something weird is happening to me NEW HERE

hi everyone :)
my name is jasmine and im kinda freaking out here. see.. recently i have started remembering my dreams. when i wake up my dreams from that night flood my mind without any encouragements on my part. sometimes i remember 2 or 3 dreams at once. and it seems that i dream about things that are going on in my life at that particular moment. for example i watch a movie or read a book before i go to bed and i will dream about it in some sort. what is happening to me? i dont want to remember my dreams...some of them are really scary. but i have no control over this. they enter my mind during the day and i want it to stop. and my dreams feel so real sometimes.
yesterday i remembered a dream i had a couple of weeks ago. and i know this because i remember when i dreamed it (true story, no lie). is this weird? am i going crazy? and i dream about people from my childhood, like friends i haven't seen or talked to in years and when i remember these dreams it takes a moment to realise it didn't really happen and that it was just a dream.

i am so confused right now. is this lucid dreaming. because i can control what i do in my dreams sometimes. like if i want to close a door in my dream, i'll tell my self, close that door and i'd do it in the dream.
i hope someone can help me out here..i just want this to stop. im sorry if i offended anybody, i know alot of people want to be able to remember their dreams but i dont really like it as i have alot of nightmares.

thanks :)

Hey Jasmine and welcome to the forum! Sorry about your nightmares too.

I too have had many nightmares in my past, and they are hard to forget. Are you maybe stressed about something? That usually causes nightmares for lots of people. If I want to stop the nightmares, I watch a funny video or TV show before I go to bed, so I forget the nightmare. Also sleeping with the lights on is pretty comforting, and drink some water.

And if you have control over your dream it doesn't mean you are lucid. Lucid dreams are where you know that you are ina dream, and usually then you have control.

Also it's very common to dream about old friends, and things like movies or books you just read/watched. Your brain stores that information, and dreams are your brain going through the info and organizing it, that's what I've heard.

I don't know if you dan forget a nightmare, but you definitley can get over them, or conquer them in a lucid dream.

Hello Sunrise, there's no reason to freak out at all :) It's all natural processes, you just have to stop and think about it for a while.

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it seems that i dream about things that are going on in my life at that particular moment. for example i watch a movie or read a book before i go to bed and i will dream about it in some sort. what is happening to me?

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Yes, it is very common to dream about things which you did close to when you fell asleep, like during the day. There's nothing wrong with this at all :) Humans dream every single night, so you've probably tired this a whole lot of times before, only those times you did not remember them. It's like if our dream memory seems to get erased almost right away after waking up, although sometimes for particular reasons, you will remember dreams without any kind of encouragement.

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yesterday i remembered a dream i had a couple of weeks ago. and i know this because i remember when i dreamed it (true story, no lie). is this weird?

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From what I understand, you mean that you remember the dream you had a couple of weeks ago, and then yesterday you recalled it again. This is not weird at all, as soon as you wake up and remember a dream and walk it through in your head, it will for some reason be stored in longer term memory so it's easier to remember in the future.

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am i going crazy? and i dream about people from my childhood, like friends i haven't seen or talked to in years and when i remember these dreams it takes a moment to realise it didn't really happen and that it was just a dream.

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Like USA already stated above, there is nothing crazy about any of this. It is indeed very common to dream out friends from childhoods or people you rarely talk to anymore. Last night I had a dream where my dad and his brother were mad at each other after an argument which did actually take place in real life, but many months ago. They are not mad at each other anymore. For some reason this old piece of information was just used in my dream, that's how dreams work.

When you say that it takes a moment for you to realize that it didn't really happen in real life, it can be because you're mixing those parts of your dreams up with long term memory that reminded a lot about the situation and really did happen. Another reason can be that the dream memory just feels very real. I've had these situations happen to me as well, they are not harmful.

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is this lucid dreaming. because i can control what i do in my dreams sometimes. like if i want to close a door in my dream, i'll tell my self, close that door and i'd do it in the dream.

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No, this is not lucid dreaming :) In your case, your dream ego had a thought about closing the door, so it did. Lucid dreaming is when you become aware that you are dreaming. This means that you are able to stand in the middle of your dream and are able to tell yourself something like "I know that right now I'm actually in a dream and none of this is real, and I know I'm actually sleeping right now". When you reach this awareness, it is then possible to control your dreams any way you want since you actually are awake yourself within your dream. So this is what is meant when people say that you can control your own dream :)

Sometimes I enter periods where, for some reason, I will have more nightmares than usual, and be able to remember them, and then they slowly die out again and I have quiet periods again. It is mostly out of your control, unless you are in some kind of stressful period, or if you have something which is troubling you, in which case that can also cause you to more frequent nightmares.

At any rate you just have to calm down, and instead of being fearful and resistant to your nightmares, you can try and understand them instead (I know this is easier said than done, but it is a possible to do!). I know from own experience that fearing nightmares can usually just prolong the periods in which I have them. Also as USA stated, lucid dreaming can be used to stop nightmares (because since you know it is only a dream, you are able to stop the nightmares or fight back).

Welcome to the forum, sunrise22!

You received a lot of good advice and information above. Everything you experience is normal and not a reason to stress.

Here at DdreamViews we actually hold classes to help people with their efforts to have a lucid dream. Part of the instruction involves writing down your dreams every day in as much detail as you can remember. This has a few positive effects:

- Writing dreams down daily tells the brain these memories are important to you. This increases the chance of lucidity in a future dream.

- Writing them down will help you recognize dream signs, common elements that recur in your dreams and can be used as a sign to recognize that you are dreaming.

- Recognizing dream signs and becoming lucid allows you to take control of the events in a dream or alter the dream scenery so your dreams are less upsetting.

I know you are stressing about your dreams but they are a normal function of sleep. Think of it like writing a strange book every night and you never know how it will end. Lucid dreaming can help turn negative elements into positive experiences.

Sometimes just the effort to achieve lucid dreams can alter dream content for the better. Paying attention to your dreams and understanding them can allow you to gain insight into past feelings and events and even solve current issues.

The vividness of dreams can seem frightening but it can never harm you...never. Like watching a movie on television you remain an observer even when you are part of the action, and anything is possible in dreams. They need not be negative experiences.

If I can help or answer questions please feel free to post or send me a private message by clicking on my profile name. All of the staff here at DreamViews is here to help any time.

I wish you pleasant dreams! :)