Sleepwalking? Hypnotic? In a trance?

Hello Everyone, I have 2 bearded dragons; Viper and Spyro. Something really strange just happened. And I am a little scared. I was out having dinner, and when I came home I noticed how funny Spyro was sleeping. You know that small platform at the opening you sometimes have in a terrarium? Yeah well she was sleeping upright against the glass on the platform. I know they can sleep in weird positions like that, she has before, and it's really cute. But when I was upstairs my mom called me and told me that Spyro had fallen off the platform and was totally confused and that she was "awake" but she wasn't. Not really. When I came downstairs my mom told me that she acted all triggered and crazy walking into the glass frantically a few times and climbing on the platform to take the same position again. My mom told me to put her on the ground so she could sleep peacefully, and not fall again. The strange thing was that she had her eyes open wide. You know like she was dead, not really looking at something. Really freaky. So she was in a trance? Or sleepwalking. She was still asleep but awake at the same time. She is really tame and pretty slow. But still I was a little afraid to touch her when she was looking like that. But I softly petted her anyway, to look what would haplen before I could grab her and place her on the ground. That was a mistake. The moment I touched her she jumped backwards and began walking into the glass again and then scrambling on the platform to yet again take the same position. I decided to let it be, but when I went to check an half hour later she still had her eyes open. I made a picture. This is so freaky, I have never seen this before. I read one post that was pretty similar to what happened with Spyro, but I couldn't find very much. I hope she's all right and she will be 'normal' again tomorrow

This is a picture of her in the "trancelike" state:

Maybe just fell asleep with its eyes open?
Reptiles are pretty good at playing dead sometimes. When they get stressed they can zone out...not sure if it's overstimulation that causes thier brains to shut down or if it's intentially playing dead though.
Not sure if that's what your seeing, just speculating.

They do dream, so I think she was having some kind of beardie dream or nightmare and this really freaked her out .

Rankins":31vep91o said:

Maybe just fell asleep with its eyes open?
Reptiles are pretty good at playing dead sometimes. When they get stressed they can zone out...not sure if it's overstimulation that causes thier brains to shut down or if it's intentially playing dead though.
Not sure if that's what your seeing, just speculating.

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I think it was something like that, she was abruptly shocked awake, and maybe that made her so stressful that she zoned out, I think you're also quite right with the dead part seeing as it was more of a primal instinct thing because when I touched her she freaked out, maybe in her 'trance' thinking I wanted to harm her. Still.. pretty weird I guess, Poor Spy she must of had a bad night. Luckily she is all back to normal now

Sounds like it was a bit spooky whatever it was. Zombie dragon....

Must have been a strange dream.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/04/29/these-dozing-dragons-could-change-how-we-think-about-sleep/?utm_term=.9a56d1fc20e4

Neat article!

A few nights ago Mystic flipped out. He was glass surfing to get out, I took him out & he made a mad dash across the couch, like he had seen ghost. He was frozen in place for hours, black Bearded and stiff. Very strange, he got so dark all over. He was like that the whole night & next day. His beard has turned black, he went to sleep early last night. I'm hoping he is ok today.

Terry15":1douxv3m said:

A few nights ago Mystic flipped out. He was glass surfing to get out, I took him out & he made a mad dash across the couch, like he had seen ghost. He was frozen in place for hours, black Bearded and stiff. Very strange, he got so dark all over. He was like that the whole night & next day. His beard has turned black, he went to sleep early last night. I'm hoping he is ok today.

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Yes strange indeed.. is he okay now??
Btw nice article, quite impressive! Bearded dragons are so cool

He's much better, back to normal. He's never been aggressive or even tried to bite.

That's really weird... I wonder what he was dreaming about??

Super cute article! I hope all our dragons have sweet dreams of relaxing on a sunny beach with a big wormy cocktail! :lol:

I had to come and add my story in!

My newest girl, Piper, did something like that awhile back. It actually happened a couple times and worried me as I'd never seen anything like it!

One night, I think she actually shat herself while she was sleeping and freaked herself out. She started running backwards (in it, of course) and when I'd get near to check on her she'd puff up and act scared.
She was scared throughout the night, but the next day she was fine (if not a mess from sleeping in her poo all night...).

So crazy to think they can have startled reactions to dreams.
I guess it's not much different than dogs and cats crying in their sleep. (My cat would sometimes get nightmares and whimper -- and of course there are the dogs dreaming of hunting.)