Dreams with old friends, but raraely new people

I'm trying to understand why my brain does this during dreaming often. I often have dreams that include people I have known either most of my life, or that I haven't seen or talked to in a long time. But, why do I almost never have dreams with people I have known for more or less a year, while tv characters it's more common I would? I watched Game of Thrones season 1 and 2, and havent for about 3 months. Thursday night I started recalling having dreams with the characters. Even last night.
actual people in my dream more often include (1st family - usually based on older events) (2nd old friends from years back) (3rd tv characters of shows I haven't watched in a few months or weeks) And all of this partially tied into my current interests or recent stressed problems.
I have to be honest Ive been trying to picture and dream of this one person for a while now, and it either isn't working or I just am not in a dream state that remembers.

Dream characters in my dreams are also generally people, whom I've known for several years. Very, very rarely will a person appear, whom I've known for less than two years.

But old class mates tend to pop up now and then, even though I've had no contact with them for twenty years or more.

Its bizarre really, at least for old friends from years ago, specially when it's friends you hung out with the least. Just last night me and a bunch of people I knew back from highschool etc, even my sister, were in this bizarre futuristic combat training. It basically looked like we walked through the front of a massive hanger. It almost seemed like training for space battelship combat LOL. We all sat down at these desks though, but they were high tech, and in front of a massive interactive screen. Of course non of my cool high tech stuff was working... I guess that's where memories of school play in. Then I was out on an ice planet for a rescue mission with a couple of them. Decked out in these Star Wars Clone inspired battlesuits. and we started fighting these bizarre techno-aliens. How game of Thrones got mixed in there is beyond me, heh. Oh, and you know its gaming related when the things your firing at have life bars over them ROFL. I will say for a majority dreams, games tend to be what they usually consist of.

This is SO what I have been thinking about lately...I almost every night dream about people/friends who I went to school with. From elementary to high school, but almost no one from university (which is now). Also a lot of my dreams take place in my old school...

It's really weird...maybe they're just way more in our memory than the 'new ones'.

You should make this one of your dream signs. Whenever you see an old friend or person you should do a reality check! I've been trying to do this for myself, but I haven't had success. But I'm certain that when it does I could be lucid almost any night! You should try it too!

Greetz

sounds like a good plan.

One idea: perhaps it is a memory issue. Faces are not easy to memorize, and perhaps it takes the mind time to memorize them well enough to render their features flawlessly enough for them to be incorporated into the dream?Also maybe it is easier when the mind is impaired by dream state for it to travel down well trod paths to memories of people who are familiar? Alternatively, perhaps you focus too much on memories, live in the past, and not enough in the moment?

I usually dream of either people I know well or people I do not know at all. But occasionally I will get a dream of someone I met recently and barely know. Interestingly even of the people I know, some of them are much more likely to occur in my dreams than others: I dream way more often of my mother than of my father, even though I work in a relatively small team, some of my team members from work have made it into my dreams but others have not.

Come to think of it it is also possible that some people fit into our subconscious agenda or we have some unresolved issues with them or we have questions about them, while other people may be on our conscious mind's radar but our subconscious has no agenda concerning them, and thus no point in including them in dreams. It is also quite common for me at least to dream a dream where someone stands for someone else ir some idea, and then perhaps my mind associates these people somehow with the ideas but does not have an association formed for others.

That reminds me of the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys, a lucid dreaming pioneer who used perfume or music to form a mental association, so that he could incubate dreams of a particular lady by listening to particular music or smelling a scent that he associated with her. Maybe you could try something like that, too? If you cannot see the person in waking life whom you are trying to incorporate into your dreams, may e you can regularly during waking when you remember them smell a particular scent and then at night put some of that scent on your pillow, or alternatively during waking listen to a melody and think of the person and then put on the same melody right before falling asleep?