A good portion of my dreams take place in what's recognizably a city I've spent forty years, more or less, wandering through... but not /quite/ any version of the city I've ever known. For example, whenever I dream about a particular road that crosses a railway, in my dreams that road always goes over it with a bridge, instead of being at the same level; another road that goes up a straight hill, in my dreams the road goes straight up it instead of reality's bend to be at a shallower angle.

Sometime last year, I dreamed that the city's main bus terminal had some non-existent stairs and elevators leading down to a subway station, and spent most of the dream exploring the place. A later dream, I went down there and took a long-distance subway ride to Toronto (which is an hour's drive away). Last night, the existence of the subway system was taken so much for granted that I just assumed its existence while I was deciding where to go.

(Last night's dream also involved some sort of political/civil unrest. There wasn't any sort of natural disaster or war or similar emergency, but there were lots of nervous people milling around, the occasional demagogue shouting to an attentive audience, and the thought of calling emergency services in case of looting or mob violence simply never occurred as a possibility. So I decided to get away from the dangerous-feeling areas by seeking shelter at the subway terminal. Also, texting my family involved a MLP-themed app. Also, for some reason, I was in a wheelchair; something was wrong with my left ankle, which ached.)

There are other such consistent changes to reality, and it's not just the larger features. Whenever I dream about a certain one of my childhood homes, in my bedroom closet is a hatch just big enough for me to wiggle through, to a deeper secondary closet that somehow fits inside the walls. Another childhood home has a much-expanded basement.

Not counting fantasy stories where dreams exist in their own dimension, I don't remember ever reading about anyone else's dreams not just being funhouse reflections of reality, but the distortions lasting for more than one dream.

How about you? Does the landscape you visit when you're asleep stay the same from night to night?