Do you think that dreams are as real as reality?

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It might sound strange but it was something I was thinking about a while ago. My point is that while we are in a dream, it usually seems as real to as as waking life is everyday. What makes waking life more real than a dream, really? I suppose the main thing is that in waking life you always come back to the same place.

We're supposed to dream every night. The fact is that we don't remember any of our dreams. Some would also say that's what makes dreams less real. But when we're dreaming we don't remember our waking life, so the same could be said for the other argument.

When we die in a dream, we snap back into the "real world". So, when we die in the "real world" do we snap back into a dream until there is a new body we can wake in?

All I'm saying is that dreams are so real while you're dreaming them, and I don't see why they are any less real than "the real world". Even though they are less easy to understand.

I tend to remember my dreams in bursts and they almost always mean something quite significant. For instance, I had a burst of dreams about protecting a young child (a sibling) and then found out that I have a half-sibling whom I never knew about, not that long after. I dreamed of my mother being pregnant several times before she told me that she'd had a lot of miscarriages when I was little.

It's all quite confusing, how dreams and real life fit together and in reality are just as real as each other.

Sorry if I'm not making any sense, but I had to get this out

What are your opinions?

Well personally I don't feel that dreams are as real as real life. It just feels a bit...blurred in my imagination, certainly not vivid.
Interesting post, though!

This is strangely timed, I was watching Inception last night.

When you dream your sub conscious becomes active. You probably knew or heard and forgot that your mother had miscarriages.

Anyway a friend once told me that your brain knows everything that's happened and is happening and is about to happen at a subconscious level. So when you dream you could be dreaming about reality. It seems to fit because lots of my dreams have come true. Deja vu seems to be one thing I have often and supposedly works on the same concept -- knowing at a subconscious level things that are about to happen. I don't know if I made any sense.

Dreams are interesting. I don't remember my dreams as much as I'd like. But I used to.

Often, when I get into bed at night, I can feel myself returning to the dream I had the previous night. Having not thought about it, or even remembered it all day, just the act of getting into bed can bring it back to me and when I go to sleep I go back into it. It's often chronological. I just go back into it at the point I left. That's quite a strange feeling.

I think dreams can reflect your innermost thoughts and desires. So they can be guide for you. Or they can just be a way of working out the day's events. Or they can be random nonsense.

But I know what you mean about the dream world being very real. It's almost like we are existing in two different states of reality at the same time.

I don't think that dreams are as real as reality, but I do believe that my dreams try to tell me something. I've had various dreams that told me various messages throughout my life. The dream that I have from time to time is a lady dressed in a long white gown with the appearance of an angel. She tells me, "You don't have to change any more. You're done growing and changing. You're right where you should be."

The message that I got a couple of years ago in the summer months was a shrink telling me that I have to get my life back on track.

The message that I got as a teenager was that I was going to live in the streets, because my family didn't believe that I could measure up to my NT peers.

I see dreams as a back up of memories of my life to long term memory . Like a comput lol. They also bring things to the forefront of my mind if something is bothering me. I think they organise thoughts somewhat.

These responses are interesting

My mother had the miscarriages when I was very young, so it is quite possible that I did remember her being pregnant or have some faint memory or idea of what had been going on, but was too young to really remember it or really know what was going on at the time. So I suppose the fact that that had been dormant in my mind could have caused the dreams about that.

The deja vu thing, and the brain knowing things thing, does make sense in a way. It's strange not really knowing what's going on with life. Sometimes I wonder whether I've died already but life is repeating itself the same way. Maybe, when we die, we go into an alternate reality where, for us, at least, everythingn either happens again or we carry on living even though we've died in the other reality. And we never realise. Or maybe our brain does know everything that's going to happen, and the reason things happen are not because we have much choice but because circumstance is what determines everything. (Some people would probably want to hurt me for writing this!- Sorry, just bear with me) For instance, animals are in general pretty predictable, more so the more you know about the way their minds work. Really, choice seems a bit of a strange thing when, possibly, everything we do is just determined by the way our brain works, the exact things around us and so on. And that would be why animals are often more predictable than humans, and plants even more so- because they haven't overcomplicated things in their worlds. They live a much simpler existence. While humans continue to make everything more and more detailed and complicated so that what happens becomes less and less predictable.

But I'm going off subject now

I think a lot of people don't quite understand my point, exactly. It's incredibly hard to explain- but what is it that really makes real life more real than dreams?

It's true that they're very vague in your memory when you wake up, but then again, when you're dreaming, you don't actually remember "real life" at all, most times. So maybe dreams are even more powerful because we do have some memory of them?

It is like existing in two states of reality at the same time. There are two parts of you, connected by some faint thread which lets each part know if the other is in trouble and causes it to wake up. Maybe that thread just snaps when you die.

Maybe I'm just very confused but I don't see what really makes your imagination, dreams and things that you have "imagined" or ideas that you have any less real than "real life".

I remember as I was a child I sometimes had problems to distinguish reality from dreams. They were so real for me; once I dreamed I stole chewing gums and I remember I needed a lot of time to find out it was only a dream. Only the thought that I stole something gave me a bad conscience and I was worried for a long time.

We dream almost every night and it's important for us. We process experiences, deep desires and fears while dreaming. I only remember five dreams I had. One of them is like a déjà vu. I think dreams are important and I think in some is really a meaning to find.
I also think having 'dreams' in the sense of goals in your life is very important. If we stop dreaming, we lose hope. When we can dream (imagine), we can create. What we can create, we can achieve. We just only have to believe in it.

Many things in life are only a mind-set. Having a positive attitude on life makes things easier; when we think we will lose or fail we usually do. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So never stop dreaming, never stop believing.

Apparently tests have been done that deprived people of REM sleep and after a few days the people involved stated having daytime hallucinations. It seems dreams are important for keeping our waking state sane and rational. But I love the mystery of dreams too.

Reality is perception. Dreams only stop being real when they end.

The same can be said for life.

I am a bit of an odd case, but I always remember my dreams. The reason is that I enter REM sleep almost immediately(I've had dreams during 20 minute naps). And I almost always wake up during REM as well. My dreams are incredibly vivid. I will see entire cities and detailed buildings.

How does a mind tell itself something?

Explain to me how that works.