Are dreams genetic? What I mean is, can two people who are blood-related have the same dream without having the same experiences?

I was at dinner last week with my sister when she told us about a recurring dream she has, where she’s in a car that goes up a steep bridge, and then over the edge, and then floats down away from the down-slope because it’s so steep.

That sounds alarmingly like a recurring dream I have too, where I’m in a car that goes up a steep bridge, and then over the edge. My dream, though, continues with rocketing down the bridge similar to the Thunderbolt slide at Six Flags Atlantis (which, if you remember going there, it’s probably almost time to schedule your first colonoscopy).

It’s a terrifying dream, and usually at some point after the car zooms down the down-slope I end up driving through a rabbit’s warren of highway exits that are totally confusing. My sister, on the other hand, tends to wake up after the car floats away. Lucky her.

I have several recurring dreams. Elevators are often involved. But the one I’ve been having most recently is one where I’m still working at the same place I worked while I was getting my Master’s degree. I leave work, can’t find my car in the parking lot, and start hitting the key fob button to make the car beep so I can find it, but every time I hear a car beep it’s not my car. Sometimes this dream involves a parking garage (which that job did not have). It’s very stressful.

Most of my dreams are stressful. Even the good ones. I wonder what that means.