Repeatedly visiting (not real) places in my dreams

[vacuumnomore]

Hi, I'm interested in whether this happens to anyone else. There are several places that I dream about repeatedly, that either don't exist, or do exist in real life but are different in my dreams - but in my dreams they are always the same. They have the same type of permanence as real life places.
There are some friends (a couple) that I lost touch with. In real life they live in a normal terrace house. But whenever I dream about them, they live in a cave house in a forresty mountain. Another friend lives in different kind of cave house. There is a shop that I go to in my dreams, it's always in the same place, and looks the same (very boring and normal but doesn't exist in real life to my knowledge), and a place I used to live that if I dream about is always much bigger.

Does anyone else have this? The only explanation I can think of and that things/places take on a fairly solid form in my subconscious and my dreams are a visual representation of that.

Yes. I used to dream repeatedly about a particular building which in my dream was my first primary school. Except my school looked nothing like that! This dreamscape has come back repeatedly over several decades.

Oh I'm glad it's not just me! It's so strange isn't it.

Every night I dream I go in holiday (not as good as it sounds, mainly involves stressful packing!) I do revisit many towns that only exist in my dreams.
The less stressed I am in real life, the more sightseeing I do, mostly packing if I'm feeling anxious.

zombie that's so funny! Perhaps some relaxing yoga before bed would allow more sightseeing in your dreams!

I go on holiday in my dreams a lot. Except I never get there. Just an endless cycle of airport trauma until I wake up with a headache.

zombie I have the stress packing one too. Usually along the lines of being given very short notice and then I do really dumb stuff like try and put wellies in a small suitcase.
I like it when I dream of 'school' as it's a familiar place now. The dreams aren't even about being at school and I live hundreds of miles away.

Yes! I have a reoccurring dream that I live in 3 different places and a different work environment and I get confused as to where I should be going and where my clothes are.
1 is my actual home, the other 2 are flats I've never been to. And one is quite distinctive.
The work place is also somewhere I've never worked, or been to.

I used to have regular dreams about a parallel life. Different partner, kids, friends, life - not obviously related to anyone or place I know in real life. I haven’t had those recently though. Perhaps it is a parallel universe where I have already snuffed it, IDK!

Wolff I like the sounds of that (not the snuffing it part)

Holidays stress seems to be featuring heavily!

I have this. I visit a place I used to walk through as a child. I've dreamt it many many times, and in dreams I'm there, interacting with others, but in reality we only ever walked through this location, on the way to somewhere else. We never stopped there, and certainly never interacted with anyone (it was usually empty of people).

Yes last night I was on holiday in a place I've dreamed about before. It's an actual place but just doesn't look like how it does in the dream. But in both dreams the place has looked the same even though the dreams were months apart !

Yes I dream of a house that's mine in the dream that I've been in lots of times - dreamed repeatedly of this house with two kitchens and a separate outbuilding I'm trying to redevelop. Interesting.

Yes i do!
There are several fictional towns and villages that i visit restaurants/shops/themeparks, holiday destinations etc. I really enjoy the dreams when i get to visit these places, they are always different dreams but the dream world is always the same. I do have very vivid and detailed dreams and often lucid dream when stressed.

@zombielady that it's pretty much identical to my dream!
I often visit a hotel, never sure where it is but it's a big AI one with lots of pools and restaurants. There's a really good pool and restaurant that I want to go to but we never seem to get there.
Quite often my dream involves me trying to pack my bags in a rush to get to the airport, quite often I have ludicrous amounts of stuff to squeeze into one tiny bag.
I can see it in such detail, and the resorts this place isn't a in change quite often but I have been back to the same place a few times

Ooh and quite often there will be something wrong with a pool. The water will go green

Glad it's not just me @AccidentallyRunToWindsor. Do you also find yourself having to pack huge things like the tv, or a bookshelf full of books (all to carry to the airport!) God, it's so stressful!

I often have dreams I've had before. It's like watching an old familiar movie, sometimes I'm in it, other times watching.

Other times recurring places pop up in different scenarios. There was one particular location that often recurred. I was in Stratford on Avon about a year ago, hadn't been for 25 years since primary school. Walked past a building and realised that was the building I often dreamt about. Not dreamt about it since

Yes. I have a couple of regular dream haunts - one of them is very exotic and funky and the other is in a working class mining town in a rundown car park near to a budget supermarket!

@zombielady always! I often have to decide what things I will leave behind and in one really upsetting one, had to decide which of my cats to leave behind (why I had taken them on holiday was another question)

Yes, I often have to leave a favourite piece of furniture behind

I also go up and down the lift a lot!

Yes, I do this. For a start, it’s nearly always nighttime in my dreams, especially if I’m driving. There’s a particular big house that I either live in or visit regularly, a rambling old house with lots of odd shaped rooms and staircases, often with rooms that in my dream I realise I didn’t know were part of the house. It sounds like a creepy house but it usually isn’t. Then there’s a sort of moorland/countryside I go on rambles through... plus a large uni/halls of residence.

I've been having very detailed slight anxiety dreams since lockdown started. Quite stressful being in the wrong place : no passport kind of thing. Occurred to me the other morning that covid has never entered into my dreams - no masks or anything - interesting

Oooh I dream about a big rambling
House that has lots and lots of bathrooms in odd places and they are all retro colours (burgundy, yellow etc) I keep stumbling across them as I go from room to room

yep. for about 6 months i spent my nights in a seaside town. these days i’m pootling about in a large town and am actually amazed in my dream when i connect two areas together.

last night i dreamed i was giving Danny Dyer an extensive tour. he was very good company.

my brain works very strangely!