While dreaming, I've been remembering old dreams as real life memories

Within this last year I have been having this phenomena where my old dreams, even dreams I've long forgotten in waking life, come back to me as a real life memory in a dream. Even though I would know in waking life that these were dreams and not real memories, in the dream it feels so real and I believe that it actually happened. For example I've had dreams where my wife and I had a new baby, then months later in another dream I remembered this and got a little panicked talking to the dream version of my wife because I was like "We have another kid, where is he? How did we lose him what happened?" Another example is this recurring airport where I have to fly somewhere across the world. I will remember these as if they really happened. Its as if I keep returning to the same universe and retain the dreams as memories inside that universe...its like some kind of alternate reality I go back to. Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing or any insights about this? I feel like this could be an easy path to becoming lucid if I can remember to reality check during these moments but I just never do, they're always very long adventurous realistic dreams and I really love them still even though I'm not lucid.

Yes, I always called it "dream continuity". I posted in a thread 12 years ago (!!!) about this exact subject:

https://www.dreamviews.com/general-l...tml#post853132

I think dream memories in other dreams have happened for me but honestly I couldn't really know for sure without looking through my journaling. However, I have had the opposite scenario. Certain memories of very specific dreams have become so vividly imprinted at some point (not necessarily when the dream occurred) that I have honestly mistaken certain dream memories for waking memories. When these memories came to me at random times in the past, it has taken me a few moments to go over these memories to realise that they did not happen in waking life, mostly because of how they seem so accurate.

To circle back to your post Subatomic, with regards to using these as lucidity aids the simplest approach I could think of right now is to simply make an intent as you fall asleep to recognise any occurrences of these dream memories as being dream-like; basically make yourself intent on checking that for the next few hours (while you're asleep) the memories that may come up may not be of waking life, and even if they are, they might be altered, so with this intent in mind you can keep something in the back of your mind alert to any discrepancies.

I'm not sure if it's the same phenomena, but one of the more interesting things I've come across is "dream nostalgia" -- memories of people, places, or things (in dreams) that never actually existed in real life. And these aren't just simple or shallow mis-rememberings, but rather long, elaborate, emotionally charged memories.

I once had a non-lucid dream where I was in a house, which was now really old and neglected. There was very strong sense of nostalgia in this place. In the dream, I recalled one specific night
in which there was a party in this house long ago, all sorts of crazy shenanigans and fun, with many old/good friends -- I even remember feeling that it was one of the best days of my life! And yet, this party never actually happened, in waking life or any dream (any dream I can remember anyway).

In another dream, I came across my "old red backpack", which in the dream, I had owned for several years. I remember thinking about all of the different things I had experienced and been through while owning this backpack -- except I never owned such a backpack, or anything I can draw correlations with.

It just sort of blows my mind that such powerful and deep memories could exist of things that never happened. These big and important parts of my life, in the dream anyway, some of which consisted of several years worth of seemingly fake experiences.

In my own personal dogma, I believe there to be separate parts of the psyche which govern waking and sleeping states. When I am awake, my waking self has access to this psyches memories and basic universal laws that govern this plane. However when I dream, it seems to be another self entirely, sharing traits sure, but still governed by different laws and with access to a separate set of memories/experiences.

I experience the exact phenomena mentioned in this thread as do many others I am certain. When dreaming the dream self seems to be cognizant of past dream experiences with a much higher acuity than the waking self. Likewise, it does seem to regard the waking self with the same sort of fuzzy mysticism as the waking self thinks of the dream self.

At least this is true in my experience, my lucidity in dreams has devolved to a general 'lucid awareness' of how the rules have changed in this state of being. In the same way while waking we understand we are subject to gravity/causality/general laws of physics.

The blurring of the lines does occur it seems, and it also appears there may be utility in this process. As lessons learned in the dream state may be applied to waking life, I am certain there are lessons learned in the waking life which our dream self desperately requires for growth.