Can't explain the "dread." Not a "fear" to pinpoint. More of a cloud of apprehension that settles inside, or seems to well up from the solar plexus, up and out.
I wonder if it's a precognition of something bad? Or a residue of a past debacle? The dread multiplies because there is no reason, nothing to point to. That's part of it, the mystery. And in this sea of dreadness, waking/sleeping are the same thing.
Living in the state of dread.