I was in and out of sleep all last night and I don’t think I got more than an hour of sleep before I woke up and tried again. I don’t really remember any of the dreams anymore except for one than really startled me. I woke up at 4 am and then I closed my eyes and fell right into a dream. In the dream I was a man sitting on a chair with a long seat, long enough to put your feet up, kind of like those chairs that they have in therapy. This lady was talking and then she said I was going to wake up abruptly and very fast. I wasn’t asleep in the dream so my dream me didn’t think anything of it. But as soon as she said that I woke up, my eyes shut open and I was really startled like someone violent shook me awake or I heard I really loud and scary noise. I couldn’t move for 5 seconds and then I calmed down. It was so strange because I woke up just like the lady said I would wake up but she said this to the guy I was in the dream though i psychically woke up. I don't know how to explain this other than it was a very interactive dream and i'm so confused!

I think this has a lot to do with you not getting enough sleep.

Your sleep cycle was disturbed and your brain was mixing up your sleeping/waking states.

The lady/"therapist" sounds like a part of your mind that is trying to control your all of your brain states.

The part where you woke up startled and then couldn't move sounds like sleep paralysis which goes with stress/not getting enough sleep and your brain mixing up sleeping and waking states.

You could have dreamed that you were a man because there is a part of yourself that you see as masculine - I don't mean physically masculine but masculine in the sense of being assertive, rational etc. It could also be that your mind just set it up as a conversation between a man and a woman - like looking at different sides of a story.

The same thing happens to me when I can't get a good-night's sleep. I toss and turn and have short sleeps throughout the night, or wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. I'll experience an hallucination upon awakening, like someone screaming, a wild animal howling or growling really loud, or at one time, a gun shot. That startled me fully awake. I looked out my bedroom window and listened, but nothing.