Famed Russian-American author Vladimir Nabakov tested just that theory by keeping a dream diary documenting 64 dreams over 80 days and ordering them with 118 index cards. His dream documentation and their relation to his work are examined in a new book by University of Missouri academic Gennady Barabtarlo called Insomniac Dreams: Experiments With Time.
Simon Morton spoke to Gennady's collegue - The University of Auckland's Professor Brian Boyd - to talk through the oddness of some of these dreams, as well as Brian's own work writing and editing multiple books on Nabakov.
You can check out Brian's ten favourite books by Nabakov here.