Sleep Paralysis

I have had this issue for as long as I can remember. My very first experience was when I was still living in Alabama. I remember waking up and just not being able to move, nothing wanted to do anything. My brain was screaming at any limb to do something but nothing was happening. I can't quite remember what eventually woke me up, but it was about 5am because Dad was up doing something and that was usually when he was up for work.

I've gone through these episodes on and off throughout the years and mainly can calmly either talk myself off the ledge of full blown terrifying fear or go into an extreme state of panic. I can say they almost have always happened where I have woken up from a deep sleep and then tried to fall back asleep.

Last night though... was one of my worst. I guess I'm writing about it just for a record for myself. One of those just in case in the future things. I've read up on this type of thing before and a lot of experts say this could be where abduction theories come from and I'm to say I believe them after last night.

I was just laying there watching Adult Swim as always and started to fall asleep. I am fairly certain that I was asleep since I really don't remember the first episode of Family Guy ending. At some point I "thought" I woke up and "thought" I was looking around at the room. The blanket was where it should be and I could vaguely hear the tv still going in the background but everything was silvery. The blankets folds where bright silver with black for the shadows but there was thousands of folds. Almost like a crystal pattern.

Now I'm not normally a nutcase, and as much as I've always been afraid of the dark, I've never had a reason to be afraid of the dark. I swear I saw something at the foot of the bed. Even typing this it brings the terror back. I started to scream, but not sound was coming out. I kept telling myself to scream as loud as possible so Joe would shake me awake, but nothing would come out. I did the only thing I could do, which was close my eyes again. (even though I'm not 100% certain my eyes were open or closed)

I opened them again and whatever the thing was was closer to me this time on the side of the bed and I swear to you it looked human yet not. I'm not sure if it was an alien or a really horrid fragment of my sanity, but it was there. I remember trying to scream again and feeling so defeated because nothing came out and all I could do was lay there. So I "closed" my eyes again. When I opened them it was right fucking there. Right next to me.

It touched me.

I woke up at this point screaming. Joe shoots up and holds my hyperventilating self and tries to talk me off the ledge of crying. I swear to god that thing touched me. I know it was probably just the sleep paralysis thing in motion but it touched me. I can still feel it, still see it.

Now I'm beginning to think I should see a sleep doctor. I've had some sleep walking episodes, I rarely sleep an entire night through, and have had vivid nightmares in the past. But that, that topped the cake. There was nothing to explain what had happened. I couldn't even tell Joe what happened, I just said I had a nightmare.

So there, think I'm crazy. I just want to know what that thing was and why it was there. WTF is my mind doing?