Night Visitor

[_Nomomo]

From the age of 6 (first grade), up until I was about the age 14, 3 or 4 times a month just before I would fall asleep, I would hear & feel heavy footsteps coming down the hallway towards my bedroom. When this happened I would immediately shut my eyes and keep my eyes closed, and remain still as if I was asleep. ( I was totally faking that I was asleep) Then when this visitor arrived at my bed, I would be lifted out of my bed and shaken for a half minute or so. But I never opened my eyes while being shook to see who was doing this. in fact for all those years the thought to do so never even occurred to me.

Then one night I decided that I was going to open my eyes the next time this happened and see who was doing this (I was totally committed to do so), and at that point, when I had made this decision, it never happened again. {there must be a moral here)

I have researched the topic of sleep disorders and not found anything similar that would fit the description of what I experienced.

Also, how could it be a sleep disorder, when I hadn't actually fallen asleep yet? This was so freaking real!
WTF was going on? Any ideas? This is a real puzzle.

[_moksha]

Not to wax religious, but could this be from the Ghost of Boyd Packer Past, checking for Little Factory activity?

[_subgenius]

Reads like a visitation dream, which are often considered to be "real" due to the hyper-awareness experienced during them. While you may have had an actual supernatural experience it is also possible that it was a natural experience.

[_Gunnar]

This may not have any real similarity or relationship with what Nomomo related, but for some reason it reminded me of a couple things I experienced or heard about.

The first was a roommate I had in college, who could carry on a perfectly rational conversation with me while he was obviously sound asleep. He knew he was asleep, and would correctly answer yes if asked if he was sleeping. He would lie there with his eyes fully closed, all relaxed in deep slumber, would be able to carry on a perfectly normal conversation with anyone in the room. The next morning, he wouldn't remember a thing about the conversation or anything else that transpired while he was asleep.

The second was a conversation I had with the friend of another roommate of mine who had come to visit. He told us about an experience he had while a U.S. Marine, stationed in Germany. He was on a nighttime training maneuver with his platoon, hiking through the woods. He was so dog tired that he fell asleep while still hiking, with his eyes wide open. He was walking straight towards a tree and was about to collide with it, in a zombie or robot like state, and was unable to slow his pace or change his direction, until he stubbed his boot on a protruding root, which caused him to wake up just enough to be able to steer around the tree, instead of colliding with it.