To ask what this was?!

[BrokenPogoStick]

I know I’m going to sound really silly but I’ve never been more scared in my life. Woke up at about 4 last night and I remember very clearly a woman standing over my bed, I could describe her now. She was getting closer and closer to me before I shat it and ran downstairs and slept on the sofa with all the lights on.

The only thing is I’ve been trying to convince myself it’s a dream but it felt so real. Running down the stairs (which obviously happened when I was awake) feels just as real as seeing the woman. I can’t remember much before but I knkw I was sitting up and looking back now I can’t remember waking up so must’ve been sat up for ages. I thought it could’ve been a lucid dream but I was perfectly able to scream/move.

I know how stupid it is but I can’t ask DH cos he will either scare me more or laugh at me so I thought I’d turn to the wise women of mumsnet.

Please help! I think I will be sleeping on the sofa for the next month.

Like Whiskyowl mine was a dark evil presence in the corner of my room, I was terrified but couldn't move, tried to scream but no sound would come out... it was over quickly but properly scary!

I think from reading and having watched programmes on it,a black figure is the most common, especially some of you describing it crawling onto the bed and you can feel the weight of them,some describe it as a pressure on the chest aswell

It blows my mind when you read up on it and how You're brain and body work to cause it

*your

I had exactly this a couple of weeks ago. Sounds ludicrous, it was a huge stuffed green bird, all lit up, right next to my bed, like a Sesame Street monster. I sat up doing a weird soundless scream over and over, and terrified DH. Our kids thought it was hilarious when I told them.

I have very lucid dreams. I can't believe they're not real.

I have sleep paralysis and get visited by the "night hag" very regularly. I'm used to it/her now but it's always terrifying.

I wonder why people never see nice things like pink fluffy unicorns or angels when they have sleep paralysis? It is always scary, nightmarish images. Just shows how fucked up our brains are!

I saw a camouflaged WWIi solider staring down at me from the foot of my bed once. Apparently the correct procedure to remove him was to giggle nervously and pull smthr bed covers over my head. Was very, very real though.

I know exactly where the image I see comes from - I read Silence of the Lambs when I was 17 and its how I imagined the serial killer hanging the young woman on a hook! I created my own nightmare!

Another saying sleep paralysis I suffer from it it is so frightening, even when you know it's not real. Our brains are funny things.

I see my 3 yr old standing by my bed every now and then. She's not there! Weirdly it's only her, not the other two. But I've always seen a lot of things is a half asleep state so now I just sit up, wave my arm through her to make sure it is a dream and then go back to sleep.

I had this when pregnant with DS. It was so real it terrified me. Like yours it was a woman. I slept under the window and I'd lifted my hand to move the curtain, only when my hand came back down it stopped on a woman breast.
Sounds hilarious now, ghost boobs. But at the time I could feel her nipple touching the palm of my hand. I was completely frozen, couldn't move or shout or even open my eyes to see what was there. Suddenly she pulled back, my hand fell to the bed and thats (I assume) what woke me.

Happy to report 24 years on I've not been troubled again by ghost tits. But bloody hell did that give me a scare. Never had another dream like it happily. I put it down to hormones at the time.

I agree with those who say it's probably sleep paralysis - everything you've described would fit.
Not sure about it being a lucid dream - by definition, a lucid dream means that you're aware that it's a dream, so you would know you're in your "dream realm" no matter how real it feels.