Thread: Recurring Dream Elements and Dream Dejavu

Last night I experienced the most vivid dream I have ever had. I wasn't lucid, I was completely positive that I was in reality. I won't get into details of the dream itself, but an interesting thing about it was that it contained small elements from several other dreams. The dream itself was unique, but there were subtle elements from other dreams that showed up, sometimes randomly. For example, part of the dream occured in the same room as a previous dream, and there were specific objects from other dreams that showed up. I have had recurring dreams before, as I'm sure many of you have, but this 'amalgam' of dream-elements, all from different dreams, has never happened to me before. Even stranger, whenever an element from another dream would show up within this one, I had the feeling of dejavu. I thought the dream was real, and the feeling of dejavu that I felt within the dream was like the dejavu in real life. Notably, all of the elements from other dreams that showed up in this dream had been from dreams that I had recorded in my DJ. I think this experience illuminates the difference between consciousness and subconsciousness -- it was like I had two banks of memory: one that could only be accessed when I was dreaming (and contained memories of other dreams), and the other being the real-world memory bank. What are your comments on this?

Originally posted by kayman
it was like I had two banks of memory: one that could only be accessed when I was dreaming (and contained memories of other dreams), and the other being the real-world memory bank. What are your comments on this?

I know EXACTLY what you are saying. This happens to me quite often and is both amazing and starling at the same time. I have no real explaination why this happens, except that perhaps there ARE parts of you memory that are secgmented off when you sleep. I've had dream memories from dream events that have happened many years ago, so this must in some way be tied into the long term memory mechanism as well.

Hmm, the curious thing here is that many of the times dream memories take part in our tought pattern during a dream is when we rationalize to explain something.
E.g.: "Hmm...why am I crawling along the street? Oh wait, that's what I was told to do by that one fellow."
The overall thought pattern during such incidents is more of a whole than such a precise form of thoughts such as a question and answer but nonetheless the concept is the same.

Perhaps I shouldn't speak in such a general manner but I do say the above speaking from the experience of hearing/reading of many dreams and explanations about them as well as of course my own dream experiences.

Overall though, the idea of us having two memory banks: one active during the waking life and the other during sleep is definitely intriguing. I think it would be wroth while to organize a small experiment and during a lucid dream check whether one has access both to his/her waking and sleeping memory (if the latter exists).