confusion with differentiating dreams

last night i think i had 2 dreams or one really long one, the thing is that im not entirely sure that it was 2 dreams, lets say these dreams are Dream A and Dream B. how do i tell that im having 2 dreams and not just one long one, is when Dream A’s scenario(out side school) completely changes to the scenario of Dream B ( some creeply dining room in an ice cave) or do i have to wake up first to get to the Dream B? because i don’t remember if i had woken up in between the dreams. thx in advance

Moved from Quest for Lucidity.

Well, if a dream ends and turns into another one, some people consider that to be 2 dreams, and some consider it to be one dream with a changed environment.

It depends on personal opinions, so you choose.
Sometimes we don’t even waking up, so there’s really no way of telling.

It’s not really that relevant, it’s up to you to decide.
Good luck on your quest to lucidity :smile:

Personally, I consider it one dream if I go to sleep at the beginning and wake up at the end (because I usually remember that waking.) If a dream scene changes, or even if it’s interrupted by non-REM sleep stages, I just consider them dream snippets. Other people consider one REM period one dream, and I guess that’s more correct, but I find dreams easier to remember if I think of them as a whole and try to make connections.

I usually go by gut feeling. Some dreams are so logically distant (different places, DC’s, etc) but they just feel like part of the same dream, so I put them together and assume I just forgot the connection (or there really wasn’t one :eh: )

It depends. Some dreams I just know they were connecting, but they have nothing to do with one another. Other times I feel like they were seperated for a reason. It’s really subjective and up to the dreamer.

I’ve had dreams where they have a common theme, such as last night where I had two dreams that both had to do with graffiti, but are completely different otherwise. In general, if the DC’s, environment, or plot/what’s going on in the dream are different, I consider it a different dream. There is a lot of room for interpretation though…much like with most things related to dreaming, there are gray zones. So, like others have said, it really depends on what you consider to be truly different.

I had this problem too when i first tried to keep a dream journal. I had no idea where one dream ended and when the 2nd one began… and i still struggle with this. :confused:

Well… I find it quite easy actually - if you think elements or feelings (or anything for that matter) carries over from one dream scene to the next, then you are probably experiencing two different sequential scenes of the same dream.

If you feel there is a clear distinction from one scene and no elements carry over, then its another dream.

You can see my DJ for example - the doggy training dream. I ended up in a totally different environment, but then I was leaving one place already and going to another. The scene jumps and the content changes, but there is something consistent in the narative of the dream that links them together.