Multiple dreams in one night: What Counts as a "dream"?

**Alustris** · 10-04-2018 06:20 PM

I've heard of people having as many as 10 dreams in one night. I'd like to know what counts as a dream. In my dream journal, each written entry is usually one long description. Upon waking up, I try to write down as many details I can remember. The thing is, I'm not sure where to separate the dreams, because I classify it as one long dream with a bunch of different stuff happening. It's like a movie with different scenes, but its still one movie. So I guess my question is, what is the basis for distinguishing one dream from another dream? In other words, if you have multiple dreams in one night, what separates one dream from the other?

**Oreo** · 10-04-2018 11:13 PM

There is no clear definitive way to know if dreams are separate except by remembering that you woke up between them. But of course, we don't always wake up or remember waking up between dreams. A single dream can skip around a lot or your conciousness may just end until the next dream starts. You really just have to play it by feeling and use your own personal judgement. I wouldn't stress too much over it.

**snoop** · 10-06-2018 06:42 AM

My reasons behind the ultimate placement of the boundaries of my definition of a dream is mostly arbitrary. I choose to simply count what I feel what I'd call a dream as one single dream as a dream, and that's really all there is to it. I can split hairs all over the place, but since I don't particularly have great need for or value in the number/count of my dreams, and I'm going to eventually just wind up picking whatever I feel like the answer is anyway whether or not I've come up with some likely only half-true at best reasoning behind it all, there's no need to question my initial judgments regarding what experiences i just had and whether or not they were different dreams.