Dreams During Sleep Are Just Too Mysterious, Aren’t They?

[1] Hey, what really are these “dreams you have while sleeping”? They say it’s like the brain processing past memories, but I clearly have dreams about the future, right? Not just the future, sometimes I even dream I’m living in a completely different world, and “I” don’t feel any sense of strangeness at all. Why can’t the “me” living in that other world realize “this world isn’t real” when it’s obviously so weird? And one more thing, I really often have precognitive dreams. What are those all about? Could it be that life is actually predetermined?

[3] Why is it that even though I have such intense experiences in dreams, I forget most of the details? All that remains after waking up is just the feeling, like “that was intense” or “that was scary,” but the actual content of the dream is completely gone from my mind.

[4] Maybe you should check out some philosophy news?

[5] I’m a university student, but why do I only dream about friends from elementary and middle school? Is it just me? Friends from high school and university don’t appear.

[7] Why do I sometimes have reruns or sequels of dreams I’ve had before? And how come, even though I’ve forgotten the details of the dream, I still know it’s a rerun or a sequel?

[8] Is it just me, or does anyone else wake up the exact moment “I” realize “this is a dream,” even when I was just casually living in a clearly strange, different world without feeling anything was wrong?

[9] It’s memories from parallel worlds.

[11] Some people say they “have black and white dreams,” but I’ve never had one. Do people here see them?

[12] “Dreams are the experiences of the soul having an out-of-body experience,” “Dreams are previews of the afterlife.” I kind of want to believe this, but I wonder if we can keep dreaming even after we die?

[13] What copypasta is this?

[25] >>13 I wrote it down.

[15] It’s foreshadowing for time leaps. It’s the mission given to you by the world.

[17] You’re not actually seeing prophetic dreams, reruns, or sequels.

[27] >>17 Really?

[20] The dream world is the real reality.

[21] I only ever seem to have 4 types of dreams: ones in strange worlds, scary ones, ones where I’m just living normally with old friends, and ones where I get something I want but it turns out to be a dream. Is it the same for everyone?

[23] To answer seriously, the brain is still active during sleep, organizing scattered memories.

[35] >>23 So, the result of organizing memories is living in such a chaotic world?

[24] I’ve never had dreams about the future, and isn’t that ‘future’ just your brain’s imagination anyway?

[28] When you wake up in the middle, if you go back to sleep thinking “Let’s see the rest…”, you can sometimes continue the dream.

[137] >>28 I know what you mean.

[30] You should keep a dream diary.

[44] >>30 Didn’t I just say I forget the details when I wake up? All I can grasp are abstract things like “That was a scary dream” or “I had that dream about missing out on something I wanted again.”

[54] >>44 It’s not that keeping the diary itself has meaning. Apparently, the act of trying to remember helps you gradually retain more.

[32] By the way, you tend to dream more (or rather, remember dreams more easily when you wake up) if you sleep in an uncomfortable or restless state!

[33] This here is the dream.

[34] It’s the Matrix.

[36] It’s yourself from a different timeline.

[42] It’s still unexplained, so there’s probably nothing we can do about it, right?

[47] If you make a habit of constantly checking “Is this a dream or reality?” in the waking world, you’ll start doing it in your dreams too and realize “This is a dream” more easily.

[49] They say it’s ‘memory consolidation,’ but what about those characters who pop up, like nostalgic friends from elementary school I haven’t thought about at all while awake? Who are those people?

[50] When I was a kid, I used to have lucid dreams often, but now I never realize I’m dreaming while I’m in one.

[51] This thread is also a dream.

[53] I have lucid dreams sometimes. I can tell the moment I’m entering one.

[56] Someone should research this!

[63] >>56 It’s already being researched, didn’t you know? Look up some international papers.

[57] But sometimes baseball players show up in my dreams, so maybe it really is just the brain randomly mashing together interests and experiences, like a game of Fukuwarai (pin the features on the face)?

[59] Today I dreamed I was piloting something like an Evangelion. The feeling of weightlessness when jumping from a high place was so real it woke me up.

[62] This thread is also inside the OP’s dream. I’m just a character in their dream.

[65] In the end, only things you know appear in dreams. The interesting part is that people and places you saw once and forgot about can show up too.

[77] >>65 Maybe this is it. Maybe the reason I recognize them as ‘future’ dreams is because they involve future technology I’ve imagined.

