Dreaming as other people

I have a fairly common pattern in my dreams where I won't even be me, and the people I dream of aren't any I know in real life. I think this was more common for me as a child and into highschool years, and now I suppose I lean more towards being a slightly younger me. Or rather I'm hardly even aware of my own appearance, and can easily be a girl as well. Such dreams usually have more fantastic settings too.

I was just curious how common this might be, as none of my friends claimed to have such dreams. One of them only dreams of being himself and dreaming of people he directly knows or celebrities etc. I would say that my dreams are either the sort that are tied closely to my waking life, or those that seem entirely independent of it.
The latest dream I had as another person was of a girl, apparently a witch, and the only tie to my real life was my pet cat, though he was a kitten again in the dream. Everything else such as the setting and people were unique to my dream.

When it happens though, it's very seamless, I don't feel out of place as someone else, I don't even recall my waking life. I'll "know" people in these dreams, like I'll have friends or a family, and I'll simply take it all for granted. I'll feel very much like myself- to the point where its very refreshing and freeing, like I'm unrestricted.

I have two theories of what might've caused or at least supported this pattern- one is that because I've always been a bookworm and so used to projecting myself into other characters and settings, this comes naturally to me. I have dreams that are sometimes directly related to books I've read, but often they don't seem to come from anything in particular.

My second theory would be that, because I am half Japanese and grew up with exposure to that culture, my ego formed a bit differently than those without exposure that. (From the perspective of one living in the US)
Generally speaking the kind of identity people have in Japan and east asia in general is very different than the Western identity, usually less rooted in the ego and more on nature/the world. I mean, it's a complicated topic and I'm sure the rapid pace of globalization today is really blurring lines more than ever, so I can barely touch on it here or claim to fully understand it.

Anyways, just my thoughts on it so far, I'm wondering if that's fairly common for dreamers? Just curious, hoping I'm not alone here haha.

Even in lucid dreams, I seem to naturally take on...well, whatever shape just feels right at the time? Like I'm aware of my waking life and memories, but not limited to them.

Yeah, your not the only one who can take on different dream characters. I'm from the states, It may be a little different but, it's fairly common for me as a dreamer. :D I bet it would be even a great tool for those who are actors out there. You know, it would be a smooth transition from one character to another.

Yeah, I have those sorts of dreams too. My theory aligns mainly with your first theory, in that these sorts of dreams seem to arise from the media I am exposed to. I like shows or movies or games with interesting and unique characters, things heavy on character pieces, and when I write or create I enjoy the character design process as well.

So my thought is my like for characters and like to try to see things from their perspective leads to dreams as different, odd characters. I think my favorite character I've been might be the immortal, Crimean Tatar hunter with an insane and all-encompassing hatred for bears.

It's the same for me, too! Really happy to know that im not the only one ^_^