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Original poster

to ask if you have ever had a dream so vivid you couldn't distinguish it with reality?

142 replies

vividdream · 12/09/2017 19:02

I had a very vivid dream over the weekend which seemed unusually clear and real. When I woke up I wasn't sure if I was still in the dream as everything in the dream seemed so real and solid and since then it has made me think about reality and whether I am still dreaming as it was so vivid and elements of it were indistinguishable from real life. I have never had a dream that real and lucid before.

Has anyone had an experience like this?

OP posts:
Cobblersandhogwash · 12/09/2017 23:46

When I was about 8, I dreamed about Pongo Snodgrass from Whizzer and Chips comic. He was in my school playground, wouldn't leave me alone. I was really disturbed by him in my dream for weeks.

I woke up shaking very early the other day having dreamed I had bludgeoned two dogs to death. I love dogs. This was just awful.

Everyone in the dreams was upset about the dogs but all seemed to be pretending I wasn't the one who'd killed the dogs even though it was clear I had. Such a weird vivid disturbing dream.

IrritatedUser1960 · 12/09/2017 23:49

Yes usually about monsters or ghosts I wake up freaked out and it takes me ages to realise it's a dream. So vivid.

scrappydappydoo · 12/09/2017 23:57

I get these all the time. At least once a week I dream that I get up, go to work, go through my whole day and then go to bed. It's very confusing to go into work and see things not done that you are convinced you did. Same with conversations. It's all very mundane.
I sometimes have very vivid dreams about things happening to my family and after waking it would take a good few minutes to distinguish reality and dream. Dh says he has either hilarious or terrifying conversations with me in this state.
I never seem to have the weird unbelievable dreams though so no unicorns or purple sky...

ParkheadParadise · 12/09/2017 23:58

@Trumpton
I don't know if it gives me comfort it was so weird. If it wasn't for the CCTV footage I would probably still believe it was real.

Maudlinmaud · 13/09/2017 00:01

Wetsthefinger that is exactly the same as mine. How weird is that.

gluteustothemaximus · 13/09/2017 00:05

All the bloody time.

I don't mind if a dream is good, but the bad ones are awful. And I seem to dream all night. It's exhausting.

Lots of crappy dreams about abusive family lately. Wake up feeling like I've really had those arguments.

RedastheRose · 13/09/2017 00:43

Yes, once had a very boring dream, basically just several days of my life, the problem was I kept thinking things had happened in real life when they hadn't actually happened at all! Very weird and I don't usually remember dreams at all.

WetsTheFinger · 13/09/2017 00:50

Oh I've just remembered one that still makes me laugh to this day.

When I was doing my military service in Israel, I shared a bunk bed in the barracks with another girl. I had a dream that I'd been shopping and bought a hamster which I'd taken back in a bag and put it under the bunk beds. I woke up with a start and shouted to my friend Quick! My pet hamster! He's under the bed! So she sleepily staggers out of bed and is crawling around with me trying to find it... then I suddenly PROPERLY woke up and of course just started laughing my head off. I couldn't stop long enough to explain to my friend that it was a dream, so she is looking at me bewildered going Why are you laughing? Find the hamster! Eventually I said go back to bed,I just dreamt it, but it took me a while to convince her there wasn't a rodent under the bed.

Ollivander84 · 13/09/2017 00:53

Weirdly I always had the dream about falling down stairs and did that thing where you wake up with a start before you land
I then fell down stairs in real life, and did land, and it did hurt Grin fractured ankle, foot and tore all my ligaments
Ever since then I've never had the falling down stairs dream Confused

Mine can be quite vivid, I wake up crying sometimes

sweetbitter · 13/09/2017 08:02

Some dreams definitely stay with me longer than others, and affect my mood for the day. However it's very, very rare that a dream keeps playing with my mind for longer than a couple of days, or that it takes longer than a few minutes after waking to work out what was the dream and what was the reality.

