Hmm ok at the moment of the growl when he's sleeping and someone touches him. Gosh, see I am trying to give a solution to the entire problem of his fear. Just ONE of the growling incidents are when he's sleeping. There are numerous other situations when he growls and lots of other times when he's afraid. Fear is his issue. Not growling. He's growling as a means of communicating his fear.
So the solution to his fear is behavior modification. That will take care of his growling. Period. (if done correctly, systematically, and with lots of time and practice)
Ok so what would I do if he growled at me when he's been startled awake. I would make this situation happen again and again. But to modify just this one thing I would have a good food reward handy and (while hes awake) touch him on the flank with the word "touch!", then when he looks or even startles IMMEDIATELY give a food reward before he even has time to process what is going on. The touch, your voice command and the food should happen (nearly) at the same time. After practicing this over and over and over, and when you KNOW he's understanding that touching his flank he gets a peice of cheese or hotdog. I want him to think the touch means hot dog, not startle. Repeat training with other body parts, head, leg, tail, belly.
Then you start when he's sleeping, next to you. Have him on leash and put in a movie and have your food reward handy. Watch your movie, wait till he loses interest and falls asleep. Gently say Touch! then touch, then shove that food in his mouth before he can consider growling at you. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is behavior mod, but only for this scenario. It doesn't touch on the role leadership plays in behavior mod, and I can't stress enough that roll that can be learned and solidified through Behavior Mod.
The first thing you can do is stop touching him when he sleeps though, seriously. If you want a fix for this you have to do some pre-training like i outlined.