I dream of dreaming

Last night I had the strangest dream ever. It's highly confusing so a little difficult to explain but I'll give it my best shot.

Last night on the way to the pub last night I was talking to Looloo about dreams and I told him about a dream I had a few months ago where my room was shaking. Like if you were to look left and right really quickly but thought you were looking straight ahead. Maybe this was REM with my eyes open. Who knows? Pretty scary stuff anyway. I realised it was a dream fairly quickly (my room doesn't normally shake like this) and decided to wake up. I think this is a lucid dream, tho I could be technically wrong. I thought I could wake up straight away after realising I was dreaming. Unfortunately I couldn't. This was really scary as I felt trapped in the dream. Luckily I actually did manage to wake up just a few seconds later.

We went to the pub, did pub things, then came back. We watched a couple of uber-mirthful Whose Line is it Anyway episodes then I went to sleep at about 3am. At probably around 4am I began dreaming. I had the same dream as before, where my room was shaking, so I woke myself up. I woke up quicker than last time but not as quickly as I would have liked. I lay awake for a short while then driftred back to sleep fairly quickly. Soon after falling asleep I dreamt my room was shaking again! This time it was really difficult to wake up, even though I was fully aware I was dreaming.

When I woke up after the second room shaking dream I couldn't quite believe my mind. Now fully awake, I turned my bedside lamp on. It was 4:18am. I realised I hadn't actually woken up after the first room shake: I had just dreamt I'd woken up. This was seriously weird. Fairly Matrixy.

I had dreamt I was having a bad dream, then dreamt I'd woken up. I really thought I was awake and can remember the time I "woke up". I then dreamt I went back to sleep and had another dream, which I really woke up from.

I realise that's really difficult to understand (and possibly believe) but try to visualise it for a moment. I'll draw a diagram explanation later if I can be bothered.

Does anyone who understands sleep / dreams know what was happening to my brain? Has anyone had similar experiences? I'd had just 1 pint of beer and a coke. No drugs or anything, but I did have an odly tasting banana that afternoon.

I always thought I'd know if I was dreaming or not, especially if I thought I'd just woken up. But now I don't always know. I'm pretty sure I'm awake now. I need a good way of checking.

Maybe tonight I'll dream that I dream that I wake up. I hope not though.

Update: After reading wikipedia for a while, I've found it's not unheard of: False awakening.