GHOST DOG!

Yes, you heard correctly. Ghost dog. This is exactly what I convinced myself I had encountered a few mornings ago when I 'awoke' in my boyfriend's bedroom from something climbing on the bed and sitting on my legs. The sensation was exactly the same as when my dog at home climbs up and goes to sleep on my legs. But as the only canine pal my boyfriend had sadly met his doggy demise a couple of years back - there was absolutely no rational explanation for what had happened to me.

You might be wondering what I saw when this happened. The answer is nothing. I was completely paralysed no matter how hard I fought to sit up. It was actually a really odd experience. I went to sleep and when I woke up again a couple of hours later I was still convinced I had a phantom doggy pal.

Later, when my boyfriend arrived back from work I explained what had happened and he advised me to look up 'sleep paralysis'. My eyes were instantly drawn to this picture...

The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

- Picture from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I was very spooked by this, as I felt it depicted exactly what I had felt the other morning - except I thought a dog was sleeping on my legs. Obviously, I'd rather have a dog than a demon sharing my bed...

Anywho - upon some reading I have established that the phenomenon of sleep paralysis usually occurs when REM sleep is disrupted and comes at a transitional stage between wakefulness and rest, which makes sense as I had woken before 7am for a wee and gone back to bed.

No ghost doggys at all... :(