Dreams: can they happen outside REM?

Greetings all!
First off I would to thank you for the very useful info you provide here. :)

Now, let me introduce my first attempt at LD. I was absolute weary last day, so I decided to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon...
I started to wander my mind off, and as soon my awareness vanished, I was in a dream.
I was seeing myself in a photo, and at the same time was trying to recognize the place of that photo, soon I was awake...

Well, I can't determine if that was a *real* dream or any kind of induced allucination, because I was in a very *light* sleep, but it was quite vivid albeit I wasn't lucid at all...
I ever heard dreams can only happen while in REM, so I would think it was an allucination, or can you dream outside the REM phase too?

hey there :) Dreams do happen outside of REM all the time. Most people only remember thier REM dream beacse they tend to be the most vivd and memorable ( but that is not always the case) Many people here have vivd lucid dreams and normal dreams durring non-REm stages. I find i have more control in nonREm stage dreasm durring naps :)

You also have a brief period of dreaming just as you are first falling asleep at night. I had quite a bit of it on the plane Saturday night and remembered quite a few brief dream sequences. I would have loved to sleep, but everyone around me was fidgety.