In this song, Nicholas is describing the dreams he has been having of his past life. In a past life, he was a young woman named Victoria on the 1920s. That is why "there's a girl in the mirror" in his dream, because the dream is actually a "scene from a memory" of Victoria's life and he is "looking through her eyes" and sees Victoria when he looks in the mirror.
In the dream, he is in a setting both familiar (as Victoria) and unfamiliar (as Nicholas). He says his soul is torn in two because he is experiencing this scene from memory as both personalities simultaneously. This is why he experiences uncanny, strange deja vu.
There is a pun on the word "sleeper", when Victoria/Nicholas says, "I'm not the one the Sleeper thought he knew." Since Nicholas is literally sleeping, he finds that he has a past life he never knew of, so he finds a new aspect to his soul. The other Sleeper is the character named Julian, who is Victoria's lover. This is only the second lyrical song on the album, so Julian hasn't been introduced to the story yet, but it is eventually revealed that Victoria had a secret hidden from Julian (she had a love affair with his brother, Edward "The Miracle") so that's what she means when she says she's not the one The Sleeper thought he knew.
This song also explains that Nicholas knows there is something very mysterious about these dream memories, and also it says that Victoria seems like she has something to tell him.
The album notes show that italicized lyrics are in the past, non-italicized lyrics are in the present. It also states which character is singing each part, since all characters' words are sung by James LaBrie and it can get confusing. But in this song, I think large parts of the lyrics are being told from the point-of-view of both Nicholas and Victoria simultaneously, so the same words can be interpreted differently if you think it's Nicholas or Victoria speaking. Hence why Nicholas feels his soul torn in two.
In this song, Nicholas is describing the dreams he has been having of his past life. In a past life, he was a young woman named Victoria on the 1920s. That is why "there's a girl in the mirror" in his dream, because the dream is actually a "scene from a memory" of Victoria's life and he is "looking through her eyes" and sees Victoria when he looks in the mirror.
In the dream, he is in a setting both familiar (as Victoria) and unfamiliar (as Nicholas). He says his soul is torn in two because he is experiencing this scene from memory as both personalities simultaneously. This is why he experiences uncanny, strange deja vu.
There is a pun on the word "sleeper", when Victoria/Nicholas says, "I'm not the one the Sleeper thought he knew." Since Nicholas is literally sleeping, he finds that he has a past life he never knew of, so he finds a new aspect to his soul. The other Sleeper is the character named Julian, who is Victoria's lover. This is only the second lyrical song on the album, so Julian hasn't been introduced to the story yet, but it is eventually revealed that Victoria had a secret hidden from Julian (she had a love affair with his brother, Edward "The Miracle") so that's what she means when she says she's not the one The Sleeper thought he knew.
This song also explains that Nicholas knows there is something very mysterious about these dream memories, and also it says that Victoria seems like she has something to tell him.
The album notes show that italicized lyrics are in the past, non-italicized lyrics are in the present. It also states which character is singing each part, since all characters' words are sung by James LaBrie and it can get confusing. But in this song, I think large parts of the lyrics are being told from the point-of-view of both Nicholas and Victoria simultaneously, so the same words can be interpreted differently if you think it's Nicholas or Victoria speaking. Hence why Nicholas feels his soul torn in two.