I dream- literally- from the moment I fall asleep to the moment I wake up. My dreams are filled with ridiculous things of all sorts, tend to be incredibly elaborate, usually exist in an alternate reality of some sort, and continue for the entire time I am asleep. They tend to have some of the things I worry about most- the members of my family, our financial situation, et cetera- but otherwise they are grandiose and fantastical. I can exert a certain amount of control during the dream to make the dream go in one particular direction or another, but otherwise I'm totally in the dream. I remember the entire dream just as well as I remember any normal daytime activities (if not better) and often find myself missing the people whom I met in the dream during the daytime.

My family has a history of small airways; my father recently got surgery to enlarge his nasal passage so he could sleep better, and my psychiatrist has been pushing my mother to get us all sleep studies (with four children, it's not going much of anywhere).

What's going on? Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone ever been reunited with the people of their dreams, in particularly interesting or serious cases of mental disorders? Does it mean anything?