in defense of surreal nightmares
imo surreal nightmares get short shrift in fiction
like eeeeeveryone loves to use “nightmare, but Super Realistic, so it’s a HUGE SHOCK when it turns out to have been a DREAM” because they’re too cowardly to commit to doing certain things to their characters
but let’s be real, MOST nightmares (and dreams in general) aren’t “things that could Conceivably Happen In Real Life”, they’re weird jumbles of ideas and scenarios and people, and things just happen without any apparent chain of cause and effect
which can be REALLY GOOD! pros of surreal dreams include:
randomness of events is frightening and disorienting to both character and reader
explore themes and symbols that aren’t significantly present in the experiences being dreamed about, but can be associated subconsciously or added by way of Dream Logic
link MULTIPLE traumas by way of mashing them all into a nightmare together. now your character associates them with each other and any trigger is twice as bad!
provide New character info via the dream that wasn’t shown in the actual experience
the scene can change without you having to show the changes happening (because that’s how dreams work), allowing you to get right to the juicy parts
i personally enjoy it greatly
and of course remember, your character doesn’t have to know it’s a dream! they can still react just as dramatically to everything they experience in a surreal nightmare as they would to a realistic one or even real life, but now your authorial playground is even larger! go forth and Write, my comrades in angst