Woken by vivid dreams. Hot, thirsty, high pulse

[Berto420]

Over the past three years I have been suffering from what I think might be a sleeping disorder. In that three year period the problem has gradually developed from occasional (say once a week) disturbances, to four or five nights a week.
The symptoms are as follows:
Being awoken from vivid dreams (not nightmares, mostly just vivid) somewhere between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning after going to bed around 10.00 to 10.30 the previous night.
The symptoms on being awoken by the dream include – high pulse rate, hot, thirsty and griping in the stomach causing flatulence.
It then takes me about half an hour to “calm down”. On returning to sleep the same thing happens again (different dreams) approximately every hour until it is time for me to get up.
I've been to my Doctor a number of times about the problem and he and I have tried to eliminate what could possibly be causing this. I have tried going off the Statins that I was taking but there was no change.
I have also been taking the anti-depressant Paroxetine (10 mg per day) for the past seven years. In an effort to establish whether this medication might be causing the problem, I went off it. There was an immediate change for the better with some waking up from dreams but none of the symptoms mentioned in the second dot point above. Much to my frustration the problem has gradually reappeared over the past few months. This leads me to believe that while the anti-depressant medication was in some way responsible it is not the underlying cause.
Does anyone out there recognise these symptoms and if so I would welcome your advice.