My dreams are usually vivid and chaotic, but difficult to explain. The feelings remain with me, though, when I try to remember the details.
However, I've had some good ones over the years.
Once while suffering post-traumatic stress after a mugging, I had a dream (I won't tell the whole thing) that involved a similar crime, ending with me calling the police and talking with them, but hearing nothing on the phone (like seeing a phone conversation on TV, where you only hear one side of the conversation - I had my ear to the phone but only heard what I was saying). That was when I woke up for good - I had awakened about 3 or 4 times during the dream, tried to stay awake, but fell back into it and it picked up where it left off! I realized at the end that my mind really was trying to work through the fact that the main source of my trauma (IRL) was the lack of concern on the part of the police!
Another interesting dream I had once was that I was unloading bodies from the back of a truck (semi-type), some dead, some still living, and apparently we were triaging - in such dire straits that those who were still alive but considered dying were just put in body bags and stacked with the deceased! I was horrified, of course, and so when I pulled out this person who seemed to be still alive, I asked questions, trying to prove she was still conscious. I remember she replied, very faintly, that her name was Josephine (I think that was it) but they still - despite my ardent protests! - put her in a body bag. I looked over and saw a lot of those bags conforming to the faces of the people inside - according to the logic of my dream, this meant that they were still alive and their breath made the fabric supple so it conformed to the shape of their face. That was when I woke up.
Two more if you will humor me.
This one is fairly typical, but it had an interesting effect. I was in some seemingly millitary setting (camped but not under seige or anything) when suddenly I found myself running - hiding - from a gunman. I remember running through fields, in and out of abandoned buildings (long and narrow), and hiding in parts of the buildings. For some reason, ever since that dream, I can't watch re-runs of M*A*S*H*! I love that show, but when it comes on, I start feeling creepy and nauseous. Weird, huh?
The final dream is my favorite ever. It was last summer while I was visiting a friend in Pennsylvania.
I saw this small, dim room where about 4 or 5 middle-aged men in suits (I was struck with the impression of Jerry Fallwell, so I think they were meant to be folks of his ilk) were sitting around not talking. Suddenly, Jesus walked through the door and said, "OK, I'm here to take you to heaven. Looks like you're the only ones going!" And the men, emotionless (as if this were completely matter-of-fact for them), started gathering their things and getting up out of their seats, when Jesus said, "Just kidding! Everyone else is already there!" And I woke up. Laughing, of course! (PS - I am a Christian of universalist bent, and "everyone" in the dream literally meant "everyone" - which is why I love that dream!)