned me of a train crash and so i got off the train the stop before the train crash, i actually did something different to my future dream..... after that event it really freaked me out and my ability to dream my own future stopped happening. I dont know weather i grew out of it or fear of the unknown prevented my ability from advancing? (true story by the way)

yes, I used to dream about the future constantly.. places I never been to come to life when I go there in real life.

my future dreams stopped after I changed my direction of sleeping. I used to sleep head pointing North.

now it's south and I feel a bit better knowing I don't have to creep myself out from this

a reply to: leolady

I was reading the replies in this thread, thinking of what/how to write a reply, then I came to your reply. Completely in tandem with with my thoughts!!!

On that note: Ditto.

I've had things I remembered in day to day reality that I have to keep reminding myself were just a dream even though I actually don't remember the dreams I had where I got them from.

Yea, I've had dreams like that. Just a completely normal day at work. Sometimes it's more than one day. Nothing weird going on or anything, and everything seems super real. Only to wake up and have to actually go into work AGAIN!

Those dreams usually mentally exhaust me.