Vivid Nightmares

I'm pretty sure I've posted before about my nightmares/night terrors. I'm not sure my bad dreams even fall into either of those categories. I often wake during a bad dream and am convinced I'm still in that dream. Typically it involves spiders or people in my room. For instance, I'll be convinced a huge spider is coming down on me from the ceiling...and I'll wake up in a dark room with zero visibility and be convinced I can see the spider. Or I'll be having a dream (not even a nightmare) during which someone is talking to me. I'll awake thoroughly confused and cannot figure out how/why that person is in my house.
For awhile, I was convinced Sue Sue had inherited my sleeping habits. She would regularly whine in her sleep and I couldn't wake her from her slumber to help her feel better. She hasn't done that for months, so I'm hoping whatever was bothering her has passed. For me, these vivid dreams happen mostly when I'm stressed or really tired. Some nights I even mentally prepare myself before I go to bed, knowing I'll likely have some type of vivid dream.
Last night, something fairly bizarre happened. I went upstairs to go to bed and was giving each of my daughters a final kiss. Cakes sat up in bed. I leaned over and asked her if she was OK. She started hitting me and scratching at me. She grabbed my glasses and threw them on the floor. I actually had to grab her arms to stop her... and then she went back to sleep. She claims to have no memory of this incident.
I'm not surprised by her actions. Who knows what she was dreaming about, but I'm convinced whatever it was carried over into her seeing me in her room. I once was having a bad dream, felt myself waking up from it screaming, but then became terrified because in my dream/reality someone was holding me down. Hubby had felt me start to go into a panic over my dream and in his sleep-induced state, thought the best thing to calm me down was to put his arm over my chest so I wouldn't start flailing around. Let's just say he is under strict instructions to never, ever try that method again.
Nightmares, night terrors, vivid dreams, whatever you want to call them, they're no fun. I just hope for my daughters' sakes, these tumultuous nights are few and far between.