Nighttime experience as a child. Nightmare?

[Rainydaze]

I used to have nightmares all the time as a very young child and one really sticks in my mind, mainly because it was more of a feeling than a nightmare. I remember it being pitch black and feeling as though I was floating face down over the foot of my bed. I was agitated that I felt stuck and helpless.

I've been reading about depersonalisation and I'm wondering whether it could have been that. It felt unreal but real at the same time and just seemed so different to any other 'nightmares' I had (ghosts down the hallway, monsters at the window, etc.) Anyone else experienced anything like this when they were little? It only ever happened once but has always stuck with me and disturbed me.

[AphoticAtramentous]

Almost sounds like it could be a kind of out-of-body-experience, that is... if your body was presently seen on the bed whilst you floated like that. But it was apparently pitch black so I don't know. I haven't experienced it myself, that's all I can think of it being. There's certainly that 'not feeling real' element to it so. Sounds scary though.  Glad I haven't felt anything like that before.

[rbswan]

I had a few experiences like that when I was around 7-9 yo.  One I clearly remember was floating above the bed and I couldn't move my body.  I tried to wake myself up but I stayed floating.  It scared me so much that I shut my eyes tightly and tried to move even a finger but couldn't like I had sleep paralysis.  I finally moved and I was suddenly on the bed.  The room felt weird and I thought I was dead and maybe a ghost and was very scared the rest of the night.  I assume it was a very lucid dream or depersonalization but it feels so real to this day.   

The weirdest night time thing was during a time when things were really bad one night with my parents screaming and I knew it was about to escalate.  I was sobbing quietly in my room, face down, under the covers.  I sensed someone was in the room and looked up and a boy was sitting at the end of my bed with this strange hat, kind of floppy and old-style looking, just sadly smiling at me.  This scared me worse and I stuck my head under the covers.  When I had the courage to look again he was gone.  The weird thing was that my parents had just stopped their screaming and it didn't continue that night, which was rare.  I have always remembered that and I can vividly see the kids face in my head today.  I'm not sure if it was disassociation or my mind or a ghost.  I know I was definitely awake during that one.

[Andyman73]

Ummmmmmmm..........yeah....so many nightmares so many..reoccuring and never ending...so many....