Maybe you should start a dream journal? That way you would remember I-dreamed-this-last-night and might not confuse it with reality. Just looking at my dreams helped me feel better about them, even the nightmares, as they gave me clues of things that were bothering me. Are you in therapy at all? I use to talk over my dreams with my therapist and that helped a whole lot too. My dreams felt like they were being listened to and so they started working harder to help me. They are our dreams so we are making them up in our own head/unconscious and I think we should pay attention to them. Just last night I had one that is similar to ones I use to have often 10+ years ago so I'm working on that, seeing what is happening in my life now that might be causing that.