My dream getting interrupted?

[Akaine]

Has anyone ever had their dream actually get interrupted? I mean, your dream just completely stops and something else happens instead? That's what happened to me.

I remember the dream starting out pretty normal, starting as many of my other dreams had. In my house. I walked around, just examining things and looking around slowly, as if I didn't know the place. It was clearly familiar to me, it was my house. But a weird feeling of unfamiliarity and uncertainty filled my gut as I looked around. Then, the dream completely stopped. It simply faded to black and I was shown a face instead. I didn't know the face. But I knew that it was a man. It was a still image, a photo, perhaps taken by a really old camera; since it was black and white and it was pretty aged looking. I heard the words of a man, but they were incredibly low and I couldn't understand them.

I quickly woke up after that, covered in sweat. I was breathing heavily. Whatever had happened, it really freaked me out. What exactly did happen, though? What did that mean? Any help would be really appreciated. I never had a dream quite like that before.

[- anna -]

Welcome to the Forum Akaine 

I do not perceive it as that your dream completely stopped and that something else happened instead, for your feeling of unfamiliarity and the symbol of black carry the same meaning in a dream.

The house in your dream is a representation of yourself and so are all the things you examine in your house.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/

When you dream of a house, you are meeting a hugely important and many sided representation of yourself. It is both many faceted and multidimensional.

Each dream image holds enormous data, emotional response, and created patterns of behaviour. So in considering the house in your dream you need to remember you are in touch with a full surround databank of fantastic information about you, your past and your possibilities. You can interact with this information by exploring it in the right way. http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/

and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Project

Every image and person in your dreams is an expression of your own life process. As such it is alive and intelligent and is something sent to help you. A dream is like a projection from a movie projector, except that you are the projector.

Everything you see as outside you is coming from you, your emotions, your fears, your beliefs, your joys and explorations and are all you, clothed in the dream images and drama. So when you dream of someone you should not feel you are dreaming about that actual person. As with most dreams, the person in the dream is not the person themselves, but is a collection of memories, associations and feeling about him or her.

In the dream you are becoming aware of still unknown aspects of yourself and it makes you feel uncertain.
That is a response we all have to deal with when we meet these unknown aspects of ourself.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Reaction

We are all subject to the forces of growth – it is one of the main functions of life. But because growth is a push toward change, change that we do not want to face, we often resist it, often without realising we are doing so. Psychiatrist say we have resistances to meeting the uncomfortable aspects of our self.

I see the dream fading to black as another way of helping you "see" that you were looking at parts of your inner world which are still unconscious to you:
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/black/

This is the colour of the night, and so because it links with absence of light, opens us to what we can’t see or deal with in the dark – in what is ‘in the dark’, unconscious – within or around us. It is the experience, like sleep, in which the ego diminishes or melts back into unconsciousness. This relates to all those things you repress or avoid feeling or being aware of in yourself and life. So the dream will probably include threats of some sort, or what is unknown, hidden or avoided. So this relates to your hidden fears or past hurts that have been buried and remain unconscious. In African traditions black is the colour of night, death, excrement, and illness.

And dreams often express themselves in a dramatic way, to make sure that you pay attention to them, which you did 

I quickly woke up after that, covered in sweat. I was breathing heavily. Whatever had happened, it really freaked me out. What exactly did happen, though? What did that mean?

See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/drama-2/

You did not know the face that you faced and I see it as an old memory - very old even - which still asks to be looked at so you can digest it and integrate it.
See  http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/man/  and

http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/digest/

Digestion is a very important function not just for our body but also for our mind and spirit. I have seen people become very ill in mind because they have not digested their experience or what they have learnt at school or the lessons and experience of a relationship long gone. And digestion is a Life function. Life in us is often greatly overlooked and our dreams are one way of showing us how we have not surrendered our life experience to that function.

and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/integration-meeting-oneself/

This memory and so this part of yourself does try to connect with you and I trust that you can learn to perceive that as helpful - rather than freaking out - when you understand and accept that the dream is trying to help you.

Anna :-)