Hi defdegree.

The first thing you talked about, where you are awake but can't move and sometimes hear voices or see things, is called sleep paralysis. It happens because when you fall asleep, your body enters temporary paralysis so you don't act out your dreams physically and maybe injure yourself or people around you. With sleep paralysis, your body and mind go out of synch. Either you become paralyzed before you go completely unconscous, or you start to wake up before the paralysis wears off. It is not uncommon. You can hallucinate a bit because you're not really fully awake. I have experienced it, as well as Maljonic and some other people who have posted here. By the way, yours is a classic case. This is the first time someone has posted here with a strange dreaming/sleep experience and I could tell right away exactly what it was, without having to think about it. It makes sense that it happens to other members of your family, since your brains probably work similarly, and may have the same little 'glitches.'

I think it's great that you were able to dream lucidly the first time you tried it.