Mistook a Dream for a Memory

A couple of nights ago I had a dream about meeting someone somewhere at 5pm, and that next day I came up to them and said "we're meeting at 5pm, right?" And I was told that we were meeting at 7pm, actually. The thing is we usually meet up at 7pm, and I knew that this was the norm, but my dream felt real, and in the dream we had changed plans for that one day.

I was really embarrased afterwards! I'm not insane, rest assured. Just curious, but who's had one of those moments?

• raises hand*

Yup, you're not alone.Tough such dreams are rare, I got, let's see... three of them. Details change and when I wake up, I think things are like that. Then I go to check thing I think is, I find it is not.

To give my own experience:

Once I saw I dream I had bought new computer and had placed it on a living room. Few thigns happen and I go to sleep in my dream. Come morning and I am exited to see new computer. I go and see it's the same damn crappy pile of scrap circuit it has always been, not a new powerhouse I had dreamed of. Wanted to punch someone in the face.

I had this a few times, but the only time I remember well is the one where I dreamt that my mom told me that she's going to work during the second shift the next day. So I woke up and was surprised to see that she is not at home, and it took me a few confused moments to figure out that that conversation never took place and was just something I dreamt.

The closest thing I have to that is a time from 2003 or 04 where I had a dream that my mother (who I'm estranged from) had died and I went to her funeral. Where for the first I met two kids that she'd had since remarrying.

Nevermind that there was no way in hell that the timelines for their ages would match up correctly, or that my mother would ever have any more children, when I woke up I couldn't tell if it was a dream or a dream about events that had actually happened recently. I actually leaned towards the latter and I needed several minutes of being awake and thinking about it to realize that it was just a dream.

Having woken up in the middle of trying to comfort two kids that were around 9 and 4 and getting emotional myself because of that probably didn't help my mental state or make it any easier to tell truth from dream.

I don't recollect any instances, even if it happened before, because dreams tend to either be immediately recognized as a dream when I wake up, or forgotten.

Yup, that's why such misconceptions are rare.

I have woken up asking myself "Did that really happen or was it just a dream?" a few times.

Oh, I have this a lot. Mostly involving dreams where I go through an entire normal school day back when I was in middle school and high school. They're an annoyance at least and Paranoia Fuel at worst.

I can fall asleep pretty much anywhere, and when I fall asleep in class and get sleep paralysis I sometimes get horrible, very realistic dreams about the situation at hand. I once fell asleep on a plane, got sleep-paralysis, and dreamed that nobody woke me up and left me on the plane as they passed my stop and flew me to Phoenix.

Usually these are recognized as dreams, but once I dreamed in class that there was a half-day, and there wasn't. It was very disappointing.

This happened to me, though I can't remember the specifics. However, I often see bits and pieces of insignificant future events in my dream, which I then forget until they actually happen. :/

this happens a lot. It's a form of Confabulation, and it's damn scary.

To get a bit meta, one of my dreams was me remembering a scene from Final Fantasy 8, and years later, I had another dream where I remembered that the original dream was the originator of false memories.

So I remembered something that never happened (though would like to see happen, because it was a pretty awesome scene, rife with fear and sadness) Then remembered that my previous rememberence was of something that never happened.

Tvtropes has taught you well, for you to be that immersed in the Meta.

This happens to me occasionally. I tend to suffer more from other forms of confabulation though. As well as from amnesia (it's part of the recovery process) and memory loss (the hour or so before it is lost) because of my seizures. This along with my forgetfulness for things that most people remember leaves me in a distressed state at times. Alzheimer's is one of my greatest fears.

Worst cases are when you get what I call triple Déjà vu. Basicly, get feeling you have felt Déjà vu about Déjà vu about thing that is happening. Throws me off balance every single time, since I can't figure out what to think in such case.

Several times within dreams I have been someplace I seem to recall from another dream only to realize when I awoke that I couldn't remember ever having those memories of a past dream beforehand. Memory really is a fickle thing.

Yeah, I hear on that fear of Alzheimers. Not fun to contemplate.

I'd kill myself if I found out I had alzeimers. Fortunately I'm still young and have many years ahead of me, but alzeimers is horrible to contemplate.

I'm really really confused.

edited 1st Mar '12 2:49:31 PM by CrazyDawg

Yes, I get that. Or something like it, anyway.

Usually it's a sense of deja vu of a situation accompanied by the recollection of having dreamt that before, sometimes weeks or years before even. It is quite annoying. I can't quite tell if it is the memory that is false (meaning I never dreamt it) or that it is my brain overwriting some half remembered dream with the current situation. Precognition is right out, of course.

I should start a dream journal next time this happens. Maybe then I'd be able to tell if I actually did dream something like I remember I did.

Haven't had mixups like that. What I have had a lot is these wierd dejá vu expirences where a Real Life situation has felt like it's exactly like an earlier dream.

Pretty much like Great Litch has has had.

edited 1st Mar '12 4:11:21 PM by Qeise

How has this not been brought up yet? I am disappoint.

This is epic!!!