If you have a dream, does that mean you had a very deep, restorative sleep the night before? Or does it mean that you did not sleep well? I've heard people say different things about it. What is your opinion on it?
It does, because it means you entered REM stage. If you don't enter REM stage, you don't get enough restorative sleep.
It does, as WanderingSoul said, mean you went into REM sleep, and did technically have a good sleep. But, wouldn't it also depend upon the dream? Because I know when I have nightmares, the rest of my night is ruined, and whether or not I got REM sleep that night means nothing! ;P
But then, sometimes I get so frazzled about work (cleaning a hotel) that I dream I'm cleaning room after room after room, and nothing seems to get accomplished and I wake up feeling like I actually spent all my energy cleaning rooms all night. I feel like I've been ripped off, having slept but not feeling like I got a break from work at all. It sucks.
I hate those kinds of dreams. Several years ago, I spent the day cleaning up our back yard with my dad. I'm not gonna lie - we had a junk pile out there. My dad used to collect stuff like wood, old appliances, junk, etc. (he doesn't do that now, for the record. ) Anyway, I spent the day hauling stuff around. I was exhausted when I went to bed with threw me into a deep dream. I dreamed the whole night of moving wood beams. It was such a vivid dream, I even saw maggots under the wood like I had during the day. It was SOOOOO exhausting. I kept waking up and thinking, I'm sooooo tired, why do I keep dreaming about what I did all day? And then I'd fall asleep and haul some more wood. How weird.