Nightmares, Can’t Sleep

I had a dream. A really realistic dream. Well I had two dreams and they were really short but kind of terrifying. 

It’s around 1am and I’m not thinking about going to sleep anymore. I’ve been condemned to roam the night apparently.

So I was watching tv with the lights off and there wasn’t really anything interesting on so I switched to watching SpongeBob. Yes, I know, an adult watching cartoons. Deal with it. Anyway, it seemed I was too tired and the apparent lack of any other thing to watch drove me to sleep.

I fell asleep on the couch at around midnight but then I’m awake but not really. I am awake in my dream. I’m still watching SpongeBob but I’ve drunk too much water and I have to go pee. I go take care of business (fortunately that part wasn’t real haha) and when I try to get back to my living room, I get lost and the house transforms into a bigger house with multiple rooms. All the rooms have a television in them and all of them are showing SpongeBob. I open the doors trying to find the living room and I eventually do. I get back on the couch and continue watching. Not long after I’ve been on the couch, something phases through the walls and comes into the living room. It’s in the shape of a man, but shadowy, filled with darkness. It moves so fast towards me that before I even know what’s happening, it has its hands around my neck and is trying to kill me. This is only just a dream right? Then why does it feel like it’s really happening? I don’t know but I could probably die in my sleep. I fight with it and try so hard to get its hands away from my neck but it’s stronger than I am. I keep fighting, gasping for air when all of a sudden it stops and just vanishes. I wake up panting, trying to fill my lungs with as much air as I can. I quickly turn on the lights but there’s no one there. It’s just me. I quickly turn off the tv and rush to bed, saying a quick prayer before getting in. 

I fall asleep again and this time I’m in another dream. It’s a repeat of what happened in the living room only this time it attacks me in bed and when I try to wake up, I can’t. I struggle with the thing trying to kill me for a second time tonight in my sleep and at the same time try to get myself to wake up. Eventually I succeed. I wake up. I proceed to get out of bed but when my feet touches the ground, I stagger and fall back in bed and I’m stuck in a sleeping position. It dawns on me that I am still sleeping and I’d only just woken up in my dream. I try waking up again and every time I wake up, I realize I’m still in the same dream. Several times I try to wake up but the same thing keeps happening and I’m almost crying in my sleep. I can’t wake up. I try and try but I can’t. I had almost resigned to what seemed to be my fate when for the last time, I force myself to wake up and I actually do. I get up and turn on the bedroom lights and I just sit on the floor. Tears roll down my cheeks as I recall my struggle. I wipe em away, get up to go drink a glass of water and pick up my phone from where I plugged it.

It’s 1:32am and I haven’t closed my eyes. I don’t think I want to fall asleep anymore tonight. I’ll probably just wait till it’s dawn to fall asleep.

I hope everyone else has a peaceful night even though I’m not destined to have one tonight.