Dreams have affected me my whole life. When I was a kid I decided to keep a dream journal, yes I have one, and log all of the dreams I could remember.
The whole reason I decided to keep a dream journal was because of the dream I had that day. I was drifting through water trying to grasp for a breath of air but I just couldn't breath. This went on for a while but I wasn't suffocating. I just stayed there until a pair of hands caught me, all the water around me fell and I was being held by my grandpa. I looked around then I remembered the place, my whole family was there. Then it just became dark and I saw my grandpa laying down on a table being surrounded by family members crying. The oddest part was, this had already happened in my life before.
Without the journal I could hardly remember the dream at all, it's just one big blur if I try to think about it. Most of my dreams access some event that has happened in my life before either it be sad or happy memories. I keep them logged in the journal to see if it was a made up dream or if it was real.
tl;dr.
I have dreams about something that happened to me before so I keep them in a journal.