Dreams vs. Reality

Do you ever incorporate something real that happened with a dream and then wonder, did that happen or was that just in my dream?
I'm not talking about something big, but I've been having a lot of trouble with memory lately. I thought it was drinking wine, so I stopped drinking alcohol (okay so not completely, but I only had a few drinks Monday after a rough day.  Other than that, I had a can of kool aide at the concert Sunday, but I haven't even been drinking my regular glass of wine a night - I thought was affecting my memory the night before).  I have now decided that it is not the alcohol, so it has to be one of the everyday drugs I'm taking.  When I try to remember the evening before - EVERY morning..I have trouble remembering what happened from about 9pm on.  (And NO it's not because I'm sleeping, you sarcastic weirdos)  Anyway, last night a friend of mine was texting me about 9:30, and I went to sleep at about 11 and had a dream where the texts happened and I was talking to my mom about it.  Weird thing, this morning, I could not remember if I actually did text or if was in the dream.  I remember other things from that timeframe, but not that.  I had to look at my text logs today.  I'm starting to think I have early onset Alzheimers or something.  This kinda freaks me out, but on the other hand, I don't really mind not remembering things as long as I am not hurting anyone.
Back to the dreams thing.  Gary tells me that he rarely remembers his dreams.  He can even scream about something and I wake him up and he doesn't know what he was just dreaming about.  This does NOT happen to me.  I have very vivid dreams and always have.  I wonder why that is for some people.  In times of stress, I have nightmares, and I mean nightmares to the point of not wanting to sleep anymore.  Back when my parents divorced and my mom moved in with us, I had some of the worst nightmares ever and there were times where I would dream, and wake up and something horrible would happen, and then I would realize in my dream that I was still dreaming.  This happened for weeks, and it kind of got to a point where I didn't know if I was sleeping or awake even when I was awake.  Anyone ever have that happen?  I've also had issues before where I'm on the edge of sleep and think I hear something in the house and try to wake myself up and panic because I can't move but I can hear things around me.  Scary stuff.  I don't like it. But on the other hand, some of my dreams are AMAZING and sometimes I do want to stay there forever.  For instance, last night, Gary and I recently were talking about unicorns verses Rhino's and I dreamt that I had a pet Rhino named Charlie.  (I gave rides to kids on his back) definitely weird and in the middle of it, my mom and I were talking about the texts I received last night about a bed and how getting a bed tied to his back might make it more comfortable kinda like they do with camels and the platforms.  Yeah whatever..but I wonder if it is common to have such vivid dreams or more common to be like Gary and rarely remember them.