What is commonly referred to as a "sleeping movie" experienced during sleep?

A "sleeping movie" refers to the experience of dreaming. During sleep, particularly in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, vivid and detailed experiences occur in the form of dreams. These dreams can feel very real and often unfold like a narrative or movie, featuring various scenarios, emotions, and even sometimes familiar or strange characters. The brain is highly active during this phase, which contributes to the complexity and vividness of the dreams.

Dreams can serve various psychological and physiological purposes, such as processing emotions, consolidating memories, and problem-solving. Unlike hallucinations, which are perceptual experiences that occur in waking life without external stimuli, dreams occur in a state of altered consciousness. Nightmares are a specific type of dream that elicits fear and anxiety, while thoughts are mental processes that can occur both in and out of sleep but do not take the form of a narrative like dreams do. Thus, dreams are the experiences commonly characterized as "sleeping movies."