Dreams of tension, sleep for relaxation

This morning I struggled to wake up because my dream had me so anxious, I really needed a break. Not only that I was so tense I could barely look from side to side. My shoulders were frozen with one tight rectangular muscle at the top of my back. So I stiffly walked as best I could into the saloni (family room) with Asproula (my dog companion) wildly herding me toward the balcony so she could bark at cats.
In my dream I had met a young gypsy boy who was ill. His parents weren't in the dream because they thought he was just pretending to be ill so he wouldn't have to work. He was successfully placed in foster care and the dream ended with a big banquet to celebrate his becoming healthy again. The boy was from Romania, the banquet was in a beautifully elegant taverna in Crete but the end must have been in Iowa because, just as I was beginning to relax from organizing these events, a huge blizzard hit and the boy became ill again. So I HAD to wake up or else I had this niggling feeling in my head the dream was going to start over again and become one cyclic never ending exhausting nightmare.
My husband was helping me out in this dream but the two days before I had actor boyfriends. On Monday, Jeremy Priven was my boyfriend. He was full of energy and we were always busy running around New York City or moving into a new apartment. Sunday morning just before I woke up my dream fellow was Robert Downey, Jr. He was a much more relaxed boy friend from what I can remember. I suspect I was having a whole series of actor-boy friend dreams but as soon as I started remembering them 'Poof' a new dream cycle.
No hugs or kisses in the dreams but we were definitely a couple planning and carrying out our plans together. They were fun dreams.
Don't other people relax when they sleep, aren't dreams supposed to work out our mental stresses subconsciously so our brain works better during the day, does anyone else have dreams that keep them so busy they have to spend five or six hours resting to leave the dream world behind?
Just wondering.