(Spoiler Alert) Junji Ito Collection: Long Dream

The story is about a man who, when he sleeps, the perceived time in his dreams gradually increases from one day to two days, three days... a week, a month. He eventually goes to a doctor for help. At this time, the doctor also has a female cancer patient who doesn't want to die. The patient suffering from the long dream is placed under the doctor's observation. He discovers that this person's brain waves during dreaming are tens of times faster than those of a normal person dreaming. And seeing his eyes darting rapidly, the shocked doctor immediately wakes him up. When the patient wakes up, in just a few minutes, a year has passed in his dream. He's almost unrecognizable to the doctor, and he barely remembers why he's in the hospital. After a few weeks, the patient is emaciated, and the time in his dreams has reached decades or even centuries. He even starts to see the female cancer patient as his wife. Finally, he turns to dust. The doctor studies his ashes and discovers something, whether a new substance or cell, he doesn't know. He then gives it to the cancer patient, who fears death. She also begins to experience long dreams and starts to find hope in life. But... eventually, she becomes mentally exhausted from this and meets the same fate as the man. Is it possible that even as dust, he's still dreaming? I think there are two ways to view 'Long Dream'. One is the question of whether living eternally is truly a good thing. The other is the consequence of escaping reality and dreaming all day, leading to a ruined life. These are my own two interpretations. It might be overthinking it 🤣, but that's how I see it. Junji Ito wouldn't likely write just ordinary horror stories. Readers would get bored easily that way. He focuses more on the 'moral' and 'humanity' of the characters.