Why do I have strange feeling dreams when I nap?

Heeeyy! I haven't been here in a while but I figured this site would be the best place to ask something that has been bothering me since lots of people on here are so knowledgeable.

I rarely nap because when I wake up I'm disoriented out of my mind. I looked it up and that feeling seems to be pretty common after naps, which makes sense. But I didn't see anything about unusual dreams. Is that normal?

About three hours ago I fell asleep listening to music. I woke up, took my earphones out, and went back to sleep. But I had a really weird dream. The kind that isn't necessarily scary in context, but rather in feeling.

I remember being in a bed in a weird room in the dream and when I opened my eyes there was a window open in front of me so I got up and closed it because I felt unsafe. The whole time I knew I somewhat understood that I was dreaming and would try to control it but it just didn't work (I haven't actually tried controlling my dreams in a really long time so maybe I'm outta practice?). Every time I woke myself up to get out of it, I ended up slipping back in and it was starting to freak me out because I couldn't escape it.

Usually when I have dreams like this, it's after taking Nyquil or some other medicine that knocks me out.

Sorry if I don't make any sense or if it's in the wrong section. I'm still pretty disoriented. :panic:

In short, why is it that when I take a nap I have the same weird feeling "type" of dream that I have when I take Nyquil?

Could be because in a nap you wake yourself up after such a short time?

I don't take naps because, if I go to sleep, I can't get up until I've had several hours - otherwise I feel like crap. I never did understand how people can take a 20 minute nap... I can't even get to sleep in 20 minutes!!

You might have a mental illness. I'm bipolar and I have weird feeling dreams all the time. I know EXACTLY what you mean by scary in feeling, not content.

^I wouldn't listen to him. Nightmares are quite common in naps in my experience. My theory is that it is because you don't have a lot of time to adjust from the chaos of the day to REM sleep. The same would also, of course, work with your NyQuil situation.