[68] Even though we say ‘see’ a dream, you’re not actually seeing with your eyes, so I sometimes wonder, what are we seeing with?

[90] >>68 The real world is also an illusion created by the brain.

[99] >>68 When I was a kid, thinking about that helped me start having lucid dreams.

[74] If you’re interested in dreams, try writing down the content as soon as you wake up every morning. Even just a list of words is fine, not necessarily a full story. By the way, a friend of mine who did this for 4 years suddenly committed suicide.

[83] >>74 That’s interesting. Maybe the dream world really is the afterlife?

[102] >>83 No, I think it was more like they lost control over distinguishing reality and dreams. The stuff in their dream journal towards the end was trauma-level. It gradually got more detailed, including illustrations, and I’ve never seen such terrifying pictures and writing before.

[80] It’s such a mystery how you always wake up at the perfect moment [just before something good/important happens]. Even when I’m woken up by something physical like an earthquake, the dream still cuts off right at the good part. It makes you think you’re just watching a pre-determined story, doesn’t it?

[81] I’m 28, but I still dream about my school days. People from work never show up.

[86] >>81 Apparently, you tend to dream about periods of your life that were particularly intense or meaningful to you.

[93] >>81 That’s probably normal. Sometimes people you’d forgotten about pop up in dreams.

[107] >>81 Me too, I’m a university student but only my elementary school friends show up in my dreams.

[84] You definitely have dreams about the future, right?

[85] ‘Precognitive dreams’ are just coincidences when your brain, while sorting through memories from past experiences, happens to create a dream similar to something that later occurs in reality. That’s all. And if you dream of another world, it’s just your brain randomly processing the ‘concept of other worlds’ from your memories.

[87] To be precise, it’s not parallel worlds, but glimpses into worlds of possibilities – things that could have happened.

[94] Isn’t the snooze function crazy? Set it for every 5 minutes or so, and you can have tons of dreams.

[103] >>94 What do you mean?

[123] >>103 You know, on your phone alarm? The function where it rings again after you stop it, at the set interval. With that, you kind of drift between being awake and asleep.

[101] When you’re dozing off, you really can’t tell the difference between dreams and reality. If you close your eyes while thinking about something, it just turns into a story.

[105] I sometimes have the exact same dream I’ve had before. What’s that all about, I wonder?

[127] >>105 Same here! And what’s more, I can recognize it like, “Oh, this dream again.” Sometimes there are minor changes, and while I’m dreaming, I can even notice what’s different from before. But then I forget the details when I wake up.

[110] When I was little and had a fever, I always had this scary dream where I was alone in a big, white space with no doors. I was terrified. What really was that?

[117] Dreams you have when you have a cold aren’t about memory consolidation; it’s because your body temperature is high, putting you in a state close to a life-or-death situation, so your brain is working several times harder than usual.

[129] Anyone else remember having dreams as a kid with a fever, where some huge thing was attacking you?

[132] >>129 I get it. Mine was more like being crushed from above by something huge rather than being chased. Just something massive, physically and mentally.

[136] When I had a fever as a kid, I had this really scary and agonizing dream where a black sphere would approach and almost crush me. It was terrifying. Haven’t had it at all since becoming an adult.

[140] >>136 I totally get that. Probably the same kind of dream.

[120] That phenomenon where you dream about a girl you’re not really interested in, and then suddenly you start liking her (lol). Does that happen to women too? Any women here? Let me know.

[131] >>120 It does.

[133] There’s this supermarket that only exists in my dreams. Sometimes the shelf layout changes, and it’s annoying.

[134] Sometimes I fall in love with a girl in the dream world who I’ve never even met in real life.

[139] For some reason, I only dream about my middle school friends. Never high school.

[143] I had a dream where I put people in something like a dryer, drained the moisture out, and made them shrink drastically.

[147] I often dream about being in a shopping mall or something similar. Also, when I get really into battle royale or FPS games, I dream about those a lot too.

[150] Sometimes I’m amazed by how stylish the camerawork is in my own dreams.

[154] The dream world is the real world.

[111] Does anyone else dream about getting ready in the morning? It’s seriously dangerous. A super realistic dream where you brush your teeth, get dressed, etc. Usually, I wake up right as I’m opening the front door, only to realize I’m still in bed and haven’t done anything, which is terrifying.