I experience a strange thing when sleeping quite often, where it feels like I get stuck in the Hypnagogic stage of sleep. It feels like I've been tossing and turning trying to get to sleep and then I will look at my clock and its jumped forward 4 hours, when it feels like it really hasn't been that long at all.

So for example;
Last night I went to sleep at about 11.45 pm, and then woke up suddenly from some kind of dream fragment at 1.30 am.
The sudden waking from the dream was strange, i remember the general topic of the dream but I couldn't picture any vivid details of narrative/characters or even Scenery. I was simply getting emotion and thoughts.
I know this is likely to be because I had woken up early in my sleep cycle and the short dream periods at this time are often the hardest to recall properly.
I then found it very difficult to get rested and go back to sleep. I was feeling very uncomfortable and my mind was all over the place, experiencing the kind of confusion I sometimes relate to a hypnagogic state.
THEN, the next thing I know I awoke from a dream that went like this...

"I get out of bed because i can't sleep. I'm in a huge mansion with a grand staircase and reception room. Outside in the front drive is an expensive sports car (Mercedes SL500 in Blue to be precise) and I think to myself that I will go for a drive to help me get to sleep. When I try to drive the car I can only seem to drive it in reverse. I ended up bumping it into a white van, so i give up and go back to bed"

Next thing i know, I'm awake in bed and its 4 am. It really felt like I hadn't been back to sleep at all. As if I had gone from being awake, into a brief dream. And then awake again. I feel tired from it this morning too!

Anyone with some knowledge of sleep cycles and science, could they explain that kind of feeling!?

DR x