The power of dreams!

So, when I work the day shift I need to wake up at around 4:30AM, in order for me to get to work for 6AM. That means I need to get to bed early.
But, the other night I found myself staying up a bit to late and having a few more beers than I thought I had, I was playing a really good game and got really into.

Anyways, I ended up crawling into bed around 10:45, dozing off at around 11:15 or so. Now remember, I wake up at 4:30AM so I've been awake for almost 20 hours straight, anyways.
As you can figure out I got about 4-5 hours of sleep in to go to work.

It was one of those sleeps where once I fell asleep, I woke up instantly and my alarm was going off, this was probably due to the beer, and lack of sleep. So I sprung out of bed, got ready went to work and about an hour into work I felt terrible, tired, groggy, could barely function, just plain fatigued.
I found myself dozing off a few times but only to suddenly jolt awake after only a few seconds.
Finally sometime after my lunch I had a chance to sit down for about 5 minutes while we were waiting for our next work order and I dozed off, this time it was for a good minute, to two minutes, but something strange happened, I had a full dream which felt like 20 minutes, I woke up to a loud bang (I work in a manufacturing production line) and I felt completely fine, a little bit out of if, but I got up and felt somewhat well rested!

Well, I went home and did a little research.
- How alcohol leads to a terrible sleep.
and
- How dreams promote REM sleep, or vice-versa.

alcohol consumed within an hour of bedtime appears to disrupt the second half of the sleep period (7). The subject may sleep fitfully during the second half of sleep, awakening from dreams and returning to sleep with difficulty. With continued consumption just before bedtime, alcohol's sleep-inducing effect may decrease, while its disruptive effects continue or increase (8). This sleep disruption may lead to daytime fatigue and sleepiness.[1]

So this can explain my terrible sleep, the 5 cans of beer I drank within' the last three hours of my gaming binge certainly did have an effect on my sleep patterns, REM sleep is greatly put at risk with the more alcohol you consume.

A new review of 27 studies shows that alcohol does not improve sleep quality. According to the findings, alcohol does allow healthy people to fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply for a while, but it reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.[2]

This leaves me to my 'awakening' moment at work, in that little short time of my extremely fatigued state where I dozed off on the bench and had the dream, was I so tired that my brain really needed to sort itself out? And that short time of my dream gave it a little 'boost' of energy?

A possible clue about the purposes of REM sleep is the prevalence of dreams during these epochs of the sleep cycle. The occurrence of dreams can be tested by waking volunteers during either non-REM or REM sleep and asking them if they were dreaming. Subjects awakened from REM sleep recall elaborate, vivid, hallucinogenic and emotional dreams, whereas subjects awakened during non-REM sleep report fewer dreams, which, when they occur, are more conceptual, less vivid and less emotion-laden. [3]

Through my research they say that REM generally happens about 90 minutes into the sleep cycle, and it can happen again within' another 4 hours after the first cycle, but, when I had my dream I knew I had one, but completely forgot what it was about, the loud bang completely jolted me out of my sleep, but again, could that small amount of REM sleep gotten me the boost I needed?

[1] pubs.niaaa.nih.gov...
[2] www.webmd.com...
[3] www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

My wife only needs a about 45 minutes of sleep before she is fully restored and awake (if, lets say she has had only a small amount of sleep for several days). It wouldn't be inconceivable that that small amount you had (without alcohol) was enough to give you a sort of boost. Everyone is different in this regard. nevertheless, 4-5 hours of sleep really isn't all that little in the first place.

It was probably due to your body passing the alcohol through it's system that really helped you out.

a reply to: strongfp

Yup I had many dream experiences that were weird wonderful and insightful

To quote harsesis child

"Dreams sometimes teach, I am teaching him"