foreign this happened on a night just like every other I was still just a kid and was just starting high school at the time my parents had sent me to bed and then gone to bed themselves in their room on the other side of the house although I was supposed to be sleeping I had a presentation due tomorrow and I needed to have the words memorized of course being the kid I was I wasn't fully prepared I cared about my grades as did my parents but procrastination was something I struggled with I sat in my
bed reading the script over and over trying my best to memorize the whole thing as fast as possible after a while though it was late and I knew I needed to sleep I shoved my schoolwork off the bed and laid under the covers closing my eyes I felt confident in the first section of the presentation but the last section I could barely remember and was worried about losing grasp of it overnight so as I laid there I began reciting the words in my head over and over the ending paragraphs of my presentation I lost track
of time having not even opened my eyes once for what seemed like 20 or 30 minutes of reciting in my head now feeling more confident in myself I figured I was finally okay to go to sleep I continued delay in the same position for another few minutes before I was startled by a soft sound right in front of my bed by the closet I opened my eyes quickly looking straight down the edge of the bed the room was pitch black but in the darkness I could see a figure standing by my closet I couldn't make
out its features but it was tall and standing still immediately at the site of this my heart started racing and I tried to scream as loud as I could but my mouth wouldn't move I tried to get up and run but my body wouldn't move either it was as if I could feel myself stuck on the inside of a shell trying to push my way out but nothing was working the more I tried to struggle inside the more it felt like a large weight sat on my chest making me struggle to even breathe as I
couldn't open my mouth the only thing I could do was look at this figure ahead of me I was absolutely horrified never having experienced anything like this before I thought that maybe I was in a nightmare but it was all too real I knew I was not asleep then I began wondering if I was paralyzed would I be this way forever but these thoughts were overrun by the immediate danger of the figure in front of me after a minute of terrifying anxiety the figure began to move slowly walking to the end of my bed as
it approached I could hear my heart beating rapidly in my blood pumping through me intensely I tried everything to move and scream and run but I was frozen as it reached the bed I still could not see its face I could tell it was there but it was like a dark shadow was casting over it covering all of its features I wanted to cry or wake up or anything to end this awful night but after it stood there for another few seconds it put its long arms on the bed and began crawling towards me slowly
moved over my body still with a shadow covering its face before stopping right above my head my eyes wide open and with fear surging through me a long second past of total silence for the figure quickly leaned his face directly in front of mine screaming with its mouth wide open and staring into my eyes then in an instant it vanished gone just like that the screams the figure everything all went silent and disappeared as I laid there shocked and terrorized I felt my hand shaking then as if it never even happened I was able to
move again I leaned forward and looked around frantically still unsure of the experience I just had being just a kid I began wondering if demons were real and that's what I just saw I wondered if what I had just experienced was actually there or if all of it was just a hallucination when this happened it was the late 1980s so I couldn't just look it up and see what it was plus I was too scared to tell anyone of it thinking they may send me to some mental hospital or something so I went 15 years
and not knowing what happened that night it wasn't until I was driving home from work one day and had the radio on that I finally learned the truth the host was talking about an experience he had on a podcast type show and his description was disturbingly similar to mine the radio show was still going on by the time I reached my home so I stayed in my car while listening intently he continued explaining his terrifying encounter until the very end when someone asked him what he thinks really happened after a pause he finally spoke the
answer I'd been searching for all these years and said that it was something horrible and terrifying called sleep paralysis I've been experiencing sleep paralysis ever since I could remember since it happened so frequently I thought it was normal and harmless and my parents assured me the same I never had any hallucinations or anything I would simply just wake up randomly in the middle of the night and only be able to open my eyes and look around it would always be a little freaky as I'd want to pull the sheets over my head to hide but
was unable to anyway there was a single experience that I had that really creeped me out and I still think about it today I was 11 at the time and it was a school night after a nice weekend at nine o'clock my parents made me get ready for bed and turned off all the lights as I got comfortable holding my plushy doll between my arms then just like any other night I fell asleep I never knew why my brain would wake me up at night leaving me paralyzed and conscious but as dumb as this may
sound the common reason seemed to be no reason at all however this night when I woke up something felt different I was more worried than usual in only a few seconds after opening my eyes I heard movement below me from downstairs I had no way of seeing what time it was but I knew my dad would stay up late sometimes so I tried to calm myself but the movement became more clear revealing soft footsteps coming up the stairs very slowly even as a kid I knew the difference between the sound of someone casually walking up
