The dream feeling

There's that specific feeling to a dream...

Is it a feeling of a direction - story or plot wise? Is it inevitability? It's kind of like fear but not really scary and dejavu ish. A feeling of death? Like in Near death experiences sort of thing. The dream yoga practice does describe death and dream as brothers so that could be it. But i want a clearer description to define it; perhaps even use it as a means of induction, reality check, or a form of awareness check.

This feeling... was it also ever present in key moments of your life? Good or bad. Perhaps the dreams are replaying those memories... Esp nightmares.

How about expert lucid dreamers? Can you clearly describe any key difference in regards to feelings of Ld, dreams, and waking?