Which do you feel would be worse when it comes to vividly remembering a dream:

A horrible nightmare or

The perfect dream, one in which at least one of your deepest wishes has become a reality?

Some might instinctively say the nightmare is obviously worse, since it shouldn't be a problem to remember having such a great dream. But I wonder how common (if it all) it may be for such a great dream to be unhealthy for someone's mental health. If you're dreaming about something seemingly unattainable in your life and you wake up to find out it didn't actually happen, could that not be just as painful as a nightmare? I imagine it can be rather sad to feel so involved in a dream come true, just to wake up and realize it is still just a dream. 

What are some of your thoughts on this subject? Personally, I've had some behavior-altering nightmares and only a few 'good' dreams. I think I remember the nightmare a bit more vividly, so that seems to have more impact. 

To be honest I would prefer the good dream, as they show me what I can get. That way I can work to eventually get the said thing in my dream.

I can't imagine why a person would want to have a bad dream rather than a good dream. Isn't that basically like saying, "I hope I die instead of being alive?"

Sounds like something you should see a doctor for if you want a bad dream, haha.

That being said, I would much rather prefer a good dream, and make the dream as good as possible at that. One of the things I want to cross off of my bucket list is to have one of those lucid dreams, the ones where you can control what happens. I won't go into detail about what I want my lucid dream to be about, but all I'm going to say is that involves a lot of females.

I like the angle you're taking with this. Is it better to have love and lost then never loved at all? Scary dreams show up, you think you're going to die and you awake, safe and sound and maybe a little sweaty.

Or you wake up after having the greatest experience of your life to find out it wasn't true.

Safe to say, I'd take the good dream because from the dream's standpoint, it really did happen. That is enough for me to have dreamed it, had a taste of what perfection could be, and move on from there. It's like watching a great movie. No, zombies really didn't come back from the dead and I can't experience the apocalypse today but with a movie I can live vicariously through the actors. The same goes for the dream. I'll take the great ones over the nightmares any night.

I'd take the perfect dream.

At least it gives me a glimpse of the future so I know how to tackle such situation if it ever happens. Or also lets me rethink of my life and if I really want it to be real now that I've "witnessed" it. It may cause me sorrow, but it let me sleep all night without problems and also taught me something, so I see the sorrow as the price to pay for having a very nice dream.

Nightmares, on the other hand, force you to wake up and deprive you of sleep. Continuous nightmares can also lead to some serious health problems, and not only for the fact of waking up suddenly. Plus, nightmares are things that you don't want to happen no matter what, so why would you want to remember that?

I would definitely choose to remember the nightmare, 100%. I would do this because usually horrible dreams like that are only scary when you're in the dream, but the next morning I always think "That dream was kind of ridiculous, actually,".