I believe our dreams are our life in another dimension. Sometimes when you feel like you know a certain situation or you have experienced this exact moment i believe that you have already dreamed about it.
I take this so far as to say for me it's true.
Whenever I have a dream that I am able to remember, I draw the most important moment and write down what happened.
With this method I was able to see that nearly 6 of my 10 drawings or stories I have so far actually happened to me.
Sometimes it missed a little detail like a cigarette or a football.. just objects around me that are different.
In conclusion:
I think dreams aren't something we make up.

Well there's been a few times I've had dreams of planes crashing and then a day or so later it would be in the news that a plane has crashed somewhere in the world

I'm literally almost never in my dreams, and neither is anyone I know. Additionally, as I said, a lot of my dreams tend to have rather disturbing content that makes very little sense, so I'm not sure how well that fits with the other dimension theory

I'm not sure how it is with other people but I personally never dreamed of anything else other than things where I play a role somewhere.. I only once dreamed about a tsunami kinda situation (the strangest one), but as I said only 6 of the 10 drawings or stories I have so far actually came true.
But there sure has to be a reason why we have Déjà-vu's and why my stories happened to me..

More than not I dream without me being in the dream. Sometimes I only appear later.

I guess the best way to explain is through example. I guess maybe trigger warning? Idk, I'm not going to get even remotely graphic, but just in case.
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I had a dream once I wasn't in. A bunch of orphans were in a rickety horror-movie esque house (almost along the lines of the Weasleys in terms of being tall and misshapen). It was the orphanage, and the old man (I think it was a man) that ran it was horrendously abusive. Like horrifically, the stuff you'd see on the news. and yet for some reason the orphans couldn't leave the house. Like even if the man wasn't there, they physically couldn't leave.

One of them finally came up with the theory that, if they all killed themselves, they'd be able to leave. Don't ask me about that logic. But they had to do it when the man wouldn't be around to stop them. Which they finally did. I remember this part of the dream giving me a lot of anxiety (oddly it's the only part that did) because, even though I somehow KNEW they'd be fine, I still didn't want the dream to go the way it was going. But nevertheless, it did go. Also, for some reason there were bones of other orphans in the floorboards beneath where the orphans decided to kill themselves.
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Then they did end up outside the house.
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And at this point coherency went to hell and somehow the dream shifted to someone bringing a bunch of tiny crystal/porcelain animals to life with the intent of hunting someone down with them Which was actually ominous because my dream-brain decided it was, but also part of what woke me up because my logical brain finally got fed up with all the weirdness

hmm not sure about those kind oft dreams.. as I said never experienced one.. one thing i'd like to know: do you controll these dreams or do they feel like you are doing the stuff aka a normal dream??

Um sometimes as I get more awake the dreams are more.. Open to suggestion, I guess? Though I usually don't interfere anyway. I rarely feel like I'm doing anything because I'm not in the dreams. I've been in a few, but not many. Sometimes I'll see it from one person's point of view, sometimes from multiple, sometimes it plays out like a movie. But I never get confused on the fact that the people aren't me

I will say I dearly hope my dreams aren't prophetic or an alternate timeline because outlook in either scenario isn't good

I'd love to experience a dream like you described it.. & if you say that they are so terrible I certainly hope they're not prophetic either! :D

Haha well they don't actually bother me for the most part when I'm having them I just acknowledge that their contest is far from rainbows and butterflies

How do people have such wild dreams? I don't have any dreams. Is something wrong with me? Even when I do have any dreams they are pretty normal stuff. I never have any nightmares. Am I okay? I am a creative person, but does it say anything about lack of imagination?

People always have dreams, some are just considerably easier to forget than others, and are forgotten the instant you wake.
You're not uncreative for that,

And everything is working as normal.

Cool cool cool cool cool cool.

Everyone has dreams, chances are you either are just not getting enough sleep to enter the REM cycle, or you're sleeping 100% normally and therefore you're not actually engaging in lucid dreaming where you're semi aware and in control of what's happening.
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Also I think I read somewhere that it's estimated that more than 50% of all dreams are considered "nightmares." I imagine a lot of the content of my dreams could be considered nightmarish and yet I can honestly say they've never scared or stressed me

That's an interesting statistic. Hmmm... You learn something new everyday.

I think the stat was actually higher, but it was several years ago and since I can't remember the number I figured I'd just go with "over 50%" haha. It kind of makes sense if our dreams are just our subconscious sorting through our stress and worries and events of the day etc that they would potentially have a lot of bizarre and disturbing content

Most of my "nightmares" involve having to go back to HS, but having pot there and then cops chase me.