[randog]

...the so-called 'Old Hag' experience, a psychologically disturbing event in which a victim claims to have encountered some form of malign entity whilst dreaming (or awake). Sufferers report feeling suffocated, held down by some 'force', paralyzed-and extremely afraid. It is an experience which is surprisingly common, with Hufford estimating that approximately 15% of people undergo it at some point in their lives.

I experienced that when I was young, maybe 7 or 8 years old. Extremely frightening and very, very real.

[Fedora]

I've talked to two people so far who have reported experiencing it along with some type of waking visual or tactile experience. I've talked to many more people who have reported experiencing it while asleep, which seems to be the more common experience. Sometimes the sleeping version seems to be triggered by sleeping position--I've experienced the sleeping version and woke up to find that during my sleep I had turned into a position that was twisting my neck or cutting off circulation to one of my limbs, and my dreams were reflecting that. But in other cases there are waking phenomena reported as well. It's definitely extremely frightening.

[Elsie]

I was in my twenties.........

[andy58-in-nh]

I had the same experience, first when I was about 6, and then a few more times until I was about 8 or 9. In my case, it was a Clown. Yes - I've seen "It" - the first viewing scared the crap out of me because I had almost completely forgotten about my childhood nightmares. This is the first time I've heard people talk about similar experiences - which is kind of reassuring.