Reality Dreams

Post Reply New Topic

I have a lot of trouble disconcerting dreams from reality.
Er, let me try to explain.

My dreams seem really realistic. In essence they're boring, real life stuff. Sometimes they're horrible, but it always seems so real. Often I wake up just assuming that what I dreamt was real. It can be days, weeks, or even years later that I 'snap to' and realize that that "memory" was actually a dream.

My dreams become memories. And some memories are dreams.

I find this deeply disturbing. Because how can I tell what is real and what is a dream when they get confused?

Mostly my logic saves me. For example;

I had a "dream" that my sons school was under siege, by gangsters. Machine guns in the playground. Me scurrying into the school trying to find my boy. Bullets. Hallways. Scared teachers. I find him and we escape to the woods. I wake up.

It was a few weeks ago that I realized this never actually happened. The only reason I knew was because it took place in a town miles from where we live now. My son has never gone to school in that town.

Also, there were no news stories about it.

For over a year I went about my business while in the back of my mind I thought that I we had narrowly escaped being shot. That I had seen all those children dying.

That's only one example. I've got hundreds more.

Alternatively, some things that have really happened, I've assumed were dreams. Only when someone told me that it happened did I realize it was real.

Do you ever have trouble distinguishing dreams from reality?

I can't realise my dreams are just dreams while I am asleep. During awake hours, the memorable ones I usualy know are just dreams. There are a few I felt were real, but I don't feel like discussing them.

Write them down! I'd read that book.

While I'm having a dream, I think it's real, but that's normal. (Sometimes I know it's a dream - i.e. lucid dreaming, very interesting subject).

Usually I'm well aware of the difference between a dream and real life when I'm awake, but some of my dreams have a huge emotional impact on me, and then it feels as if something really did happen, even though intellectually I know it didn't.

Occasionally I'll be unsure whether a memory is real or whether I just dreamed it, but only with small details, and only for a very short time. I've never mistaken a big event like that school siege.

I have very vivid dreams. I always know they are dreams, but it is not uncommon for me to have to lie awake and mentally sort out dream vs. reality, or convince myself that it really was a dream. On more than one occasion, I've been known to get up and check the house after a nightmare, but the rational part of my brain knows it was just a dream.

My dreams vary. Sometimes they're vague and fluid. Others are very lucid, I can think and reason while having one. I can even see text that doesn't change when I move my eyes away.

I have trouble with this sometimes. I have had many dream conversations that I assumed were real until the other person involved told me that we definitely didn't ever have such a conversation. With major events I can usually realise it was a dream because I know that very few exciting things ever happen to me in real life.

I also have some days that feel all day like I'm in a dream. I've recently discovered that what I'm experiencing is depersonalization. I had to stay home from work today because it's pretty bad right now. I feel like I'm not actually sitting here typing this and yet I somehow still know that I am.

As a result, there are quite a few memories that I can think about and wonder if it really happened or not. Usually it's not too difficult to figure out, but sometimes I have to ask someone else.

My dreams at times seem very realistic. Sometimes I actually confuse reality and dreams. Other times I know it was just a dream. The scary ones that seem like its telling what's going to happen in the future are some of the most realistic dreams. Occasionally in my dreams I am watching the news or going on the Internet just as I do in real life and I see the stories. Then I wake up in real life and it actually happened. Sometimes when some disaster happens then I dream about it (sometimes I have psychic dreams and other times after the actual event already happened then I dream about it) and I go to the place that the disaster took place. It is so weird. My other dreams are just too weird to be real and I know those are just dreams.

The dreams that I have, seem very realistic. I lie in bed for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts, than I roll over and get back to sleep. If the dream is too disturbing, I post on WP for an hour.

Yes. Only once have I confused a very violent dream for reality though. That did not work out so well.

I think in general I get confused by this, I read a lot, record my dream, and basically live in my head. I'm always confused after watching a movie or reading a book-- distinguishing that I'm there in the real world again.