I'd say I have "mood imprints" that stay with me long term from certain dreams I've had over the years, like a particular image or feeling, but little more than that.

EBearhug · 13/09/2017 08:28

I get very vivid dreams, too, and they can definitely affect how my mood is, and if I have dreamed about someone I know, it might affect how I feel about them - mostly it's positive, but not always.

Don't think I've had any prescient dreams. I tend to get recurrent dreams when I'm stressed, though that doesn't seem to happen as much these days, which is definitely not because I'm calmer!

I have had a few dreams where it was hard to tell if it was a dream. Can't think of any examples just now, though.

I've never dreamed of murdering anyone, though.

Didactylos · 13/09/2017 08:40

I was sleeping after nightshift once and had a really vivid dream that DP had got a new job, and was really excited about it, and it was the ideal solution to his job stress, with a higher salary, and a really good welfare package. Dreamt that he had come in all enthused and told me the details. (Have heard dreams are mostly wish fulfillment, very true in this case)

So I woke up in the evening and when DM called to check how I was, I was still slightly dozy, merrily prattling away and telling her all the details - while across the room DP was starting to look more and more puzzled and alarmed! Everything I was saying was total gubbins, there was no new job and he hadnt been there that afternoon while I was asleep to tell me anything! Quite embarassing to realise I dreamed the whole thing, but it was so real!

Maudlinmaud · 13/09/2017 10:21

I had the doorbell dream again last night. Weirdly when I check my phone after it, it's always 4.03am.

SparkyTheCat · 13/09/2017 19:29

Yes I get recurring dreams: the one where I can't find a loo, the one where I have to drive a car (can't drive IRL), the one where I find myself back at school about to take exams... why can't I get nice ones?!

custardcreamplease · 13/09/2017 19:59

I had the most amazing dream some years ago, when I was very depressed and, if I'm honest, drifting into suicidal ideation.

I dreamt that I was walking down a country lane that opened out into a meadow at the end. It was nowhere I recognised and nothing stood out about it, it was just a green meadow on a summer day. There was a large group of people standing in it, and I knew they were all my family, going back for years- you know when you go to a party or bbq and you vaguely know everyone in the room but you only pick out a few people at the edge? People I'd never met. Anyway as I was walking into this meadow my childhood dog (dead for years) broke away from the group and came racing towards me. I just sank to the ground and sobbed with joy. I loved him to pieces and was devastated when he died. So as I'm on the ground hugging my dog, my late grandmother (also dead for years) comes up to me and says "It's good to see you. We're all here, but you can only stay for a little while. We're taking care of CustardDog. It's all fine. You'd better get back now"
I stood up crying because I didn't want to go, but my gran picked up my dog and sort of waved me off, and the meadow and everyone in it sort of receded.

It was the most amazing dream. I have never in my life felt that sense of peace, joy and security, and I've had some very happy times. It was an incomparable feeling,I felt surrounded by a blanket of love and care and connection to all the people in my family who lived and died before I was even born.

I can't even describe it. I'm am atheist and technically I don't believe in an after life but that's the one thing that has made me think. I do have quite clear, sometimes lucid dreams, but that was beyond anything else I've ever experienced. If there is an afterlife, all I want is to return to that meadow, because I know everyone I love will be there

Original poster
vividdream · 13/09/2017 22:22

Custard - What a fantastic dream. I wish I could dream of my childhood dog. He has been dead over 25 years now, I'd love to see him again, even if only in a dream.

OP posts:
TheLegendOfBeans · 13/09/2017 22:29

Also, i dreamed my offshore surveyor friend was posted to be part of the team that went looking for bits of crashed airplane MH370.

It was so vivid that when I met up with her some time later I introduced her to my friends as being this amazing surveyor responsible for trying to get to the bottom of such a tragic event.

She was literally like "wtf are you going on about, you utter loon?"

