Day 19 of Bloganuary and our prompt today is to write about something mysterious. The first thing that came to mind was something that happened to me a couple of years ago. I had difficulty sleeping for an extensive period of time. It was caused by my neighbour. He was alone and had constant friends over, which resulted in a lot of partying throughout the night. It affected the quality of my sleep, and I started to experience something weird, mysterious even… 

So I tried to scream ‘help’, but my throat wouldn’t produce a sound! After trying harder and harder, it worked! I screamed ‘HELP’ and wiggled my body back into movement. As soon as I could grab the light cord, I pulled it and the light went on. 

Gone was the dark shadow and gone was the threatening feeling. Pfff, what a relief. Okay, trying to fall back asleep again. But as soon as I did, I felt that same sensation again. A weird feeling going through my body, and seeing that dark shadow again.

This time it was under my bed. I saw an arm going towards my throat. I wanted to wake up, but I couldn’t! My body was paralyzed again and I couldn’t scream for help. After trying for several times, I managed to move my body again, scream for help and switch on the light! The light made it go away.

It was such a mysterious and scary thing to experience, I decided to do some research. What I had was called sleep paralysis. It can be caused by stress and I had it a couple of times over the years. Fortunately my life has become a lot less stressful and I am able to sleep again without any problems! 

Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis or something similar? Let me know in the comments below!