I seemed to have been in my 30s and probably because at a working age we had a vast number of people we interacted with in real life, the brain is probably storing much more left over happenings in that part of life. I was always working in some way or another and most of the time had my dog but not sure which one it was. Some dreams were much more real and nearer the time in my life that a very similar real event happened, it was not a dream restarted but a new one. I was way down south near the Gulf mid winter in Winnie Tx, working out in a cow pasture on a natural gas compressor station engine. It was so cold I could hardly touch anything. My old shop foreman told me before I left the shop to just work as long as I could and if I got too cold go someplace and have coffee and warm up. I did that and it was a little nearby small cafe on the main highway. I sat next to a plate glass window and decades later I was seeing something very familiar in a dream and if I remember right I was asking how to find that road the pumping station was on. I never had a road map because they have little use in a Pine Forrest which house all the pumping stations on a main trunk line. The most important thing was to find the control station where they could shut down the pressure on the line. That was some back breaking work and miserable conditions to work in. I did like the job. Just about all of my dreams have involved work, I guess because I always worked since the 3rd day I left the service.
I can't see myself in my dreams either, but I have an awareness of some of the limitations of age that aren't there in other dreams, where I seem to be much younger. In some dreams, I am clearly a child while, in others, I am aware that I can't run very fast anymore.
How funny you asked this as I realized just in the last couple years that I am always younger in my dreams. Do we ever really, I mean totally realize or even believe we are old? I try and figure out if I act older because I'm supposed to, but sometimes, I just can't keep the "kid" in check, LOL!! It's easier physically to remember I'm old of course, but in my mind, I haven't completely changed from the kid I used to be. Some ways I've changed are very good like being responsible where I need to be, but like some of the bad ways I haven't changed are thinking I've still got a lot of time left so I can goof off. My fave, and the most level headed person I know here is 96 or so. I want to be like her, she up and going every day, so tiny and frail looking but what a pistol