Do you ever have trouble telling if a memory

Post Reply New Topic

Was a dream or real?

I usually know when I am remembering something real.

However...

Some of my memories are so disjunct or spotty that the whole experience feels like it was a dream even if I know for sure it was real.

Also, I can sometimes think I've had a real conversation with someone, but it only happened in my head. My husband calls this "thinking loudly." In these cases, I don't remember a specific conversation - I just think we *must have* had the conversation, but we didn't.

When I finally realized and admitted that this happens, our relationship did get a lot better, LOL.

I don't really remember much of my dreams but when I do its like.... wait, was that a dream or something that actually happened? If it was something like shaking hands with a guy. The fact that it just randomly came to mind could mean it was from a dream, but maybe I did shake hands with that guy recently?

No. That confusion doesn't happen to me. I sometimes worry if I imagine something (while I'm awake) too often, I might end up starting to believe that it's real. Fortunately that has never happened, either.

Once I woke up not knowing if I had just dreamt something or was it real. It was horrible and I wanted it to have been a dream. I could let go until finally I proved that a door in the dream didn't clank when it closed, so the whole thing had to be a dream.

That only happened once in my life and it was a time of incredible stress.

Generally I would say no, but for years I was convinced that one dream was a real memory.

And then there's the one where I dreamt for years of a friendly green ghost. This started in childhood and went on until my 20s, when I saw on TV that Disney had invented the green ghost, not me. Never dreamt of him again.

sometimes I do

Sometimes, I'll get a memory of someone responding to an email I sent, but after researching it realizing that I only dreamed that they responded.

I have a hard time with my memories. I've suffered mild to moderate head injuries during my childhood, so I think it's affected most of the way my brain functions. They weren't tramautic injuries, just your typical running into things without looking where you are going head injuries. I did have one head injury that I guess you could say was nearly tramautic for me, and that was when I flipped over my bike. Let this be a lesson... ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET WHEN YOU RIDE A BIKE. I don't care how how old you are. My helmet saved me from getting my head cracked open, and I walked away with a minor concussion.

Anyway, I can tell if my memories are real for ones I remember. However, they are usually just bits and pieces of memories that come up when I think of something. I can differentiate between dream and real memory because my dreams are a constant screwed up mess of not making sense to me at all.

No, that's never happened yet.
I do absolutely believe that the interaction between conscious and subconscious is very different with us when compared to NT.

I have never experienced this particular effect though.

I wasn't sure if I'd seen this thread earlier or just dreamt it.

Sometimes.

Good one TallyMan.

I'm a very visual person. My dreams are often full colour, full texture, fully animated from the near distance to the horizon. I've noticed recently that sounds also occur in my dreams, though they aren't as common.

When I was young I believed for years that was at my mothers wedding. I carried her train, I went to the reception, I was there when they took the photos. It took my mother much convincing (and several years) that I wasn't even born.

Most of my dreams are silly and easily identifiable as not being real. But when talking to friends about past things, I've sometimes discovered that I remember things that didn't happen (or they claim didn't happen).

What's more disturbing to me is when I hear sounds that aren't real. Yet for all the world they sound real. Usually bells or large chimes of some sort. There is no large bell in my house, that's how I can tell they aren't real. But I hear them, not as something subtle, but a loud clanging and ringing.

A couple of times as a teenager when I was falling asleep and just on the edge of consciousness I'd be imagining music in my head and as I drifted off the character of the sound changed from being in my head to sounding like I was really hearing it with my ears, at the same time as I was making it up in my head. Was really cool but as soon as I noticed the effect it vanished.

I have a few childhood memories that seem real but cannot be explained rationally so they had to be dreams. One is about include an UFO over my city in 1991. I was 2-3 years old but I "know" it was exactly that year, I can also remember other details, such as where the UFO was, how it was looking like and where I was looking at it from. Other memory is about snow on junior-preschool(3-4 years old) window in summer. I remember I was looking through the window and wondering why it is covered in snow, why there is snow on flowers outside and why I am wearing t-shirt and shorts if it is cold enough to be snowing. For quite a long time I was also sure I really levitated when I dreamed about it in 4th grade. xD

Currently I don't have much problem recognizing dream and reality unless I experience something called fake wake up - you know, a dream about waking up and doing whatever you do everyday or whatever was planned for that day. At times I can get an "all day long fake wake up" and after waking up for real I wonder what day of week it is because I "already experienced Saturday"(or whatever day I dreamed about).