my theory on dreams is that your mind is interpeting general feelings (mental or physical) into pictures when you sleep. the things you dream are whatever your mind pulls out of your memory and imagination, so if you are in the same mental state while sleeping at night (calm, tense, angry, confused...) then you are more likely to dream the same thing.

plus, when you have a similar experience, your mind uses the same material over again.

because dreams, like memories, dont disappear from your psyche...plus its very easy to travel down those neural pathways again and again when you go to bed in a similar mental and emotional state or you have a trigger, like a related event, in your waking world that rekindles the dream. recurring dreams are like telegrams ~ they often pop up for a reason, often with a goal of addressing a certain issue. until the goal of the dream is achieved, you ma ycontinue to revisit that dream and that message. i find that if i have experienced a major lifestyle change, those dream sequences are put to eternal rest. some dreams, like recurring nightmares may be caused by post-traumatic stress disorder. again, once the soul is at rest, the bad dreams become nothing but a distant, haunting memory. i really loved reading carl jungs take on dreams and the subconscious. dreams are spiritual messages that your subconscious or the "powers that be" are trying to communicate to you ~ a deeper message that you just arent getting, and you need to be pushed through the dream. i think your subconscious tries to change an aspect of your personality, daily behavior or activities or your overall lifestyle. with nightmares, unresolved emotional issues and sufferings come to the surface that are lying dormant within the dreamer. if you want to stop the recurring dreams, keep a dream journal. look for the hidden messages. examine your life and make positive changes towards the unresolved issues in the dreams. and while you are dreaming those dreams, try to finish it. if need be, you have to let go and die. that usually kills those types of dreams (and unlike the urban legend, you wont die either).

Reoccurring dreams are our minds way of reminding us we have unresolved issues in our awake life. It also is a reminder that we have fears we have yet to face. When we dream things over and over it should tell us that we need work at parts in our life that really needs our attention. After facing these things or working them out, the dreams should fade away and new dreams take their place.

When I dream about something it will go to the same place in my memory as things I experience being awake. Sometimes someone reminds me of a dream I had one time, in a dream. If you dream the same thing again, there is something left unresolved.

Because dreams are nothing but collections of thoughts, memories, images and experiences...

I don't know, but to add to your question, and that we remember the original lone dream! +3

The same incomplete gestalten?! ;-)