I used to have recurring dreams that were sometimes mysterious or even disturbing. At my wits end I sought therapy and learned a thing or two.

Much of REM sleep is accompanied by dreams that may be remembered. During REM the eye lids may flutter a bit. The brain is in a kind of defragging process. The therapist explained that data is being scanned and the mind is trying make sense of it, and sort it's meaning into usable schemas. Dreams vary as much as human experience varies, but themes are key in understanding them. You're not crazy or off because your dreams may come true. The same person dreaming in sleep is the same person acting when awake. A sense of dejavu is natural because of this.

Some dreams can hold deep symbolic meaning for a well trained interpreter My dream. I open the front door and as I walk in and close the door I notice a small brown bird sitting on the back of a chair. I walk through the living room and kitchen and open the back door. After returning to the front I shoo the bird into the kitchen but it changes into a colorful parrot in the kitchen as it lands on the counter. I shoo it to the back door and it lands on the patio furniture as a large eagle. Now I save my arms at it to make it take flight and be free. The eagle launches itself into the air but falls to the grass as if it were dead. Walking down the stairs to the lawn I find a small dead bird in the grass...and wake up.

The bird is my childhood. The progression of it's manifestation is my discovery and processing mentally the fact that I was deaf and treated as if I were useless. They didn't know I was deaf. They thought I was an embicile. I built that idea into a narrative about my resilience, as a way of coping with the notion and the painful memories.

Why interpretation may help. My dream was maybe like a feedback loop. My dream was about letting my past go but I was aggrandizing the story line. My past is always with me as it is a part of me. It can not be shooed out the door and be gotten rid of in a dream or otherwise.

More specific to your post title. I was a sailor in the eighties. I had a dream where I removed a bunch of Allen head screws to release a large plate that resembled a ships hatch. In the nineties I was an electrician at a newspaper plant and removed that termination cover on a metroliner press.

You're not off. You're paying attention.