There is a certain comfort in discussing frightening experiences after they have happened. By daylight, we can consider explanations, compare stories and perhaps even laugh about how scared we were. In the middle of the night, when you feel something pressing against you in a room where you should be alone, that comfortable distance disappears.
During a recent hotel stay, I had an experience that left me frightened and unsettled. Even now, I cannot say exactly what happened. There is a possible scientific explanation, and there is the interpretation some people would place on it from a spiritual perspective. What I can describe with certainty is how it felt.
A restless night and an unexpected presence
I had been sleeping badly. At some point, I assumed I must have drifted off, although I had the distinct impression that I was still awake. That uncertainty is an important part of the story: looking back, I cannot confidently identify the moment when sleep ended or wakefulness began.
Then I sensed and saw a figure in my room.
Before I could make sense of that, I felt something sit on the bed. Next came a much more disturbing sensation, a very large body pressing up against me.
It is difficult to convey how unsettling that was. A figure glimpsed during a restless night might be something you could dismiss afterwards as a dream. The feeling of a body against you is harder to brush aside emotionally, even when you recognise that there may be a perfectly ordinary explanation.
I opened my eyes, and I could still feel it. Then I switched on the light.
There was no one there.
When I looked at the time, it was 3.30am.
Does the time make a difference?
For some people, that detail would immediately suggest the “witching hour”. In paranormal discussions, the early hours of the morning are often associated with spirits and the belief that the veil between the living and the dead is thinner.
That is a belief, rather than something we can establish as fact. Seeing 3.30am on a clock does not tell us what caused an experience. Nevertheless, when something has already frightened you, the time can become part of the story you tell yourself about it.
Given my interest in mediumship and the paranormal, I understand why someone might interpret what happened as a spirit encounter. But I do not want to turn an unsettling experience into a definite claim simply because it fits a familiar supernatural narrative.
The honest answer is that I do not know exactly what happened in that moment or whether anyone was physically there at all.
The space between sleeping and waking
One possible explanation is a sleep-related hallucination. The NHS notes that hallucinations can happen as someone wakes up or falls asleep, and that they can involve feeling things as well as seeing or hearing them. A restless night therefore provides relevant context for what happened.
The term hypnopompic describes an experience occurring as someone wakes; hypnagogic refers to one occurring while falling asleep. Because I was unsure whether I had drifted off or was waking again, I cannot confidently say which would apply to me.
What makes this explanation worth considering is the uncertainty I felt about my own state of wakefulness. I thought I was awake, but I also believed I must have been asleep. The experience happened somewhere around that boundary.
Knowing that such experiences can occur does not necessarily make them less frightening at the time. When you feel something sitting on the bed and then pressing against you, you are responding to an immediate sensation. You are hardly likely to pause for a calm assessment of sleep science before reaching for the light.
An explanation does not erase the fright
For me, the most memorable part was that the sensation continued after I opened my eyes. That was what made the experience feel so convincing and so intrusive.
Of course, feeling awake is not proof that every sensation has an external cause. But there is a difference between understanding that afterwards and feeling reassured while it is happening.
I can consider a sleep-related explanation without minimising how scared I was. Equally, I can acknowledge that some people would interpret it spiritually without presenting their interpretation as evidence.
That seems particularly important when we share personal paranormal stories. There is no need to fill every gap or settle every question. Sometimes the most accurate account is simply: this is what I experienced, this is the context, and this is what remains uncertain.
The following night
By daylight, I could consider the experience more calmly and think about the possible explanations. When bedtime came around again, however, I was rather less interested in analysing it and considerably more interested in locating the light switch.
So yes, the following night I slept with the light on. It was a very literal case of Lights On Still Scared.
But perhaps, if it was a spirit, I had misunderstood his intentions. From the size and feel of the presence, my impression was of a rather portly gentleman. Perhaps all he wanted was a cuddle.
A touching thought in daylight. At 3.30am, I would have preferred an introduction first.
And if he had anything else in mind, he would at least have had to buy me dinner, although, as a happily married woman, I’m afraid he’d still have been out of luck. Being a spirit doesn’t mean you can forget your manners!