@Liquidxlax
Yeah, what we do definitely has a huge effect on our dreams. Recently, I've been involving myself in CGI as a means to indirectly influence my dreams. It seems to be working, which is super, because I've definitely had my share of nightmares and warped realities. I've noticed while lurking the internet that many people got their start in lucid dreaming because of nightmares. I think it helps that recall is best when a dream is emotionally charged, and the "do or die" imperative is great motivation to learn best practices for dreaming. I didn't start lucid dreaming because of nightmares, but I definitely had to adapt to my better recall; since my practice increased my nightmare recall. I've cut out a lot of violent media from my life, because it was effecting my dreams in negative ways.
Summation of my nightmare experience https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XfaXTsp_SF0/hqdefault.jpg
I dunno about your last point. When I avoid caffeine, my dream recall is pretty good, and I'm not sure if I would want to live a lot of the dreams I've had. Certainly some of them though. I guess what I'm saying is, there is a stark contrast between my good dreams and bad dreams, and I'd be totally cool with it all being a product of my imagination. Reincarnation and the prospect of eternity actually kinda scares me. I'd be much more comfortable if I knew there was nothing after this life.
To each their own though. I could totally see a reality where we can preview(and hopefully pick) future realities in our dreams. My reality is weird enough that it would be totally normal honestly. And while most of this comment is talking about nightmares, I have a ton of really cool dreams, lucid or otherwise. Last night, I accidentally destroyed a planet right before I met Gautama Buddha, and then I spoke with Saitama from OPM. Life is cool sometimes.