Strange thoughts/dreams while trying to fall back asleep

Last night I woke up after 3 hours of sleep to record my first dream. As I laid there trying to go back to sleep, my mind kept sleeping off into weird thoughts and scenarios that it seemed I had no control over. It felt like a stronger version of a day dream, but uncontrollable. I kept snapping myself out of it because I was trying to repeat to myself that I would wake up and record my next dream.

Now, as far as I could tell I wasn't actually dreaming, but I certainly wasn't 100% aware of everything either. Is there a term for this state that I was in? Or was I just really tired and not thinking clearly?

Sounds like you were in-between awake and dreaming, where your body was shifting from one to the other. Yeah, this happens to me every time I wake up in the middle of the night and go back to bed, given I don't zonk right out within the first minute. I wouldn't know of a specific title for it, just that it is a kind of "inbetween" stage.

Strange or illogical thoughts occurring when you're about to fall asleep is more common than you think! Even today when I took a nap, I was floating in and out of daydream-like thoughts that I was almost too unaware of to control. If I focus too hard on them, I snap out of it. But if you have the mental discipline to just passively observe them, it can help you in having a WILD (wake induced lucid dream) - illogical thoughts are a cue that your mind is getting ready to enter sleep mode, which is a goal of WILD.

Weird thoughts are just a part of falling asleep where you're mostly conscious, but a small part of you is unconscious. Like -InsaneKid- said, there isn't really a name for it.

I always notice these strange thoughts and scenarios as well right before I enter SP and a WILD. If you had remained calm, stayed in the state, and passively observed the thoughts/scenarios while keeping slight awareness, there is a good chance you may have entered a LD from a waking state, as Puffin mentioned.

I believe what is happening here is that your thoughts are becoming symbolic. In the same way all the characters and situations you encounter in a dream are usually symbolic of something, these thoughts are verbal symbolism. The subconscious speaks in symbols. In a dream they are objects, people and situations; but if the conscious mind subsides before the dream begins, the symbols are thoughts.

For example, if you thought "I have to put out the tea kettle before it burns," it might be symbolic of some urgent real life situation you are worrying about which is about to come to a head.

I often lay in bed and watch these things for quite a long time. They're really bizarre.

Ah, so that explains it. I ended up snapping myself out of it about 4-5 times, each time I had a shortness of breath afterwards which felt awkward. I was so focused on trying to remind myself that I should record my dreams that I possibly stopped myself from having a WILD. I'll have to make sure next time to let myself just continue to drift off and enjoy what is happening.

I do occasionally notice this when I am going to bed normally, but I always just write it off as me thinking too much before going to sleep and I wake myself out of it and reposition myself in my bed.

The "symbolism" behind this is quite debatable. When your brain goes into the dream state, the portion that controls logic shuts down (thus why it is hard to become lucid, you have to wake it back up, which is hard because you don't have logic to asses the situation, generally) . These thoughts are just a result of that part going to sleep, so your your thought processes become more sporadic until you finally reach the dream state.

I personally think the idea of symbolism is bogus, as it is just your logic shutting down, but whether that is correct or not, hang in there and try not to lose consciousness and you may be able to enter a WILD.

I think this is especially interesting because it's not an experience of hypnagogia phenomenon alone. Being that you had just awoken, sleep inertia, lasting a few minutes after the hympnopompic state, had probably amplified the cognitive aspects of hypnapompia: receptivity, suggestibility, and autosymbolism.