That's a really cool idea, you know how in dreams you relive moments, perhaps the areas are about events from your life.
I'm not sure how the repetitive sleeping is a great mechani, eg either you should keep resetting or you should try to stay awake for as long as possible.
Perhaps the game should be always ending like Majors Mask, where events happen regardless, and you have to do it in one playthorugh.
The Majoras Mask idea would be pretty good i think, and quite unique, there aren't enough games with the "Groundhog day" mechanic i believe, and with this mechanic you could focus on making a smaller map, but full of little things happening, maybe it could be easier to make and more interesting to play in this way, even fitting more the ideia of beggining without direction, since you have to discover what happens during the dream.
