Thread: 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.