At first, Alice had no control over the telepathic power she got from Kristen. Thus, when she nodded off, for just a second, she'd take the next person on her mind with her.
Like you said, Alice was beginning to avoid sleep due to losing Kristen (and likely additional fear from the deaths of Kristen's friends, Joey and Kincaid). So, when she nodded off in class, she took Sheila with her. After, it becomes a string of the same occurrence. Alice avoids sleep because of the loss of another friend, she sits in class, hoping her next friend won't suffer the same fate, and sadly THIS is exactly why they die: The next person's on her mind when she nods off comes along for the ride.
We see with Debbie that Alice begins to have some control over who comes in with her. Debbie was only brought in when Freddy purposefully scared Alice, making her want protection from yet another friend. With Dan, Alice eventually gains the ability to not just bring others into her dreams but enter the dreams of another, meaning she finally has control.
This is also why NOES5 happened the way it did. By that point, Alice had full control over her Dream Master powers (and, by extension, the telepathic power she got from Kristen). But, little did she know, being a Dream Master is heredity (it's implied her mother was the Dream Master before her) and Alice's unborn son gained her powers too. Also, a mother and unborn child's dreams are connected...for some reason. Thus, Freddy was able to hop over from Alice's dreams into Jacob's and use Jacob's inexperience with his developing powers to bring him more victims.
tl;dr: In NOES4 & 5, It's not about the OTHER kids falling asleep. All that needed to happen was for Alice and then Jacob to do so and bring someone along with them...
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