Repeating Phrase, Scaring the Life out of Me During Nightmare

Hello everyone. I'm new here, and have some questions that I'm hoping someone can give me their opinion about. Let me start off with my opinion. My opinion on the nightmare is that my mind is just relieving stress or making it clear that I'm stressed about several things happening in my life right now. However, I really don't want to be waking up terrified with my heart beating out of my chest whenever my mind wants to tell me this...

Okay, so onto a bit about my current situation and what is on my mind. (I don't know if this helps or not, I just thought I'd provide any relevant details)

There are several things going on. For one, my mother recently committed a crime and tried to blame it on her husband. Now, this is not the part I'm stressed about. I have 4 brothers that are over in Texas now (I'm currently in Georgia). We're having difficulty getting them back here. The man that my mother divorced 2 years ago for the man in Texas is back in my life now, after me realizing how much my mother had lied about him, so we are trying to get them back together. Another thing on my mind is the fact that I'm 4 months behind on rent and facing eviction if I don't get my act together.

OK, those are the 2 biggest things on my mind right now. However, here's the kicker: both of these problems were solved last night. Plans were made to go get my brothers from Texas this coming Tuesday, and a really good friend of mine fronted me the money I need for my rent and helped me get an amazing job.

To note about my sleep schedule, I've been going to bed anywhere from early morning to early afternoon, so decided to try and go to bed a bit earlier tonight. I have a slight fear of the dark for fear of something 'getting me', and I have since I was a kid. I never turn my TV or computer off, just so there's some kind of light in the room. Well, I decided to go to bed real early with my girlfriend tonight, and thought it was a good idea just to turn all of the annoying lights off so I did. I continued on to lay in bed for about an hour and a half trying my hardest just to fall asleep, which apparently I finally did.

Now onto the dream. I live in a townhouse on my own, but my girlfriend is here pretty much every day and night and is practically living with me, just not officially. So I was sleeping with her on my futon downstairs. (this is where I always sleep) One thing to note is that we were sleeping the opposite direction on the futon. As opposed to sleeping on it the long way, we were for some reason sleeping on it the short way with our feet hanging off. (the feet hanging off has no importance, just pointing out the position we were for some reason sleeping in) Now, there was nothing else on, no TV, no computer, anything. I was just laying there. After laying there for a while, I hear a fire truck sound from upstairs, assuming from some sort of toy. (there is no fire truck toy upstairs IRL) This does freak me out a bit and in the dream I can feel myself get goosebumps and the likes. After a little while longer of me trying to cuddle up closer to my girlfriend because I am a bit freaked out, I hear the toy start to fall down the stairs. Not just gliding down, but you know how toy cars fall down stairs. Anyways, as it's coming down it's just making normal fire truck sounds. At this point I start to shake my girlfriend, trying to wake her up. This would be pretty easy in real life, and would have made it obvious it was a dream had I not been scared enough to have a heart attack. While trying to wake her up, I could not move my arms to shake her, and my screams were extremely muffled to the point of a whisper. Once the fire truck toy got to the bottom of the stairs (I didn't dare look over, so there's no telling what it looked like exactly, or if lights were flashing, etc.), it started shouting out phrases in high pitches like the siren. It would say things like 'You'll NEVER make any money', 'You'll NEVER borrow any money', etc. etc. It only said things about money, basically how nothing would ever work out, and maybe like it was even bitter that things might be working out for me. Throughout this I continued trying to wake my girlfriend up and steadily my arms gained strength and my voice volume, and I was eventually able to wake her up. (to do this, I had to get on top of her, shake her head, put my fingers in her mouth, scream in her face, etc., whereas in real life she is an extremely light sleeper) A few seconds after she woke up in the dream, I woke up in real life, drenched in sweat and my heart beating faster than I've remembered it beating in a long, long time.

I was asleep less than an hour. From about 5-5:45am. Now to the questions I'd really like someone's opinion on. The past few weeks, with my sleep schedule being so terrible, I've been able to remember maybe 2-3 scenes MAX of dream(s) per night. Now that I finally go to sleep when I'm not actually tired, the dream I have is this horrifying (to me at least) nightmare. There were no strange dietary actions or anything like that before I went to sleep. So, the questions.

-Why those phrases? I just found out that all of the financial burden I've been under has been resolved - why would I have a nightmare like this? Maybe subconsciously I just think it's too good to believe? Or that I don't deserve it? Or maybe I feel like someone else wouldn't want me to be financially stable?

-Why now? I just had the 2 biggest burdens of my adult life lifted off my chest. Why would such a vivid nightmare (the first I've had in many months) happen after that?

Honestly I feel like the fact could just be biological. Because I forced myself into sleep when I was not tired. As opposed to the past few weeks, I actually went to sleep at night when it was dark outside, as well as turned off all the lights in the room. The dream material may have nothing to do with anything, but I have no idea. I just really want someone else's opinion, and if anything some help on stopping it from happening again, because I don't think I've ever been so terrified. And it wasn't even that scary thinking back on it.

I used to be into lucid dreaming and was moderately successful a few years ago, maybe if I get back into that, that would help?

Thanks for your time everyone, and hopefully someone has some good answers and suggestions. :) If you need any more info please feel free to ask any questions.

I think the "why now?" Is answered by, because the subconscious is not fully logical, there are many reasons why we have nightmares, and we cannot fully predict with conscious logic why one day and not another. It could have been a delayed reaction. It could also have been because now that you are not too busy being actually worried about the crisis in your life, you finally have time to contemplate the issues in your leisure. When I was depressed, one time a priest friend of mine pointed out to me, "do you notice that the depression gets worse on weekends?" And I said, that yes, and asked why. He said, "Because then your mind is free for all those negative thoughts." That's when I realized that while I was depressed I had stopped listening to music and daydreaming. I made a conscious effort to clutter up my mind again, so that I would have less free time for negative thoughts, and I believe that really helped.

Another thing is that sometimes the trigger for a nightmare is not because you had a bad day, but another trigger. The funniest nightmare trigger for me was that I was answering a survey about anger and anxiety for a college student who is a member of dreamviews to help with her research paper. I remember the day when I answered those survey questions: it was one of the best days ever otherwise, really relaxing and really pleasant, a day spent with family. The night I had two of the worst nightmares in recent times, and in hindsight I noticed they were all about anxiety and anger, the survey questions. :) so my mind chose those survey questions rather than the pleasant day to base my dreams on.