You're hopeless. Kill yourself.

it means you need a man like me to protect you.

When you say you try to scream "but nothing happens" do you also feel in your dream that you're paralyzed? There's something called "Sleep Paralysis" and the "story" of feeling threatened may be a side effect of your shallow sleep-state mind trying to match the sensation to a context.

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

FWIW, my ex was a neuroscientist, and stuff like this fascinated her. During normal REM sleep there's a part of the brain that suppresses the connection between the cognitive centers and the motor centers. The speculation is that in sleep paralysis, this part of the brain isn't "waking up" as fast as the rest of the brain. When this part of the brain is lesioned in cats, the sleeping cats are observed to chase phantom mice and birds, get into phantom catfights, and (probably - speculation alert) make sweet sweet phantom kitty love.

As you say, its Friday.

It's the Man, baby! And, if he's there to do you harm, he's most certainly a Republican.

Your dream means one of two things:

1. The man you see in your dreams is a surrogate of Dawn Summers. Kill Dawn and your nightmares will disappear. If killing Dawn does not work then read step 2.

2. You have had a lot of uncertainties in your life the past two years. You dream is a reflection of your anxieties over those uncertainties. We all have recurring dreams during times of stress. Don't worry about it.

Your subconscious is telling you by way of your dreams that you are miserable, and yet you have yet to seek help.

You say you try to scream at the man in your dreams, but cannot. The man is not there to cause you harm, but is there to listen to your troubles. Yet, you cannot scream. You are afraid to let your troubles known!

When you figure out what really, really troubles you, and you confide in a friend (i.e. The Man in the dream) what that trouble is, then you will be able to scream again, as it were.

Make sense?

OH MY GOSH! If Mark is right the man is Peter!

Has your life been unsettled or in a state of upheaval or uncertainty?

My parents got divorced when I was 11 yrs. old, and I remember having dreams of malevolent strangers back then, and of being helpless/ unable to get away.

Good thing I wear the mask.

It's very obvious that you are sexually aroused by Sigmund Freud's mother. Either that or frequently eat Welsh Rarebit before going to bed.

I still laugh when I remember the time my wife woke up after the radio alarm had started, looked fearfully at the radio as the host's voice filled the room, turned to me and whispered in a frightened voice, "Is...is he talking to me?!?"