Here's an example:

When I was younger, I would have night terrors to the point that I would get out of bed crying. While that was happening, the things I would see around the house would start moving around and growing bigger and bigger to the point that I felt like I was suffocating. I would have to cover myself in a sheet on the couch in order to not see things happen. But once I take the cover off, I see it again. I suppose that could be explained based on my brain chemistry or it trying to deal with the night terror, but I saw things move with my own eyes.

Probably sleep paralysis tbh. Or it could be related to the fact that after waking up and going back to sleep, it primes your brain for more intense dreams than usual, and that could have led to you not realizing that you were dreaming.

When I was young I lived in a trailer in Yosemite where someone had died years back. One night I saw a shadowy figure in the kitchen when I went to the bathroom and did a double take to find no one there with my parents and sister in bed, but I could hear footsteps. Our neighbours got robbed the next day. Funnily enough I didn't put two and two together until years later and spent a long time thinking that the house was haunted.

Sleep paralysis is scary ****.

Yesterday I was sitting at my friends house on the front porch, when a couple of Bible thumpers walked up to us. One guy shook my hand and said his name and I reciprocated. He then told me that I "Looked familiar", and without batting an eye I said: "You must watch a lot of porn". He couldn't get the fuck out of their fast enough as I was calling out behind him, asking what his favorite parts were.

You heard him stare at you? You got good ears.

*there

You don't understand, the fuck was in their fast and they had to get it out ASAP.

It could be. But what explains being able to discuss it so clearly? I know that I can't remember **** if I dreamed it, but I can tell clear as day when something like this happens. And trust me, it's obvious that it's nothing super paranormal, but I also don't want to dismiss it if I know what I've seen is legit not a dream. I'm up for any sort of interpretation though, I'm not dismissing anything.

Could just be a stronger and more intense dream that's making you recall it so well.

And re your original story, check this phenomenon out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccadic_masking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronostasis

You can't tell by the sound of the footsteps where they have the front of their body facing?

That's what I'm leaning more towards. It'd make more sense, in the long run at least.