Strangely enough I experience this every night. Just this morning I had a had a pretty eye opening revelation. I wake up every night around 4-5. I assume from nightmares, I always remember waking up terrified but never remember the dreams. I dilly dally for a few minutes, get out of bed to get some water or something then go back to sleep. On my second round of sleeping I have horrendous nightmares and at a certain point I realize I'm dreaming but can't wake myself up. I remember every gory detail and by the time I do actually wake up it has me questioning if I'm still dreaming or not. It makes mornings awful.

This has been happening for years and I just today realized the worst part is always on my second round of sleep. I'm gonna start trying to just wake up around that 4-5 time and then take a nap during the day if I need too.