Funny - I actually do exactly the same. I don't usually get to sleep these days till around 10 in the morning - some days even around noon!!

I've never had such terrible sleep habits before. I really need to get myself back to sleeping at night! Cause it's really hard to get to like the bank or anything this way...

And I have venetian blinds, but all they seem to do is stop me from seeing out. they're white and actually reflect all the sunlight up onto the ceiling, making the room seem even brighter. I can tell how bright it is even with my eyes closed, and I don't think that's a good way to sleep.

I remember a couple of SP experiences I had as a wee tyke, and they were very much like what you describe - I could absolutely swear I was wide awake and had my eyes open looking at my room. Everything looked exactly the way it should and was just the way it was when I went to bed. No weird distortions or anything. Then suddenly my robe (which was hanging on a hook in the open closet) came to life, walked out into the center of the room, and started talking to me! When it was done with it' little monologue everything just kind of faded back to normal, if I remember right the robe (which had tuned into a sort of dwarf wearing a floppy trench coat and big floppy hat) disappeared and soon I was awake, and it was like my eyes were open the entire time!!

I know people can sleep with their eyes open - my dog does it all the time!! I think the signal from the optic nerve supposedly is stopped from reaching the brain, or more properly still reaches it but isn't processed anymore since the dreaming shuts off all data from external sources. I don't know though, maybe sometimes a bit of it still gets through and affects what we dream about?

It's fascinating to hear about things like this and speculate about what's going on inthe brain as we sleep.