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Has it been discussed somewhere what specifically the inclusion criteria are for this category? I'm not sure which of the many WikiProjects listed above would know best.
Is it only for works in which dreams occur naturally during sleep (as opposed to being induced by drugs, electrical devices, etc.), or do we wish to consider dreaming in a broader sense? Are there any restrictions on genre or medium? --SoledadKabocha (talk) 05:39, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
A number of the subcategories include works where the entire plot of a work takes place within a "dream world" or "dreamscape" or depict deities and demons which affect dreams.
The category also includes the Oneiroi, a group of minor Greek deities which personified dreams and nightmares.
I am assuming we are not including works where the "dream" is part of a larger plot. For example the short story Queen of the Black Coast has a scene where the protagonist Conan is accidentally exposed to the "black lotus" (a mystical/hallucinatory drug), falls asleep, and experiences dreams of the entire history of an area, from millions of years into the past into the present. It is one scene of a 5-chapter work. Dimadick (talk) 17:27, 17 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I am asking because it seems that the category is not used as widely as it could be due to editors not being more aware of its existence. Therefore, its existing members should not be thought of too strongly as an indicator of consensus.
As a specific example, consider the video game Weird Dreams. Although it includes "demons which affect dreams," the "dreams" in the game itself (as opposed to its accompanying novella) are actually hallucinations while under the influence of an anesthetic, rather than the usual REM-sleep kind of dreams. The article isn't yet in this category; should it be? --SoledadKabocha (talk) 01:10, 18 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
My previous inquiry is technically Resolved in that subcategories have been created specifically for video games.
However, it appears that each medium's subcategory has a further subcategory for nightmares. Except when an author or commentator specifically uses the word "nightmare," the distinction of which type of dream dominates a work would seem to be inherently fraught with original research.