'Seeing' surroundings while sleeping?

[rNOW]

So I watched Leo's video on body awareness/relaxation and applied the technique. It is amazing and very relaxing.

BUT, weird things started happening. One such thing is - I notice that I wake up while still being asleep, as in mind awake, body asleep. Often times, I 'see' things in my room. The most prominent things in my room are the ceiling fan, the AC and the window and I happen to see them with my eyes closed in this mind-awake-body-asleep state. It doesn't seem like a dream, because they are exactly in the same location as I see them from my sleeping position. I could also read the temperature on the AC and then confirmed it when I 'woke up'. Another time in this state, I was staring at the window and thought I need to turn my head and the window turned along with my head, but I couldn't move my physical head because I was probably in this sleep-paralysis state. 

This usually lasts only a few seconds before I realize that my eyes are actually closed and then I freak out and start rationalizing it - "How in the world is this possible", or "AM I GOING BLIND OR CRAZY OR BOTH?" And that is when I break out of this state and wake up. 

Now I've heard of people who can see with their eyes blindfolded but that is a voluntary choice they can exercise while being awake, but this seems to be different? I do not think I consciously choose it, it just happens when I sleep after being extremely exhausted. 

Is this 'normal'?

[Phoenixx]

This also happens to me for a year or two and started to drive me insane, so I can totally relate to what you said. My guess is that it could be mental exhaustion or overthinking because these experiences occurred only when I was mentally aroused. So my explanation is that they are just some sort of lucid dreams because mind cannot exist outside of body as it is a product of the brain. I know that I'm just stating the obvious here, maybe I am wrong.

As for the experiences, sometimes I would see unusual things on the walls like spheres of light or feel some evil presence in the room. Then I would wake up semi aware searching for that "thing" just to realize that I was dreaming. Once I thought that I was looking out the window for a strange star moving. The star then flashed a bright light into my eyes that made me feel harassed or, at least, it didn't seem to be a welcoming sign. The interesting thing is that, when I woke up, I saw the star in the same spot. It was still though and there was nothing odd about it. Maybe I had my eyes opened while sleeping? Just trying to find a logical explanation.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Phoenixx

[rNOW]

@Phoenixx Yeah, you may be right, it usually when I'm exhausted, but I'm not sure if it's a lucid dream? I am not aware that I'm dreaming. I am aware that I'm 'awake'. I've tried thinking of people, places or things, and I don't get magically transferred there. Also I don't see any random things or lights or entities. I just see prominent things in my room and the ceiling, not even the details. The timing of the day is messed up and I cannot say what time of the day it is, l usually very different when I wake up. I'm also sure that my eyes are closed as I like to cover my eyes to get pitch blackness when I rest. The only difference I can say between thoughts/imagination/dreams and this type of vision is that the thoughts/imagination/dreams seem to occur at the back of my head (physically) and this visual thing is right in front of my eyes, like 1 mm from my forehead. 

[Osaid]

This is called sleep paralysis. Pretty interesting phenomena, should look into it.