Why?

I've been having what I would term "morning nightmares" the last while.  As in difficult/upsetting dreams that happen (what seems like) right before I wake up.

Yesterday, I had a nightmare that seemed to go on forever (who really knows) that I wasn't aware was a dream while it was happening or I would have woken myself up out of it (or maybe I knew it was a dream but just didn't want to be awake yet?)

"Bad guys" had broken into my house (kind of the house of my childhood but also not) and were trying to do bad to us (myself and two others?)  I managed to evade them and escape outside with the phone (hoping I would have service outside, wasn't a cell phone but a cordless house phone) and hid in the ditch (as they were trying to find me too) and called the police and then 911 and both times I couldn't get through.

The "calling 911 and being on hold" or something similar is a nightmare I've had for ages.  This one felt particularly stressful for reasons I can't remember.  Usually I'm hiding in a closet on hold with 911 but this time I actually saw and was scared of the intruders before I got to a phone so maybe the nightmare was just longer.

I suppose the dream is something like "needing support/help but feeling like it's not there"? Or something analyzed in that zone... all alone, no help.... the expected help isn't available, I don't know.

Not feeling all that extra stressed in my day to day (like not more than usual) so not sure why my brain is discharging all this stress.

It certainly threw my morning off though as once I'd woken from the bad dream, and got out of bed, etc, my system was still so keyed up I started to have a little panic attack so I ended up taking some calming medication, literally just because of a nightmare I couldn't get over.

Sigh.  Brains man, I tell you.