> Maybe you should be thankful instead of getting
>annoyed. I heard once that if you "die" in your
>dream, you'll die for real. That twitch-jerk-
>spasm thing right before you smack the ground in
>your dream could be a safety mechanism that
>keeps you from dying IRL.
>
> I don't know if that's true, but the person who told me that asked me if I could ever remember
>dying in a dream or nightmare, and I had to
> answer no. I *always* wake up before "dying."
>So maybe it's true. And who knows...maybe some
>people who die in their sleep dreamed that they
>died. We have no way of knowing.
>

Yeah, add me to the list of people who have heard that theory but can knowingly disprove it. In a dream I had once, my then-girlfriend and I were riding in a car that ran head-first into an 18-wheeler. I remember the impact (no pain, though--that's another theory I've heard--you don't feel pain in dreams. Can anyone disprove that?) and then everything going black. Then I woke up. It was more than a little frightening, because I wasn't entirely certain until I woke up that it was a dream at all.

-- Dave