the stairs and someone walking up quietly and carefully I began to panic a bit more in my mind though still trying to hush my thoughts as the footsteps approached my bedroom door and stopped now my parents always warned me that hallucinations are a common side effect of sleep paralysis and although I had never experienced them before one day I was sure to they described it as something like a nightmare that just feels real but when it happens I just have to keep telling myself that it isn't real and it will be over soon just like
any other dream so laying there immobile I closed my eyes and repeated in my head that this was just a dream and nothing was real after a minute went by I opened my eyes again and felt a sense of relief as I was sure the nightmare had ended that was until my bedroom door slowly creaked open I was practically holding my breath in fear as I watched what looked like a man walk into my room slowly I closed my eyes again hoping to get this awful nightmare to end I listened as the soft footsteps on
the wooden floors approached the side of my bed I was too scared to even open my eyes and continue to repeat in my head that this was just a dream and I needed to wake up I felt the man breathing on my shoulder as my doll was taken from my side then the footsteps faded away down the end of the room I slightly opened my eyes still horrified and got a glimpse of the man walking away with my doll enclosing the door quietly even then I still couldn't move I just closed my eyes again and
tried to control my emotions but it was hard every awful thought I could think of was going through my head all at once I don't even remember falling back asleep when I woke in the morning though I was much more at ease I sat up and looked around making sure this wasn't some weird dream again everything seemed normal until I looked at my side the doll wasn't there all the emotions suddenly hit me again and I began crying as I ran to my parents room and woke them up they didn't seem too surprised when I
explained myself having expected something like this to happen my dad got up though and came to my room to help me look for my doll he assumed I had just misplaced it and it would turn up quickly like it usually does but strangely it didn't still not worried at all my dad began searching the rest of the house he knew how much the doll meant to me and probably just wanted to make me feel better about my nightmare but we still couldn't find it in fact we never did I had never experienced sleep paralysis until
a few months ago I'd always felt lucky listening to other people's stories about it it sounded horrifying but my luck ran out apparently I think it was because I was insanely stressed or anxious as I'd only had it a few times after that and then it stopped the worst one though was the first time I had fallen asleep pretty quickly but I have a habit of waking up around the same time every night to go to the bathroom tonight was no different except when I woke up I was so tired I decided to hold it
and just go back to bed I was trying to fall back asleep when I realized I couldn't move this has never happened before so my heart started to race and that's when I heard the door Creak open I was laying on my side with the blanket mostly on my face so I couldn't see anything I remember feeling so scared and frightened and then I heard voices two male voices talking on the other side of my bed I tried to yell for help from my roommates but I couldn't I couldn't speak at all this made me
even more anxious and my heart started pounding even harder I felt like I couldn't breathe these people that were in my room started moving to my side of the bed I could hear them speaking to each other but couldn't understand what they were saying I kept my eyes closed and hoped they thought I was asleep and would just take whatever they were here for and then leave only thought in my mind was that they were robbers it all felt so real and I even wondered why my dog didn't bark or how I didn't hear anything
downstairs I'm a light sleeper after all I kept my eyes shut and tried to remain calm but one of them felt so close I could hear him breathing right next to me he then whispered something as if talking to me I heard them walk away and then the door slammed shut I still couldn't move so I laid there until I fell asleep what's even weirder is that night I had a dream that I got up after they left to check if they stole my money and they had I dreamed that I woke my roommate up
and told him everything check the video cameras and saw two men go into my room and walk up to me then we went downstairs to ask our other roommates if they saw anything but when we went down there they were already on the phone with the police as our living room TV was gone and everything was a mess I've never had such a vivid dream in the fact that it picked up right where my sleep paralysis left off was even weirder obviously the next morning when I woke up I checked to see if everything was
still there and it was nothing was on the video cameras but I swore that it felt so real and I was sure I was awake it was the strangest experience of my life after that night I had a few moments where I couldn't move or breathe it would hear the door open or the door of a different room close I always sleep on my side so I've never actually seen any figures like a lot of other people do so in that way I'm lucky but having auditory hallucinations at night is almost more horrifying as you
can't look to see what's going on you just have to listen and hope that whatever it is doesn't actually exist otherwise you may not be as lucky as I was thank you [Music]
