I have just been informed that while I'm sleeping and there is a slight disturbance my eyes will suddenly become wide open. I do not remember this at all and I am pretty sure I never was actually wide awake at this time. How is this possible? Is this common?

I don't know about the wide open eyes...[seems odd to me...] but those eye movement <disturbances> are natural. It's called Rapid Eye Movement <REM> and is the stage of sleep where you dream. [You don't dream through the entire process of sleep like some believe.]

I heard somewhere that you actually dream in short repeated intervals. So you dream for a little then stop, and then start dreaming again.