Memories Or Dreams?

[Suck4Luck]

Has anyone ever gotten past memories confused with dreams, or are unsure if something you remember is dream or reality? I have one from a long time ago. I remember walking around an American Indian museum and just observing the artifacts. I was really little when this happened or when the dream occurred. Has anyone ever experienced this? It's either a distant memory or an old dream. I just can't make it out.

[Arra]

Yeah, mostly experiences from when I was really young though. It will happen with small things now. With almost all memories I can just tell whether they're dreams, because the brain is good at separating the two. But occasionally there will be some little memory which feels like it really happened yet something seems a little off about it. Usually it's something like, someone said something (forgettable) a few days ago and I start thinking about it. But then I realize I don't quite remember how that conversation started, and that it doesn't seem like something they'd actually say, although they might. Then I start wondering if it was a dream.

[thebigm]

Same as Dianeva, happened a few times when I was young but hasn't happened recently. I remember I must have dreamed about fun fair and giant adventure playground that was in a bit of land accessible by a door in a high wall round the corner from the house I grew up in. Every time we went past I'd try and get mum to take me to it. I wouldn't believe her when she said it was a garden and house behind the gate. Eventually my persistence must have annoyed her into stopping the car and opening the gate. No fun fair, just a house. Remember feeling pretty confused!

[oainac]

I have the same issue. Sometimes during the day I will remember fragments of a dream but it can be hard to separate those from reality.

[Wolfwood]

Yeah, it's always a surprise to find that my best friend is still alive after I erroneously believed I had assassinated him. Gets me every time.

[Arra]

Every time we went past I'd try and get mum to take me to it. I wouldn't believe her when she said it was a garden and house behind the gate. Eventually my persistence must have annoyed her into stopping the car and opening the gate. No fun fair, just a house. Remember feeling pretty confused! Wow, can't believe how similar one story I have is to this. While little I had a nanny, and one day she took me to this hidden park behind some town houses really close to our house. I begged my mom to walk there with me for a while but she said she doesn't think there's anything there. Finally she let me take her and there was nothing behind the townhouses, just the next street. I still don't know whether it had been a dream or I somehow got the place wrong.

[Intfere]

In childhood I had quiet a few memories, about which my parents told me that they never happened. Nowadays there are more, but I can recognize them on my own. Something always doesn't add up. Yesterday I nearly told a friend that he lied to me, but upon trying to construct my point of view I realized that reasons for his lies I came up with didn't (and couldn't) exist. But there's a very clear memory of where I was and how I was shocked when I "realized" that he lied. Normal memories can be confused with fake ones the same way. When the memory is vague I tend to think it's fake, but sometimes when I focus on it, oh surprise!, it turns out to be a real one. All of that is connected to meditation practice and never happens when it's completely stopped. But I wonder why it happens in childhood. In case of lucid dreams, I'm pretty sure fake memories are caused by a habit of trying to remember dreams. Sometimes you happen to remember without consciously trying, and you don't realize that it was a dream memory.

[SnowyCat]

That used to happen to me all the time! My dreams were really vivid when I was younger, and I often times got them confused with real life. I'd have to admit, though, it was quite disappointing to discover that I had never actually swam with the whales or taken naps in clouds made of vaporized orange soda.

[MRH92]

This occurs a lot with me. I'm unsure if many of my childhood memories are actually memories. I have a lot of memories where I am watching myself, almost like an out of body experience, one of which was I was stood at the top of the stairs watching myself fall down the stairs. I only found out a few years ago I never fell down the stairs as a kid but I remember it vividly. I even remember my sister wrapping my head in a bandage from our pretend first aid kit and my grandma hugging me. I also have a lot of disturbing memories of people trying to kidnap me as well but I don't know if this is true or not. It has also been happening a lot recently. The other day I was really shocked when I looked at the tattoo on my arm as I had a dream the night before that I had a different tattoo there and when I woke I was convinced I had the tattoo in my dream and so felt confused when I saw my real one. It is also worth noting I often get confused with reality and fantasy and do struggle to differ the two on a day to day basis.