Let me ask you. Do you know in your dream that you are dreaming?
If yes, than you are having lucid dreams. Some people do develop this ability be themselves exactly for the reason you did - to fight the nightmares.
If you don't know you are dreaming, then you learned to control your regular dreams.
To hear people talking when you supposedly asleep - you could have hightened awareness and be in both worlds at the same time.
Another possibility is, that the people you heard talking were a hypnagogic/hypnapompic hallucination or a lucid dream. To hear people talking is not so unsusual for someone, who is practicing lucid dreaming, because we train our minds to be aware at times, when others' minds are already asleep. So we do experience all kinds of HH.
If the people talking were a lucid dream, than when you "woke up and asked them about it", it would have been still a dream.
See, not as weird as you thought

If you need help learning more, just ask.
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