When I was a child, I used to live in the "Tours Emile Aillaud" (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tours_Aillaud ), in Nanterre, in the Western suburb of Paris. My parents were the first occupants of the flat.
Yet, as many small children, I was scared to death on a regular basis by "ghostly" apparitions specifically occurring in a corner of my room. There, in a small recess into the wall, stood a sink. At night I would wake up to see a shadow figure, the size and shape of a man but deprived of any features, standing in front of the sink, silently gazing at me (although he had no eyes). And slowly, the shadow would advance towards my bed. This would terrify me. The first time it happened, I couldn't move. On subsequent occurrences, I would spring up, and make a run towards the light switch in the hope that light would banish the intruder. It was a desperate move, since the light switch stood midway between the apparition and my bed. So after a while, I used the last remaining option : calling for my mother for help.
Night terrors you may say. And you would probably be right since I was between 6 to 7 years old when this happened.
However, there remained something very weird about the sink recess in this room, something I never really managed to understand : at the base of the wall, in a corner of the recess, under the sink, there was a small "point" of light that would never go out. Where did this tiny light came from, I cannot fathom, for on the other side of the wall only stood our bathroom, and we did not leave any lights open in the bathroom. This corner wasn't facing any window either. It should really have been a dark place. It still makes me wonder if my childhood night terrors were really night terrors, or if there was something else about the place that contributed to my childhood anguish ...
I migrated to another room at 11 or 12 years old.
Another weirdness about my childhood is that, earlier, when I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, I would have bouts of panic while in bed. I would start screaming "balloon ! balloon !" (in English) and act as if something was trying to eat my feet. My parents interpreted this as the direct consequence of watching Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and being impressed by the surprise apparitions of the Cheshire cat and his bright dentition. That well may be the case.
But what I find strange is the following : why was I calling that "Balloon" ? I was French, living in France, and French speaking. I should have said "ballon, ballon", with a very different pronunciation ...