You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Maddie Sifai here with Shortwave reporter Emily Kwong.

And today, another listener question episode.

Yes, thank you for your questions.

We genuinely love trying to answer them.

Today we're hearing from Josh Smith from Orange, California.

All right, Maddie.

So Josh sent this fascinating note about these strange episodes he'd have at night, starting

when he was five years old where he'd wake up, but his body would remain frozen.

I don't like that.

It gets worse.

So these episodes really escalated when he was a teenager.

When his home life got really stressful.

There was this one night when he was about 16, he woke up in the pitch black.

I couldn't move my head, couldn't move my arms, my legs.

And I could sense there was a presence in the room.

And I started freaking out because I couldn't move, I couldn't speak.

He couldn't move at all?

Not at all.

But his eyes were open.

And after a minute or two, that presence he felt in the room started to float towards

him.

...