I had a similar experience to this last night. It was like a dream within a dream as well and just stopped short of lucid dreaming (which was unfortunate). I was talking to a friend and realised she had become two people both considered the same person, and I was like wait a minute what the hell... I have to tell the real you in real life about this because you have totally just alerted me to the fact I am dreaming!! So I knew I was dreaming, but when I tried to gain control of the dream, it was like the landscape warped and went crazy and locked me back in, and I realised that despite knowing I was dreaming I was incapable of controlling it... It was very strange.

I have been very unproductive and down in waking life, and I think possibly that this went into my dreams and left me feeling helpless there too. Not very nice :/