Dream within the first 90 min. of sleep

Last night, I went to sleep around 2:00am. I know trying to WILD is pretty useless at the beginning of sleep, but I like trying to get into SP on most nights because it helps me fall asleep faster, instead of tossing and turning. So I'm lying there, completely still, reciting a mantra in my head that I'm going to be lucid when I start dreaming.

The next thing I know, I'm dreaming about all sorts of crazy stuff, though I was not lucid during any of it. At one point, I was an old woman, and a blinding flash of white light from the sky began to burn me, like it was from an atom bomb. I also remember being in a hospital, hiding under one of the beds and spying on people. The last thing I remember was jumping on floating blocks like I was Mario. It seemed to last about 15-20 minutes and was kind of frightening.

So I wake up in a sweat and I look at the clock. It's only 3:30am, a mere 90 minutes after I fell asleep! My head felt very strange, and I just laid there thinking about what had happened. The only explanation I have is that my recall was somehow boosted by drinking apple juice before bed (I read on here that AJ increases recall and vividness so I drank some before bed.)

So, has anyone here ever had anything like this happen? Any explanation other than the juice? I'm mainly puzzled because, from everything I've read, the first sleep cycle is mostly NREM sleep, so I shouldn't have had such vivid recall. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

That's happened to me once, where I get a lot of small, short dream fragments within the course of only an hour. Usually this happens when it's early in the morning and I decide to sleep in. I've also had the opposite happen - I feel like I just put my head down for a few moments, but when I'd look at my clock, it's four hours later.

Unfortunately I don't have an explanation for it, though. :P

Could be that you went to bed late. When I go to bed at like 3 or 4 sometimes, I go into dreams faster and also am a lot more likely to have a lucid dream.

I am pretty sure because of the apple juice, it made your mind race. I have had that too, if I have stuff like that before I go to bed. If you don't want that to happen, don't drink it, lol. Well, at least you got to jump on Mario blocks!