しかも夢の中でトイレに行こうとしていて、旦那さんがトイレのドアを閉めさせてくれない夢でした。

[theseus_]

Context:
昨日の夜は早めに寝たので、早く目が覚めてしまいました。二度寝したけど、トイレに行きたくて目が覚めました。しかも夢の中でトイレに行こうとしていて、旦那さんがトイレのドアを閉めさせてくれない夢でした。本当に嫌な夢でした。

I don't quite understand the structure of this sentence.

I guess the first half of that sentence "しかも夢の中でトイレに行こうとしていて" means "and in my dream, I want to go to the toilet".
The second half of the sentence "旦那さんがトイレのドアを閉めさせてくれない夢でした" means "it is a dream that my husband prevents me from closing the toilet's door".

The directly translated sentence looks a bit strange, is this a common structure in Japanese?

Ps.
If "行こう" means "want to go", what's the meaning of the following "~としていて"？

 

[KLAUSED]

The directly translated sentence looks a bit strange, is this a common structure in Japanese?

It sounds fine to me. What part of it do you find "a bit strange"? That "夢の中で” and ”夢でした” appear in the same sentence?

”夢の中で" makes it clear that it was in the person's dream and not in waking reality that she/he was trying to go to the bathroom.

 

[SoLaTiDoberman]

It sounds fine to me, too, although the sentence might be regarded as including 重複表現 such as 馬から落ちて落馬して by someone who belongs to Grammar Nazis or 文法警察.

"しかも夢の中でトイレに行こうとしていて、旦那さんがトイレのドアを閉めさせてくれない夢でした。" might be better for those people.
But as KLAUSED said, I think the original sentence is easy to understand and completely fine.
Translating it into English might be weird because the word order is different between the two languages.
(I know nothing about Chinese.)

1. Moreover, it was a dream in which I was trying to go to the bathroom and my husband wouldn't let me close the bathroom door.
-->1' Moreover, it was a dream in the dream I was trying to go to the bathroom and my husband wouldn't let me close the bathroom door. ????

Both 1 and 1' are translations from the original Japanese, but you may find 1' seems odd because "dream" becomes double and seems redundant. However, if you change the second "in the dream" to "in which" (1' ---> 1) you wouldn't feel anything weird, would you?

 

[theseus_]

Thank you all!
As you said, my slight strange feeling comes from having both "夢の中で" and "夢でした" in one sentence.
After reading everyone's explanations, I basically understood it now.

I noticed that everyone translated "~としていて" as "be trying to do", I also found an explanation that "A＜動詞意向形＞+としている" means "もうすぐAする" or "今Aするところだ", so "もうすぐAする" or "今Aするところだ" can be seen as "be trying to do"?

 

[gengo]

...can be seen as "be trying to do"?

Yes, that is the most common translation of ～ようとする.

私の車を盗もうとした = He tried to steal my car
この時計を修理しようとしている = I'm trying to fix this watch

昨日の夜は早めに寝たので、早く目が覚めてしまいました。二度寝したけど、トイレに行きたくて目が覚めました。しかも夢の中でトイレに行こうとしていて、旦那さんがトイレのドアを閉めさせてくれない夢でした。本当に嫌な夢でした。

My version:
I went to bed early last night, so I woke up early. I went back to sleep, but woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. In my dream, I was trying to go to the bathroom, but my husband wouldn't let me close the bathroom door. It was a horrible dream.

 

[theseus_]

Thanks for gengo's explanation and complete translation, it is very helpful to me.