This is a 'condition' I came up with a while ago. Basically, when a person sleeps, he/she could fall into a Dreamstate. The Dreamstate is a dream that can't be interrupted like any normal dream can. The dream involves a quest, of sorts, the dreamer tries to complete. This could take just a few hours to days, if not stopped.

Here's what I have so far, taken from the story I started involving the Dreamstate:

'Steps' into another's dreams. Cannot manipulate/influence the sleeper's dreams. The dreamer is only able to do that. The wakener rouses the sleeper from the Dreamstate.

Can be dangerous, because the dreamer can't be woken by outside sources. It can only be removed by the completion of a 'quest', or goal in the dream. The quest doesn't harm the dreamer, it's just a type of game the mind plays, perhaps after a particularly worrying/stressful day.

The danger lies in the length of the Dreamstate. The quest can take a long time, and could produce nightmares. Dreamer reacts internally and externally (screaming, thrashed, etc.).

If the quest takes too long, the dreamer could starve/dehydrate. The body rejects nourishment. The dreams supplies that, but it doesn't affect the physical health of the dreamer.

The Dreamstate could last anywhere from a few minutes or months (if dreamer hasn't yet died)..

Young children are easy to waken. Their minds accept the push more readily than older minds (older minds are more stubborn and refuse to give up).

Dreamstates may happen all the time, but end before it becomes noticeable. People who wake later than they wished/normally wake may have been in a Dreamstate. People who are drawn from the Dreamstate may be moody for a day or two, because the quest went unfinished.

The wakener needs complete and total silence and left alone with the dreamer. Wakeners slip into the dreams and nudge the dreamers out.

Wakeners do not sleep or rest when removing the Dreamstate. It uses their energy and weakens them a little. They will not be affected by the Dreamstate while removing it from someone else.

The time it takes to remove the Dreamstate varies.


Is there anything that could be improved upon?

I think this sounds like an awesome concept with a lot of story potential.

My first question would be--how do people fall into Dreamstate? Is it intentional? Chemically induced? How did this all start, or is it a mystical phenomenon? I could see this either being pure fantasy--a phenomenon of the mind--or scientifically explained, depending on your purpose behind it. I could easily see someone having invented this for military training purposes or something, or it being a drug-induced disease.

Are Wakeners other humans with this ability? That wasn't clear to me.

It's not intentional. It's almost a random event, but as people get older they fall into it more often. It's just a phenomenon that happens on occasion when the dreamer falls asleep.

But now I think I've found a purpose and a story for it, and I'm thinking now it might be something that can be induced externally (drug, gas, etc.). But now I need to figure out what, and how. And maybe why.

Wakeners are people who can remove the Dreamstate. They don't induce it, only remove it. But they can fall into it, too. Then they would need a second Wakener to help.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.

So, what is the story surrounding this then?
Or is it just a random threat in the storyworld?
Is it that there's someone who controls them and they're not actually random?
Is a tool by a mafia or government to control people?
What makes this significant to your story? Other than that it's really intriguing.

Do the quests have any external side effects? For example, if your quest is to find a certain necklace, does finding it in some way influence your outside life? (basically, do they unlock achievements)

@Fusion:
-It's not much of a story yet. If it is part of the storyworld, I think it will be a major role in the story. I was thinking it would take place in outer space, on an 'airship' belonging to aliens that look like humans. The Dreamstate affects them, but it's not an alarming thing, as they can be affected by it from time to time. I was thinking that another alien race would have come up with a mutated version, or turned it into a kind of virus and mutated it and it spreads among the other aliens to be taken over. That's a gist of what I thinking for the Dreamstate. There's more, but this is directly related to the Dreamstate.

-It is random. No one can control the Dreamstate. Unless they find a way to induce it in people, then I suppose to some extent they can.

-It's just a mental thing that happens. It doesn't harm anyone, unless they aren't brought out of it before they starve. But it might also become a mutated virus the enemy aliens turn it into for their invasion.

-I think it will become a serious problem just as the good aliens get a new queen. She's human and is totally unfamiliar with the aliens' lifestyle. So when she becomes queen and the mutated version starts affecting people, she's looked to to help stop it and the bad aliens.

@Kitra: Nope. Well, I suppose the dreamer feels satisfied/accomplished when he/she completes the quest, or moody and irritable if a Wakener rouses him/her from the dream before it's finished. Otherwise, it's basically a normal dream in a very, very, very deep sleep.

Can you explain how a human becomes Queen over an alien race? It sounds interesting, but quite implausible.
That would be like someone born on Mars to become president of the US. People want to be led by someone who understands their needs.

Good question.

The ambassador has just gotten back from an adventure in another world. The good aliens' queen has died without an heir, and instead left the ambassador in charge of selecting a new heir. And because the aliens are, at last, coming down from space to live on earth among humans (where in the day and age there are several nations are already growing in size), the deceased queen wants the ambassador to find a human queen, in hopes that she can integrate the Schinaam (the aliens' name) with humans, because in the past humans and aliens haven't gotten along and an alien queen probably wouldn't help the situation.

Does that help?

You'll have some convincing to do in the writing, but it's much more plausible that my first impressions pegged it for.