stasis

I am wondering what it is that dictates the dreams we remember are actually the dreams from the night before. This last week, my wife said I was saying a friend's name over and over in my sleep, but I had no memory of a dream about that friend.

Remarkably, the next night, I did dream at length and with some stress about that very same friend.

Perhaps the dreams we remember are delayed or completely out of joint? Perhaps the dreams are not fractured, just our memory of them? Maybe our conscious mind is the real surreal-maker?