This morning I 'woke up' because I heard a noise in the hallway. I could hear someone walking about my flat putting things in a bag. I kept trying to reach for my boyfriend but I couldn't move. At the time I thought I was frozen with fear.
I heard the person walking towards my room so I shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep hoping they would take what they wanted and go but they came to the side of my bed. I could feel them standing there and hear them breathing and heard them unzipping their bag. Then they really slowly and gently put a cloth bag type thing over my head and I felt all the sensations of that and had that awful feeling you get when something really terrifies you. I could feel their breath on me as they were leaning over me. Then I managed to swing my arm up to to try and get the bag off and I woke up with a start because I'd actually swung my arm.
Also when I woke up I was in the exact position I'd been in during the dream. My heart was racing and I had that sick feeling in my belly you get when you've had a terrible shock and although my skin was warm I felt freezing and was shaking like a leaf. It took me a few minutes to be able to move my legs. I was shaking so badly I had to get up and put on my dressing gown and thick socks.
I've never had anything like this before but my boyfriend has said that almost every night for the past few weeks he's been woken by me whimpering or panting or crying in my sleep. He says he always gives me a cuddle and asks me what's wrong and I reply that I've had a bad dream but I can never remember any of this in the morning.
Any ideas what could be causing this? I'm quite frightened to go to sleep tonight, it was so awful.