Whats Happening To Me?!

Okay so lately, I haven't been able to sleep throughout the entire night , waking up every so often, but that is just part of the problem two times this month I've had very intense vivid dreams , I believe that I woke up after the first one but I didn't open my eyes, almost immediately my body felt as if it were rocking and I heard gusts of wind in my ears and I saw a wave pattern, my first instinct was to scream. Then last night, the same thing occurred but I don't remember waking up from the dream I just went straight into this state , but I only heard the gusts of wind in my ears , and I screamed breaking me out of this trance? So at first I believed it was maybe SP or HI or something like that? but I'm not sure. Also to top it off it seems as if I only have bad dreams whenever I sleep with my television off..Is their a reason for that? I know I sound crazy but I don't know what's going on with me :( any ideas?

Probably not SP.

HI would be the best bet. Auditory hallucinations are normal for people around here, so you're probably not going to die or anything ;)

Typical hypnagogic/hynopompic stuff. The "gust of winds in the ear" is something I experience constantly and I think others too. Or you might have been in a false awakening and it was actually dream content. Doesn't really matter. The point is, it's not so unusual. It might be unsettling the first time but now that you've experienced it and know what it is, you can be confident next time that you are in no danger. You can be calm and ride it out. You can even be curious and experiment with it.

Bad dreams with the TV off is more interesting. Has it been a long time habit to sleep with the TV on? And did you recently change this habit and leave the TV off? If so, then it makes perfect sense that you are experiencing different sleep phenomena. It's not some much the TV or what's on the TV. It's the environment and the habit. When your sleep environment changes, you naturally become more cautious and alert during sleep. Imagine a caveman moving to a new cave. He doesn't know yet where all the lions and tigers are. So his sleep is more shallow, ready to wake and run away at a moment's notice. Your dreams would also likely tend toward rehearsing dangerous scenarios. It's all part of our mental programming to protect ourselves.

So what to do? If you keep with your new habits, you will eventually get better sleep. Plus, just knowing that what you are experiencing is normal should ease your unconscious fight-or-flight reaction. I think the best thing is to take a curious attitude toward it. There's no danger, so just welcome anything new that you experience.

EDIT: And when I say "eventually get better sleep", I mean a few days. A week or two at most. I didn't want to seem like it would be months or years.