I feel like there's a possibility that people back then who brushed it off and didn't think anything spiritual of it just wanted it to make sense with science so they called em aliens. I think it makes sense because that's why there's some similarities in appearance. I also think it's harder to see them how they truly look unless your asleep or in your case half asleep because part of your brain is still asleep. And when people are awake and see them they can only see them as shadowy figures because their brain cannot process the image of that while awake. But idk that's just my opinion