That's when I realised I'd got dream and real life properly mixed up Confused

PollyFlint · 13/09/2017 22:30

When I was about 8, I dreamed about Pongo Snodgrass from Whizzer and Chips comic. He was in my school playground, wouldn't leave me alone. I was really disturbed by him in my dream for weeks. lly disturbed by him in my dream for weeks.

Never mind the dream, I'm just pleased that someone else remembers Whizzer and Chips. Grin

Nearly all my dreams are exceptionally vivid and detailed and I also suffer from that classic horror film trope of 'false waking' where you think you've woken from from a terrible nightmare but in fact have only dreamt that you have woken up and are actually still dreaming and your nightmare continues. It's really distressing sometimes.

Cobblersandhogwash · 13/09/2017 23:04

Custard, did that dream help you stagger through your depression?

Whizzer and Chips was brilliant but Pongo Snodgrass really upset me in my dreams. 38 years on and I still remember them.

9monthchallenge · 13/09/2017 23:20

I've been having really vivid dreams lately that Donald Trump is the president of the USA!!!! Someone wake me up!!! I mean it can't b reality can it??

WetsTheFinger · 14/09/2017 00:22

custard wow, that has given me goose pimples.

custardcreamplease · 14/09/2017 07:26

It did actually, yes. And it's never been quite as bad since. It lurks about now and then, and it'll never go away, but I can control it to some extent now, and I am fairly confident I'll never be quite as bad as I was then. I have terrible moments still, but I feel that at some deep level I'm still in control, whereas in the past I had the terrible moments, plus a feeling that I had no control over the result, if that makes sense. I do remember that dream often and it makes me feel secure. I've never felt quite like that in waking life. Even the knowledge that such a feeling exists is a type of comfort

Beerwench · 14/09/2017 08:07

I had been working nights years ago and woke about 3 in the afternoon with a start that my (at the time) 18mo dd was missing. I searched the house, was frantic. It was only when I rang my mum and she told me that dd was safely with her and I was (supposed) to be sleeping that I realised I'd been dreaming. The panic feeling lasted a long time.
After my nan died suddenly I was in a bit of a state, not sleeping properly and very anxious and stressed, I did sleep one afternoon for a few hours and dreamt my nan was talking to me, it was just her face and I don't know what was said to this day other than she was very calm and gave me a bit of a talking to and I woke up much calmer and was able to process my grief properly.

LakieLady · 14/09/2017 08:08

I once had a very realistic dream that I'd had my hair dyed blonde and it looked absolutely dreadful. It was so convincing, that when I woke up I had to look in the mirror and I was mighty pleased to see I was my normal auburn.

It was 20 years before I dared to go blonde for real, and when I did, it looked great.

I've also had a dream about a dear friend who'd recently died. He appeared in my kitchen and we had a bit of a chat. This was only about 10 days after he'd died, and for those few days I kept thinking I could smell him (he had his own distinctive smell, not BO or anything, just his smell). After we'd had the dream-chat, that stopped happening.

I've also had the reverse. Camping somewhere very quiet and remote, I could hear really loud helicopters in the middle of the night and thought I was having an "Apocalypse Now" dream, until DP rolled over and grunted "Those fucking Chinooks". We had fucking Chinooks flying overhead in the small hours for 3 nights in a row ...

TheRattleBag · 14/09/2017 20:01

I sometimes have really weird experiences as though I'm having a dream but I know that I'm awake. They seem to come in phases - will happen a couple of times in a week and then not again for many months. I know I'm definitely awake 'cos I've had them at work, whilst driving, and just walking down the street.

I sort of zone out and know that what I'm seeing / thinking isn't real, but I can't help it or stop it. I once jotted down a few of the things going through my head as it happened, and when I read it back it was a gobbledygook selection of words.

The weird thing is, I actually quite enjoy it and feel a little melancholy when it ends. I think I may be due a few more, as a couple of times this week I've been on the verge of having an episode, but then it's passed. Something as mundane as crossing the road nearly set me off on Monday.

I've tried googling but I'm not sure what to look for, but I'd be interested (and relieved!) to find out I'm not alone!