I used to suffer badly from sleepwalking.
It’s a strange thing to do; after the fact you remember what you did (and it seems strange in retrospect). However, when you’re doing it, everything seems perfectly normal.
The strangeness of your perception of the situation seems to be naturally, and nonchalantly, accepted by your brain.
I once cost my sister £150 because I thought I was going for a walk in the woods, stopping by a picnic area for a drink with friends.
In reality I had walked downstairs from the bar she was managing, broken through a locked door (of which I didn’t have the key) and poured myself a drink. Where did the cost come in? Weeeell, when I got through the door the alarm went off, and it cost £75 to reset this with alarm company. And I went walking in the woods with friends twice that evening.
I’ve since been able to train my brain, and wake myself up whenever I notice the signs (is that really a tree, or a door I’ve just broken through?).
However, what I’ve realised is that my brain (and possibly others too) is very good at telling stories to fill in the blanks well enough to actually alter the perception of what I see in front of me. And I don’t think I’m alone. It really fascinates me that the brain does this, and does this quite regularly.
I’ve been actively trying to lessen this effect, but I’ve also seen this happen with people in a communication starved environment; people make stuff up based on fleeting observation. How do I know? I’ve seen it happen a bunch of times.
And I’ve just done it in the last 3 days…