Thread: Has anyone else experienced this?

That actually happened to me today, I had a dream I was in NYC with one of my cousins and in the dream we reminisced about old times and several memories were brought up, I'm not entirely sure if this is what you experienced.

I get that a lot. When dreams become real memories, and I cant tell the difference between a dream memory or a real life one. Confusing sometimes.

That happens to me all the time. Anytime I dream a memory, I'm not so sure about whether or not it is real when I wake up. Extreme "memories" like the one you had- well after a couple of minutes in the dark I shake myself awake and realize it was just a dream memory. But mundane "memories"- sometimes I have to ask people about it to be sure.

It's interesting to note that when something actually happens as the plot of the dream, then I never get confused if it is real. The problem arises (like in your case) when I dream that I am remembering something. Only then am I later unsure if the memory was something real that I remembered in a dream or just a part of the dream itself. It's very confusing, especially when it is something boring. For example, I dreamt recently that my grandma and I were watching a funny movie. We laughed until we cried because the movie was so funny. Then my grandma said, "remember the time you and your brother were laughing so hard that he started crying and we thought you had teased him and upset him?" Then we laughed some more, then I woke up. The next day I was wondering, did it really happen that once my grandma thought I'd made my brother cry? I can remember this memory so vividly but I don't know if it was real or just in the dream.

This happens to me all the time. I'm going to be a senile old lady.

Originally Posted by loulou

when something actually happens as the plot of the dream, then I never get confused if it is real. The problem arises (like in your case) when I dream that I am remembering something. Only then am I later unsure if the memory was something real

Yeah same here...I've never been confused as to whether or not something I dreamed had actually happened before. So far this is the only time I can remember this happening to me. At least it only lasted a few minutes and I didn't walk around the rest of the day thinking my brother killed somebody, lol. And don't worry, I'm only 25 and some days I swear I'm already going senile !

I have something like this that happense all the time.
I will have a dream with a memory from a past dream, but i never had that dream.

Sounds interesting, but I don't think this has ever happened to me.
Lol, I had to read it a few times to understand what you were saying. I don't know why though.

Originally Posted by Kolten

Lol, I had to read it a few times to understand what you were saying. I don't know why though.

Yeah it is a little confusing the way I worded it, sorry bout that!

No problem, haha.

FOREWORD
I'm a security guard who works 2 shifts in the week at a nursing home. Needless to say, we deal with a lot of dementia patients. Occasionally they will escape and it's the security guard's job to find and return them.

DREAM
I was working at the nursing home and I found one of the residents splashing around in a water fountain just next to the car park. I knew this was out of the ordinary, and needed to be dealt with, but for whatever reason I decided to wait until the morning shift got on site to tell them about it — we could deal with it.

When the morning shift showed up, I told them there's a crazy old bitch splashing around in the water fountain that we need to take care of. They looked at me as if I was crazy and after apparently thinking for a moment, held me down. They explained to me that there wasn't anyone in the water fountain and that I was showing signs of schizophrenia.
At this point I looked over to the water fountain, where the old bat was jumping, from a small step, down into the water fountain and flailing her arms above her head as if she was jumping from a building in an attempt to commit suicide. It was quite disturbing to watch. It was even more disturbing to be told it wasn't actually happening.

I chose to believe the Nursing Home staff and complied with their instructions to stay still so they could help me. There was an immediate, and intense, feeling of wanting to get better. I didn't want to be crazy!

So next thing you know I was in a mental hospital and in a room surrounded by a plethora of tables arranged in a square. At these tables sit a number of Doctors and they were quizzing or interviewing me on my "episode" at the Nursing Home and deciding how they were going to treat me.
When the lead Doctor began asking me exactly what I saw at the Nursing Home — referring to the old woman in the fountain pretending to kill herself — flashes of a very beautiful and young woman's face would go through my mind. Each time I tried to tell the Doctor's about what I had seen, at the Nursing Home, this face would get more and more evil and flash over in my head again and again. Her teeth became jagged, her skin turned an evil blue/purple and her hair got more and more frayed and dull as if it were that of a corpse. I understood that this was my brain, and my illness, trying to stop me from talking to the Doctors. It was trying to stop me from getting better!

Eventually I got the whole story out about what I had seen and they let me out of the room for a break. It was at this point where I woke up, still convinced, that I was insane. It took a while for it to dawn on me that it had only been a dream so for a little while, in my waking life, I was convinced I was a nut job.

If you don't mind a quick read; that's my similar experience directly out of my journal.

Originally Posted by Foul

It took a while for it to dawn on me that it had only been a dream so for a little while, in my waking life, I was convinced I was a nut job.

Wow, that's really interesting! It's funny how that can happen.

I have also had 'memories' within a dream. It makes me wonder if my dream is remembering a past dream that I forgot, like it has an alternate life over there.