Spiritual Forums - Why do dead loved ones visit us in dreams?

I am only eighteen years old, yet I have experienced many of what I can only describe as visitation dreams. Eight in a five year period. All of the dreams have one thing in common, they are all unexpected, and I feel filled with peace and love upon waking. The first dream happened in the summer of 2012 when I had a dream of a women from my church sitting in the pews alone. I woke up with a sense of peace and I found out the next day that she died. The next one was in the summer of 2013 when my great grandfather died of a heart attack in his sleep. I had a dream I was in a car driving near my house and the thought of him dying popped into my mind. I woke up straight away at 4 am and found out the next day that he died. The next dream was the most intense. It was of a famous person who died in February 2014, one of my idols. This dream involved astral projection. I don't remember my soul leaving my body, but I remember standing on the astral planes staring at him as I began to fall and hear a whizzing sound as I fell down to the earthly planes. He stared deep into my eyes, as if he knew me better than I knew myself. Just before my soul hit my body I see a glimmer of love in his eyes and I woke up with my heart racing after the impact of my soul hitting my body and felt the strongest feeling of love and peace I have ever felt, and I instantly said knew he was dead. The next dream was in September 2015 when my uncle had a heart attack and I had a dream about him singing in church and I woke up with a strong feeling of love and knowledge of his death. The next dream was of another famous person in January 2016, I saw his face smiling at me and I woke up feeling loved and at peace and even happy. The next two occurred in March of 2016 one was of an old school teacher and the other was a girl at my school who had been murdered. I both felt loved after each. The next and most recent and hopefully final dream was in November 2016 when a guy at my school killed himself. I felt loved and at peace upon waking. All of these dreams make me feel good when I feel down, but I still struggle to comprehend why they all happened. Now I have a good idea, I am very religious so that is probably why I can connect so easily with the other side. But out of all eight dreams there is one common trend. Suffering. A few months after each dream I go through really dark periods of depression. I am catholic so we learned that most good people who die go to purgatory to suffer for their sins before entering heaven. I am now starting to think I could be sharing their sufferings, similar to sharing on Christ's suffering on the cross. I also believe that God selects these souls to give me strength and comfort during my depression. My grandmother, who was my favorite person on this earth passed away of cancer last summer. We all knew it was terminal and on the day she died I went to bed thinking she would visit me. She didn't, probably because I was expecting it. Also what is different from my visitation dreams compared to others I have read online is all eight occurred instantly after the individuals death. Some people I have read have had visitations years after. If anyone on here has any opinions or insights into why these souls visited me I would greatly appreciate them, also I believe after death these people were assigned earthly souls, me and possibly other people going through tough times to comfort them. Maybe we will do the same to souls we have met, or souls we haven't met when we die. But any opinions on this subject would be appreciated because I am eager to learn more about my strange experiences. Thank you for reading, I know its long.