Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 November 15

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November 15

Deja-vu dreams

So throughout my life, I have been dreaming about scenes that later happen. When I have the dream, it will be an exact recreation of the scene, and I will not remember it when I wake up. Later on, sometimes its the next day, sometimes its a year or more, the scene will occur and i'll feel like i've already been in it and realised I dreamt about it before. An example would be me reading a book and thinking about one of the illustrations, and then a week later doing that exact thing. This seems to run in the family, as my grandfather had the same kind of dreams. I have not been able to find any scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Does anyone know one?

Thanks, Luke — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.75.46 (talk) 13:43, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Yes, those are coincidences. 67.165.185.178 (talk) 14:25, 15 November 2021 (UTC).

Déjà vu, the Wikipedia article, has some information on dreams as well. Though not linked, it does list several studies for further research you could explore. --Jayron32 14:27, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

See, in particular, the "Déjà rêvé" subsection and the study cited at the end of it. Deor (talk) 15:55, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

The cited study in PDF is free to download from the Heidelberg University Library site in here. Alexcalamaro (talk) 20:03, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Someone having a déjà vu experience (I experienced this before), realizing there was no such prior experience in real life, may easily be inclined to think their false sense of familiarity stems from an earlier dream experience.  --Lambiam 15:04, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

1) if the dream happens first, it isn't a recreation (exact or otherwise), 2) are you sure you remember the dream accurately enough to compare it to the reality? (Heck, are you sure you have observed the reality accurately enough to compare it to the dream?). --Khajidha (talk) 16:47, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

@Khajidha: Sorry for the late reply, but yes, I do believe that the reality is completely accurate to the dream in every way I can think of, even to the point of me remembering I had a dream about it (In the dream, I have deja-vu about having the dream, if that makes any sense).

Thanks you for helping, Luke