Originally posted by djaio

i thought it was common knowledge that dreams can last much longer than the physical REM period..
I don't know about that, but I know that you can have dreams at other points in your sleep and have them sort of meld together as one long memory when you wake up.

I only remember having one dream that seemed to last for a couple of hours, and that happened over two cycles.. I know this because I woke up breifly (literally a couple of seconds) half way through and went back to the same dream.

However, in my experience, dreams always seem to last longer than they physically do.

Once I passed out and dreamed I was eating a picnic on the floor of a supermarket which was carpeted with astroturf and complaining about my ex boyfreind. When I came to I thought I had been passed out for a few minutes, but the dream had happened in the time it took me to hit the floor.

So.. hours, yes. but years seems a bit far fetched.