99.9% or so of my memories are definitely real, as I can place them within an appropriate context in the narrative flow of my life. 0.09% are definitely not real, but somehow they’ve made the jump into my longterm memory from whatever dream they were generated in, and I can only tell they are not real because they don’t make sense within the narrative context of my life. That leaves a few that I could honestly not tell you whether it actually happened or whether I dreamed it, as I can’t fit it into a memory flow but it’s not egregious enough to say “that never happened”
A couple of vivid dreams worked their way into my long-term memory, if that’s what you mean.
One in particular was of one of my old roommates giving birth in the hallway of our apartment. I had to check with Mom to be sure that actually never happened.
I am fascinated with my earliest memories. One of my first threads* I started here was about this.
Some of these memories I’m not so sure about. E.g., an Easter egg hunt at my grandparent’s house. A memory of a room with knotty pine paneling. (I know the room existed, I’m just not sure if this memory was directly from that time.)
Might be memories, might be later dreams.
- My earliest memory from that thread has now been re-dated. Up from 18-20 months to just a little over 26 months. My mother’s memory didn’t agree with the hospital notices in the local paper. I also mention the egg hunt in that thread as a “maybe”.
Yes, and sometimes it scares me.
They aren’t really night time dreams, but those little minidreams you get when you’re just falling asleep. Since dreams like that tend to take place where you really are, I think my brain files them under “facts” rather than “dreams”. Eventually, they do fade. Most of them, anyway.
I have the inverse.
There’ve been multiple occasions where I’ve woken up and had to take a while to ascertain whether events happened were in a dream or if they actually occurred.
Leads to some awkward situations, like when I had to figure out if one of my best friends from high school really was separated / getting divorced or not. And asking other friends could possibly lead to rumors or gossip. A few phone conversations later, and seeing his wife post a few “happy” photos on social media, I figured out it was all a dream.
Memories are pretty much crap. They are mutable. So yeah, many memories that anyone could have are not necessarily what really happened.
One reason why old accusations of things that happened a decade ago are pretty much crap.
I write down most dreams I have. I wake up and pick up my journal. If I fall back asleep, reawaken and re-read these writings sometimes I have to convince myself that they aren’t memories but recorded dreams. I dream some dreams repeatedly and those are hard to get out of my head.
I have been dreaming about a person I’ve never met or known for awhile now. This person has dominated my thoughts day and night and I cannot shake it. I have written voluminous pages in my dream journal. If I could get the grammar and spelling checked it would make a good novel.
No, but I have memories that other people don’t have.
Like throughout my childhood, we always had Christmas trees. The first one was so tall, my father had to cut some off the trunk to make it fit. Then each year he got a smaller one, until the last one was only about 2 feet high. I remember the decorations, the lights, and where they were kept when not in use. My brother, who is 3 years older, has no recollection of any of this.
Strangely, it happened to me a couple days ago. I remembered discussing a specific issue with someone very recently, but suddenly realized that I had talked with only one person during the last days, and didn’t talk about this specific issue with her (I even asked her if I did), and it wasn’t likely that I could have discussed this specific issue with many other people anyway, even earlier, leaving me with the idea that the most likely explanation was that I dreamed talking with someone about this issue. But still, I couldn’t be sure.
Even though it isn’t a very fascinating example, it still let me puzzled and even a bit confused.