This was the most complex and exhausting dream I've had as far back as I can remember.

A couple pre-cursors, I've been watching a lot of American Horror Story and Die Hard (1,2 and 3) and I work at a middle school. Which one doesn't belong, right?

So my dream begins as a dream, and I'm in a college course with people from my high school (not accurate, went to out-of-state college) and I don't understand anything that's happening aside from seeing one person I remember from high school. From that point, I'm trying to make it to other classes and at the same time, I'm experiencing the struggle of some of my middle school students to get to their classes. Basically, we all run into problems and don't make it to the right classes. I get lost in the boiler room and I feel like I'm flying around in there and I barely make it out on foot. Here's where things really begin to change...

The school turns into a hotel and I am with my parents and sister as well as a wide-array of characters including friends, co-workers, people from college, acquaintances and strangers. The plot then revolves around the fact that my family realizes that at the end of the day we can go to bed, wake up, and start that same day over again, i.e. "Groundhog Day". Everything seems great until my family gets into a bad car crash. I tell everyone that tomorrow we should try everything again, but this time not worry about getting anyone presents (must have been Christmas, thank you die hard 1 and 2). So we wake up the next day, I am talking to a girl I am romantically interested in, but I realize that I am dead when a girl shoots me and I don't die. I believe her to be dead too. This is when I realize that I am stuck in this hotel with anyone else who ever died. I am not as hopeless as I may have expected, and I cheer up even more when I realize that I have free reign and cannot die again and even interact with the living and dead, i.e. "American Horror Story".

The ending is odd. Even though I'm dead, there is a mouse running around and I fear that it will somehow harm me or get rid of me. I seek higher ground and it turns into a rubber, bouncy ball. It doesn't head straight for me, but rather takes its time and has a few fake outs. Finally, it goes to me and I throw it back four times, but it keeps coming back. I make up my mind to grab it and once I semi-face that fear, it opens up and there's a ring inside saying I can have all the wealth. I put it on with no second thought and the scene changes to me in the midst of a gun battle with the creature I'm supposedly getting the wealth from. I spray it with an automatic weapon into it's face and it crumples to the ground. The camera zooms out and I see a warehouse in a time-lapse, being decorated and nice furniture piling up in the front.

The dream ends with my friends and I commenting that was one of the longest shows. I said, I hope there's a second season. Then I wake up.

I apologize for the scattered account, but wished to get it down before I forgot.

My main questions concern: the changing plots, facing fears in a dream that can turn it into a lucid dream, dying inside of the dream, taking on aspects from TV/movies I've watched, and finally, many of my dreams end and I wake up not heartbroken, but with severe heartache. It always seems that there is a woman in the dream, but even though she likes me, I can never seem to meet up with her or talk to her. I feel this may be my one biggest thing in the back of my mind these days?

I appreciate any and all comments/questions!

I think a lot of this dream has to do with being stuck in a situation you can't control.

In the beginning, the part about not being able to get to classes on time (the boiler room makes me think of "taking the heat" for something - being given the blame/being told you are responsible for something that is really out of your control).

Then there is the whole Groundhog Day thing, where nothing ever changes no matter what you do. The car crash also has to do with not having control over something bad that will happen.

Death in a dream often has to do with change, so being happy when you realize you are dead could have to do with knowing that you will feel relieved once things changed. Death also has to do with the idea that changing things in your life has to do with making sacrifice, so the dream could be saying that unless you make some sacrifices, you will never have control over your life and things will continue to go on the way they are.

The mouse running around makes me think of this, too. (Mouse in a maze). Also a rubber ball is something that bounces and comes back, which also gives me the idea of something that seems to move but in the end comes back to the same spot. (why the ball keeps coming back when you throw it).

The part where you get the ring after you face your fear seems to be your unconscious telling you that you can't achieve anything unless you face your fear of failure.

About your questions:

It's usual for plots to change in a dream.

I don't understand what you are asking about facing fears in a dream - did you become lucid at the moment you decided to face your fears?

As I said, dying often has to do with a change and getting rid of old things so you can move on.

Yes, it is perfectly normal that a dream will take on aspects of TV programs and movies that you watched. They can just add "color" to the dream or they can affect the type of symbols that appear in the dream.

If you frequently wake up with heartache, it sounds like there is something that is lacking in your life -not necessarily another person or relationship, but maybe you have been neglecting a part of your personality that needs to be nurtured.

The woman in your dream sounds like she could represent your feminine side - maybe the creative part of you. Maybe you have been neglecting this side of yourself.