A long time ago, when I was exactly ten years old, I had a very interesting phenomenon occur during, or maybe in between, a dream. Ever since then I have tried to explain it to people, but usually end up getting responses like "That's weird" or "I have no clue". I felt like maybe I could get some more interesting ideas here, so here goes:

Ever since I could remember, I had nightmares. At least one every night. From about when I was four to age ten, I would dream of being killed in ways that I didn't even know about yet. I would run into my parent's room only to get the usual "It was only a dream", but as a child, that left a very scary impression on me.

It was only until I was ten that something happened. I woke up at 5 AM, which wasn't too odd, considering that at that point in time I could wake up really early and not feel like I was lacking sleep. I went out to my living room and thought of turning on the tv, when all of a sudden, a dream started. I wasn't even sleeping. I could see partially what was going on in my living room in front of me and partially what was going on in the dream, but I couldn't control myself in real life. I just froze. In the dream, a girl was helping me fight the creatures of my nightmares, along with a bunch of other children. Then I woke up.

Naturally feeling kind of weirded out, I started to go toward my mother's bedroom. Every few steps or so, I would freeze and a continuation of the last dream would start, until we fought off all of the nightmares. Of course, they regenerated over time, but the girl and I never gave up. The final dream that I had when I reached my mother's bed was of me at the girl's house, with her telling me that we couldn't see each other because I had to wake up, but that she and the other kids would keep fighting off my nightmares for me, and that I would never have another nightmare again. She also said that when I reached age 20, I would see her once more. Currently, I am 20 and I haven't had a nightmare since. I haven't seen any trace of the girl yet, but I am only halfway until my next birthday, so I guess that I still have time.

What could this have been?

Thank you in advance for any comments you may have on this strange occurrence.