Need help...

[questionnumber16]

I had this dream that wasn't anything too unusual. Near the end of it I was on a train and a member of the crew was showing me some unique features of the train. And every so often my fiance would interrupt us to show me a practical joke she was pulling.

I was getting very upset with her, but I don't recall any sort of deep negative emotions when all of a sudden there was a flash of white light and a sound like a television being turned off. For a moment I thought there was a power failure on the train, but almost immediately realized I was awake lying in bed. Not only that, but I was wide awake. I got up and turned on the lights and my eyes weren't affected by the bright light.

I was extremely freaked out by this because it felt like the part of my brain that makes me sleep just went out like an old television. For several minutes I lay in bed with this deep fear of not being able to go back to sleep, ever. I was terrified. After talking briefly with my fiance about my experience I decided to just lie there and see what happens. (I forgot to mention that I had gone to bed at around 11:30 pm buzzed off of a few beers. When I woke up it was 4:16 am)

The rest of the night was weird. As I was laying there on the bed I started to see tiny snippets of memories that I recognized. I would see glimpses of places I'd been and people I had seen in the past couple of years or so. I would also see glimpses of things I didn't recognize at all, odd pictures of figures that don't exist. I also heard a lot of weird snippets of thought or dialog. I line from a commercial, a couple of lyrics from a song, and a few words of thoughts that I recall thinking recently. And I couldn't control any of this. When I'd try to stay with a picture or thought it would drift away very quickly.

At the same time that I was having these visions that I couldn't control I was completely aware of my surroundings. I could hear the fan going and my fiance breathing next to me. I could feel my fiance next to me and everything. I would even nudge my fiance awake if she started to snore a bit. All while the visions were happening. But, I was happy and relaxed during all of this. The visions were comforting and I kept thinking that I was witnessing my memories and thoughts being filed away (some scientists speculate that while you sleep your thoughts separate the important memories from the unimportant ones).

After quite awhile of watching these visions I decided to see how much time had passed. It felt like a long time, but I was afraid I'd look and see it was still 4:30 am, a few minutes past the time I'd woken up. Fortunately the time on my ipod read 6:29 am. I went back to lying there and watching the visions and I noticed they were beginning to fade. When they finally faded to the point where they were almost not there I decided to get up and get ready for my day. It was 6:58 am. I went to the bathroom and came back to the bedroom to turn the alarm off that had gone off at 7:00 am.

The intense fear and the idea that the part of my brain that makes me sleep has gone out and that I'll never sleep again has left almost entirely, but I still have this small nagging fear in the back of my mind that it is true. That my brain has gone out.

If anyone can tell me if they've ever heard of this before or where I can go to see a medical doctor to help me with my problems, please help me.