For a few years now, whenever I go to sleep, I have these vivid dreams where I am always someone else. I have had dreams where I am a father of two, a daughter, a single mother, etc... When I become these people, I remember things as if I was them the whole time. Like my daughter's christening, my son's 2nd birthday at a pool, my wedding night. I am a single female with no kids in my early 20's. Now in these dreams, I always die painful deaths. I've learned to accept these dreams but I always feel what the person is going through in my dreams. I feel the fear and pain that they experience before they meet their demise. When one person dies, I don't wake up instantly. I then become someone else entirely in a different place and become them until they die as well.

Dreaming like this kind of pushed me into becoming a re-occuring insomniac. I can go a few days without sleeping and still function as a normal person in everyday life.

I guess my main question is if there are other people who dream like I do and if this is actually a 'normal' thing. I hope I'm not coming off as crazy.

If this is a 'normal' thing, how do other people deal with the pain?

In a recent dream, I tried to save two of my children and was shot twice. One made me fall and the other made me bleed to death. I've never been shot in real life but the pain was unbearable during the dream. So far, I've coped with these dreams by starting my day off with music that relaxes me and doing some yoga-like stretches...