I don’t often have dreams or remember my dreams, when I do they’re usually either me somehow being back in school despite graduating over 20 years ago, or I’m living some better version of my life that I end up feeling bad about after I wake up. But I’ve had a couple recently that were a bit out of the ordinary for me and are making me wonder if it’s possible to have a dream that, albeit a fictional scenario, seems otherwise plausible and logical.
For instance, the dream I just had involved me arriving at work (which I always drive to because USA), but in my dream I didn’t drive. When I got there I put a blanket down in a parking space, then pretended to pull a car into the space over the blanket, and pretended to also lock up the car afterward. I acknowledged a fellow “coworker” (I put this in quotes because it wasn’t someone I recognize from real life but in the context of the dream I knew them as a coworker) passing by as I “parked” my “car” and they treated it as perfectly normal. As an aside while I type this, I don’t know that I’ve ever driven in a dream I had.
As I approached the store I work at (which was in the location of an old job I had ~20 years ago rather than my current job’s location), there was a sticker on the door saying that the store had changed locations, but didn’t say where or have any other details. Given I had just worked there yesterday this came as a surprise to me and my other “coworkers” outside (quotes again because none of them were actual people I work with).
Among said coworkers was one person dressed in a suit (I work in food service) who was actually like 3 different colored versions of the same person (think of a multiplayer game like Gauntlet where you have like a red wizard, yellow wizard, etc.). He was arguing with someone else that he was a warlock lawyer, the other person was insisting he’s a wizard. As I looked around the crowd of my coworkers gathered outside I saw the only person I recognize from my actual life, my boss’s boss, our district manager, who also was unaware of the store moving location, and was trying to find out more information.
Anyway, that’s where the dream ended, thanks for reading this far if you have. What weird dreams have you had lately? Do you remember having any dreams that just made you go “yeah, that seemed normal, I could see that happening hypothetically?”
Most of my dreams are “believable” for the most part, with a bit of ridiculousness. Very rarely are my dreams completely bonkers.
I’ve woken myself up twice because my dreams were too normal and especially vivid.
Both were when I was a kid. The first time, I just dreamed of leaving my house, walking down the street to a friend’s, knocking on his door and asking his mom if he could come out and play. Well, I actually said “Can friend come out to play?” and woke myself up hearing someone speaking.
The second time was similar, except that I tripped taking a step off the sidewalk and woke up when I fell.
I tend to not remember my dreams unless they were wild or something happened like the above examples. But I do often find myself remembering something but being unsure if that was a real memory or just a dream.
I have plenty of dreams where I’m just a normal person doing normal things. Working or hanging out with friends, etc. A couple nights ago, I had a dream about being a naturalist, and it made me think maybe I should really do it.
Always .
Almost never. My dreams are usually “me” (a bodiless third-person observer) drifting through wastelands devoid of life. Some favourites include blue hour medieval cobblestone wasteland, and golden hour desert wasteland.
If there ever is other “life” it tends to be big cats and they’re always hostile. And of course I do have a body for them to hunt in those instances.
Back in my teen years I kept a dream journal and I did have “normal” believable dreams sometimes, but they don’t really happen anymore.
One thing I’ve noticed in discussing dreams with my wife is that experiencing the dream first-hand with all the context, emotions, and sense of having “been there” goes a long way toward making a dream feel more realistic or believable.
There have been many times where I’m explaining a dream that felt (and still feel) totally plausible and coherent, but in trying to describe it to someone else, I realize just how unrealistic certain aspects are. Its like trying to explain the plot of an absurdist comedy or something like that.
There’s probably an allegory in there for individual perception and lived experiences vs objective reality, but I’m not feeling quite articulate enough to type it out… 🙃
Most of them have a more or less coherent plot but an unrealistic premise.
Like I’m escaping my home from a tornado or massive storm of some sort, but such things don’t happen where I live, etc.
There’s also a kind of short “context memory”, like a generative LLM, where past a certain point some information is lost, the previous plot will be forgotten and a now it’s a completely new genre, sorta like From Dusk Till Dawn.
Often more-or-less magic will intervene in science fiction scenarios and vice versa, like star wars invading star trek or bsg type stuff, or an apocalyptic movie will become a sort of bizarre nature documentary narrated by Steve Irwin and David Attenborough from the afterlife in their respective passionate and dispassionate tones about what became of humanity after the end (kinda wish it was Ron Perlman instead), or F&F style action setpiece where I’m running from falling nukes will become a 10 Cloverfield Lane or The Thing type “social trust” thriller with sketchy characters and an escalating threat.
Often they’re “played” by either actual actors, game characters or people I knew in high school.
Maybe I’m just boring, but yes, a lot of my dreams are within the realm of possibility.
I hardly ever remember my dreams when I wake up, but the ones I do, for the most part, are quite realistic except for the fact that I’m suddenly in a completely weird place and often with people I don’t even hang with.
