I'm 33 years old, and have had strong and memorable dreams my entire life. This past week, however, I had such an intense dream that has stuck with me all week. It's to the point I researched dreams and ended up here.

Vivid dreams are not new to me, nor are memorable ones. I still remember dreams I had when I was 4 years old. I've also experienced severe nightmares. They're all different, but with the same basic theme... the world as I know it is over either by natural or supernatural disaster.

I had this dream last weekend. I couldn't sleep all night, than fell into a deep sleep about dawn. I live on the 24th floor of a condo building in a major metropolitan city. We're surrounding by tall buildings everywhere we look.

In my dream, my husband and I were out on the street in front of our building. I'm not sure what we were doing. All of a sudden, I heard an explosion to my left and looked. In my dream (as in real life) the building I was looking toward is a major government building and national landmark about 1 mile away. I watched as the building collapsed straight down. There was no fire, no bombs, nothing. The building just fell. I thought it was a terror attack in my dream because it was a government building, but for some reason didn't think of it as a big deal. I just thought it was a shame to lose such a historic and beautiful building.

After another minute or so, a large building next to it collapsed in the exact same way. I was a little scared, but remembered that there is a canal separating us from where the buildings were falling. One by one, a dozen or so buildings collapsed within minutes of each other. My husband and I just stood on the street watching this. I became terrified when the first building across the canal fell. This phenomenon was now getting close. I didn't know what was happening. We went into a pizza parlor with a TV and on the news they were showing a map of the collapsing buildings, which were creeping our way. They also said they didn't know what was causing it.

After a few more minutes, the condo building in the block next ours fell. Now I was terrified. I looked up at our building and remembered our 2 cats were in there. I wanted to go get them but my husband said no, the building was going to fall. Then it did. I was in utter shock that our home and our cats were gone. My husband said he was going to find out what was going on. I watched him run across the street and into a store, only to suddenly see that building collapse as well. He was gone too.

Now these are the feelings that have stuck with me all week. I was feeling utter terror and agony. I've had horrible dreams like this before, and this is usually the point in the dream where I can say to myself that this is a dream, it's not real, and then I'll wake up. This time I didn't wake up which made me panic even more. I just stood out in the street watching buildings collapse for no reason around me.

After what seemed like an eternity, I was woken up by my cat nudging my hand.

This dream was so real to me, I can't even explain it. When I did wake up, I grabbed my cat, hugged him and cried. I was so relieved. I did the same thing to my husband when I found him in the den.

I've had strong emotional dreams before that carry over when I wake up, but nothing as strong or as real as this. For some reason I can't ignore it, but I have no idea what to do with it.

What strikes me is that you have had dreams about disasters since you were very young, so it makes me think that this dream isn't just about a particular incident or situation, but about something inside you and a way you have of looking at the world that was developing in you since you were a child.

The dreams seem to be about a fear that you have of things going wrong or of things falling apart.

Was there anything happening in your childhood that could have made you feel like you weren't totally safe or worry that things could go very wrong?

I think the current dream could have to do with a particular thing going on that could be worrying you or making you feel vulnerable or threatened. It is made worse by the fact that you already have a tendency to feel this way.

I think it's beautiful that your cat was there to wake you up...like he/she sensed that something was wrong and wanted to wake you up