How detailed are your dreams?

[scarecrow]

Every so often I have "epic" dreams that seem like entire worlds of their own. I can be walking down a street, say a marketplace, and I can see dozens, even hundreds of people in full detail, each of them carrying on with their own "lives" seemingly oblivious to me or to the rest of the dream.

Just the other day I had one of these dreams and it had a very weird plot running through it comparable to some Hollywood-style movie. So much happened and so many characters were involved that I didn't even bother to try to interpret it or any part of it but it did make me wonder whether anyone else has such dreams and whether they've managed to make any sense of them.

[Leannain]

i don't remember my dreams

[Dansk]

My dreams are very detailed. Sometimes I'll have dreams about TV shows or movies that don't exist and once I had a movie-like dream that even had credits at the end. I'll also hear songs that I've never heard before. Often in my dreams I'll have a different set of memories, for example in my dream I'll remember going somewhere with someone from the dream but in real life I've never been to the place and the person doesn't exist. Some people believe that dreams are where people are most creative.

[VesAn]

Dansk, I often have a different set of memories in my dreams as well.

 Also, in reply to the orginal post, I do have very detailed dreams.  There are entire worlds with rules of their own that I've seen in my dreams.  Weird epic dreams with a big story line and many characters.  

 There was one bizarre dream where I was a vampire, rallying up a rag-tag army of dis-content people to rebel against a zombie king.  I was sorta the lesser/weaker of the two evils in that dream.  I remember that each people that joined my side had their own little personal story on why they hated the king.  One one-handed, gambling-addict hobo fellow simply joined me because I promised to build a big casino once I win against the king (who does not allow gambling).
 
 There were even a zombie queen, who hated me on a personal level.  Apparently I was responsible for allowing the king to capture her and turn her into his queen, back when she was still human.

ps- I don't even like vampires, dunno why I was one in that one dream.

[-lines-]

My dreams have always been very detailed. They don't seem much different from real life while I'm in them, trees, people, cobbled stones, buses, houses, and the such seem normal. Sometimes there are parts of what is happening in the dreams that don't make normal sense, but that are perfectly proper-seeming in the dream itself. This, of course, changes if I realize that I am dreaming, then it either breaks up or changes to something else.

The memories aren't so much memories but knowledge that I naturally have inside the dream. I believe that it makes it so that you are tricked into not realizing that you are sleeping because, for me at least, once I realize I'm sleeping I usually can't stay in it for long and become aware of my eyes being closed, myself laying on my bed, and have to fight to maintain the dream or need to try to get back into it.

[ladybug26]

My dreams tend to be very detailed as well, and like another poster..memories aren't  necessarily memeries either, just  I know it, I don't know how or why I know it I just do!  However, once I realize I am dreaming I can stay with it, make conscience decisions while dreaming and I can wake up and go back to the same dream for a whole night at times.  Doesn't happen all the time, but every once in a while.

[sashamasha]

Super detailed and heavy on plot, but in real time.  Lots of scene changes and symbolism.  When I type out my dreams with only basic details it usually takes up 1-2 pages.  And my theory has always been that my brain gives me really bizarre dreams to make me think more.  

I too have a couple sets of memories in my dreams.  Lately I also have posessions that people have given me in dreams that other people ask for in other dreams.  For example about 6 months or more ago, in a dream, I went and got this traveling string thing that everyone was getting.  It's basically like a knotted shoelace or something tied in a circle, and it can grow to be very long.  Anyway a few times I've had dreams where I need to get a ride because I'm walking a long distance, and when people finally pull over for me they ask me why I didn't just use my string to get a ride.    I guess you're supposed to wear it on your clothes or in your hair or something so people see it.  I don't know.  

When I was a kid I used to talk to a little man (not exactly in my head, but with access to my thoughts when I directed them at him??) who was like the projectionist for my dreams, and I would select the type of dream I wanted.  If I didn't like one I would make him change it.  I remember he was small and looked like he could be some kind of evil thing so I was always a little afraid of him but he never did anything bad to me.  What a weird kid I was.

[wisp]

scarecrow,
My dreams are as detailed as waking life. It's just a matter of remembering it in this reality.

[Kodemaster]

My dreams are very detailed, as well. Perhaps you should write them down, then write a book or compilation of short stories about them.

[lilsma]

My dreams are quite detailed at times.  At other times they're bare-bones.  I sometimes write keywords in my dream notebook only to find the keywords have no meaning that I remember in the morning.  For instance the other day I woke up to find "Ed is dead" in my dream notebook but don't remember any dreams this might have come from, nor do I know an Ed.

I have found that they are sometimes so detailed my hands have difficulty recording them before I forget parts of them.

I, too, seem to have a different set of memories in dreams, and my dreams often have background music, it seems.  Sometimes songs I have not heard in years.

[scarecrow]

Thanks for all your replies guys, there's some fantastic stuff there.  

I was wondering whether anyone has actually managed to make some sense out of their epic dreams. Do you think they are just outpourings of everything in your life? A flushing out of the subconscious maybe or everything that is "on your mind"?

Sometimes I just wake up exhausted and think "What was that all about?"

Hmm.

[MisterJingo]

My dreams are also amazingly detailed. It sounds strange, but sometimes I can't remember if an event actually happened in RL or if it was a memory from a dream. I also have the amazing hollywood movie kind of dreams too - perhaps i'll write them down as scripts at some point lol.
I can have dreams which feel alien too ie not the usual feel of my dreams. Recentish examples is becoming God in a dream. Quite complex and it was to do with some advanced technology. When I finally chose to do it (stepping into some machine to be transformed into God), the sensations/feelings felt where untranslatable.
My dream life has always been as vivid to me as my waking life.
I do notice quite frequently that ideas/concepts from films or books I have read earlier in the day can appear in dreams too.