I can't think of anything right now that could be a possible explanation. Fascinating account though. Thanks for taking the time to post and welcome to the forum.

To the_jackel:

Hmmm, first off, I must admit, I was at a loss over the term "total skeptic."  As just a regular run of the mill skeptic, I suddenly felt that I wasn't doing enough.   As I continued to read I found that you also referred to yourself as a "firm disbeliever."  Just to throw this out there…"skeptic" does not equate "disbeliever."  I won't go into the entire discussion and/or debate over it.  When you have time, meander about the forums and I'm sure that you'll run into quite a few discussions on that topic.  And you never know what else may peak your interest as well.  Anyway…

The "I had night terrors as a child" aspect really jumped out at me.  Can the particular experience that you described be attributed to that?  *shrugs*  Hard to simply throw out that possibility when admittedly you suffered from that specific sleep disorder.  It does explain a great deal.  Buffy had some nice suggestions as well.

When I first read your account, I couldn't help but to think about "alien abduction."  Many of the same attributes: in bed at the time, can't move, feeling watched, being grabbed, and ending with some sort of injury (and please…no jokes about the probing…too easy…).  Many believe that "night terrors" are behind those as well. 

What concerns me is that bruise.  Not from a "something paranormal is attacking you" aspect, but more for a concern that you may (again, just a possibility) be unknowingly injuring yourself due to your sleep disorder.  I find that scarier than any ghost or alien.  If you haven't already, here's a website that can get you started on finding out more about night terrors:

http://www.nightterrors.org/

Good luck to you and welcome to the board.

To Brenny:

Hmmm…a bit of anger in that post there.  Having recently engaged in some unpleasantness, I am not too eager to engage in it again.  Yet…sometimes we must do things that we really don't want to do.

I find it odd that you took the time to post about others not helping the_jackel, yet you yourself offered no sort of help.  But that really doesn't bother me.  What does…is that maybe…just maybe…you jumped the gun a bit on the "snarkiness."

The "Possibly Paranormal" section is a difficult one.  We get many new posters (many one time deals) who relate an experience.  Most times, we offer possibilities other than the paranormal.  Many times, the poster rejects those and ultimately, it leaves us at an impasse.  The experience simply cannot be "solved" to any great degree…and such is life sometimes. 

So, to relieve this sort of thing, people may joke around a bit.  Nothing wrong with that.  I don't think any of the posters in this thread intended any ill-will towards the original poster.  And I don't believe the_jackel took any offense to it.  He (or she) is smarter than that and knew that he (or she) wasn't being treated as an idiot.  So…I'm a bit uncertain as to where your anger is coming from.

You also ended with "…I promise….most of us here actually WANT to help…"  Hmmm…I thought about that for a long time.  I'm not sure if that's exactly accurate or a fair representation of the board.  I mean, after all, we are not some sort of paranormal workshop or anything.  The main push of the site is to explore paranormal TV shows.  Since there is video, we are all, essentially, able to "share the experience" for ourselves and discuss the physical evidence.  In this particular section of the forum, we have neither a shared experience or physical evidence.  So…are we trying to "help" the individual or simply engaging in a bit of problem-solving in the spirit of the rest of the site and the "helping" is a result of that?  Hmmm…interesting…

Anyway, not trying to start a war here (although…I'm always up for one  ) or anything.  Just saying that I don't agree that the jokes in the thread warranted such a response…