I have been a long time victim of sleep paralysis. I had my first experience as a young boy around five or six years old.

There's something super unsettling about waking up and not being able to move any part of your body.

You feel entirely and utterly vulnerable to everything.

You have no way of defending yourself or calling for help.

You're just a sitting duck, and anyone or anything can take advantage of it.

For years I would wake up in the middle of the night, unable to move a muscle to save my life.

But I didn't have to yet, as I did not experience anything scary at that time,

and all it took was for me to go back to sleep.

As you might think, it wasn't that bothersome to me back then, and honestly, I didn't think

much of it. Though as I got older, the paralysis got more frequent and more intense.

It only took a few years before I started hearing sounds

and seeing shadows as you hear often in stories of sleep

paralysis experiences.

But there is one that haunts me every day. I was about 15 years old and it was a cold winter night.

I love staying warm under the sheets as the cold air entered my room through the crack in my window. The feeling of warmth in an otherwise

cold environment is somehow soothing to me and it helps me sleep.

This night was no different.

I was snuggled up under my blanket as I drifted into a comfortable sleep.

It didn't feel like more than a few seconds before I opened my eyes again,

after feeling the cold winter air on my skin.

I managed to look down at my body, being unable to move anything but my eyes, only to see that my

blanket had disappeared, and there was no warmth protecting me from the biting cold that

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