The scientific term is Pavor Nocturnus....
...and the fear it produces is incomparable to anything I've ever experienced.

I'm asleep, basically. But I don't know this when it happens. Please remember that as you continue to read. All I know is I'm lying in bed, completely paralyzed from my head to my toes. And then they come. 'They' are the barely-glimpsed demons that I catch in the dark through the needle-like gaps in my eyelids that it takes every ounce of strength in my body to force open. They creep, at first, around my bed; clawing at the covers and whispering to each other. The whispering gets louder as they circle. They have eyes of fire and feathers on their heads. They appear to be discussing me and, in doing so, getting angry. As they get angry they start to beat, claw and kick me. I still feel the blows despite the physical paralysis. I want to scream but I can't. The covers are removed completely and the whispers turn to screams - other-wordly shrieks of malicious, hateful intent. With every fibre, sinew and muscle in my body I'm trying to move; to run or defend myself. But I can't. I can feel tears rolling down my face. I can feel sweat on my face. But I can't move an inch. I am, certainly, about to die in a most horrific way. Sometimes I'm hauled on to the floor or thrown against a bedroom wall. Sometimes I'm just set-upon and torn to pieces where I lay, stricken and immobile. But the savageness of their attack, the acrid smell of death upon their breath and their terrifying, dripping maws are always the last thing I witness before I wake up on the floor, against the wall or wherever they have deigned to leave me, caked in sweat, shaking and weeping.

The doctor calls them Night Terrors and, as they only occur once or twice a year, hasn't deemed them worthy of treatment.

What I shied away from telling her is the bit that really scares me.

Sometimes I can still hear their whispers after I've woken.

Re-post from the 'Creepy' QOTW
(R. Jimlad twitter.com/sirmarkymark, Sat 15 Sep 2012, 15:36, 3 replies)

Fucking hell I'm glad I don't get those

( Major Turd for tonight only, Sun 16 Sep 2012, 12:23, closed)

don't worry, be happy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Sun 16 Sep 2012, 12:42, closed)

maybe you should lay off the cheese on toast
or do acid.
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Sun 16 Sep 2012, 18:17, closed)