>>Do you think there's a reason your subconscience picks up certain things you watch on television to be in you dreams?

In the first two cases above I don't think so, I think I was just having so much trouble sleeping, and when I finally did fall asleep I was in and out of a light sleep, and my brain was just picking up on the things I had just seen.

Remember that for the most part we all have many dreams every night (although medication and depression can effect that), so it is not a matter of dreaming, it is a matter of those dreams that we remember having when we wake up. In these cases I think those dreams were just close in my memory when I woke because my sleep was so troubled and so light.

The later dream with the Cosby family was a much more significant dream for me, but the significant part was the house and my reactions, my interaction with other people there and their relationship to me... not specifically that it was the Cosby family. I really think the specific people were just "handy" in my subconscious because of what I had recently watched. In fact, for the most part, although "within the dream" all the people were cast members of the show, most of them were more significant personalities with regard to my feelings and interactions... they just sort of had the "label" and some of the faces of Cosby show members, just for the sake or "realizing" them you could say.

I also do like dream interpretation. For myself, I don't generally go in for looking things up to see what common meanings they have in dreams, I believe more in determining what the significance of those things have in my dreams to my life, feelings, and emotions. Sometimes it takes a little exploration to "Break through" but in the end I think that all dreams are highly personal, what means one thing to someone in one dream can mean something completely different to someone else in their dream.

The best "dream interpreters" I've enjoyed watching work that way... rather than tell you what your dream "meant," they work with you to explore the emotions surrounding the items and events in your dream and help you connect them to events or fears or hopes in your waking lives.

A lot of my dreams are fairly simple... IRL I have "control" issues you could say, I like to be in control of situations and events, which is one reason I always volunteer to be the one who drives on any trips I would take with my friends... and I would often have dreams of driving in my car but having the seat pulled too far forward so that I didn't have enough leg room to operate my clutch or be able to shift gears or even operate the brake. Very claustrophibic feeling, even though I don't have any sort of claustrophobia in real life. In the dream there was panic at being in an unsafe situation in the car, but upon waking I realized the real "panic" was in not being in control of the situation.