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Very rarely, however I do know a developer who dreamed a full day's work where he solved a big problem and was then really confused when all of his hard work didn't exist the next morning.

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did it help him arrive at a solution? i've seen a few people who have that experience - the fact that they could have a solution in a dream helped them solve the problem

This is a human behavior with a long, very interesting history. Chemist August Kekule supposedly was trying to sort out the chemical structure of Benzene, dozed off, and dreamt of a snake with his tail in his mouth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ouroboro...

There are many other similar stories of various kinds of technical problems being solved during sleep and/or while dreaming.

I've certainly woken in the middle of the night to write things down. In the cold light of day they're rarely as exceptional as they seem at 2am...

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