IntroductionThe continuing impact of spontaneously recalled dreams sometimes depends upon the same kind of unfolding semantic complexity that literary scholars attribute to poetic literary metaphors.MethodsWe present the results of two online studies of impactful dreams (i.e., nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams) that reinforce this account.ResultsIn both Study 1 (N = 147) and Study 2 (N = 157), assessment of dream experience indicated that (a) existential dreams transition into sublime disquietude (inexpressible realizations, self-perceptual depth, disquietude) and (b) transcendent dreams transition into sublime enthrallment (inexpressible realizations; self-perceptual depth, reverence), while (c) nightmares, in contrast, transition into inflexible vigilance.DiscussionBecause existential dreams and transcendent dreams support a type of metacognition that enables continued attunement to tension between the metaphoric (“is”) and literal (“is not”) truth-value of metaphoric dream images, these two types of impactful dreams may precipitate the epistemic—and aesthetic—significance of unfolding semantic resonance within the dream.