The Scariest Fortean Thing Ever To Happen To You

[michael59]

Whoa, I love those pictures!
As to the running away. I can remember when I was about 17, we [friends] used to scare ourselves with stupid things. Once for example we thought that a completely normal light in the sky [probably a star] was a UFO. Now nobody started off scared but we seemed to hype each other up. Its a strange feeling, it seemed to creep up on you and became more and more real until we all freaked. I mean completely irrational freaking, mixed with real fear. This happened several times [once in a cemetery at night, another time just by talking about the universe]. The main thing I'm trying to say is that in none of these cases was there ever a real threat or anything weird, we just talked each other into that state and yes it sometimes ended up with us legging it as if the devil himself was after us for no specific reason at all.
Maybe it is a thing that happens to younger people as they don't yet have the rationale.
The reason that you forgot about it might simply be because nothing actually happened.
Still I love your story and you should never say never

It was quite late maybe 10 or 11pm. Everything was closed and there were hardly any people around. I was about 19 and my friend was 18. We had been to a restaurant and decided to walk through a small park in the middle of the city so we could smoke a joint. We finished the smoke and as we were about to exit the park, I noticed a rather large man all dressed in black, sitting on a bench. We were going to have to walk past him to leave the park. I leaned in close to my friend and quietly said, "Wow, look at the size of that guy. He must be over 7 feet tall!" My friend hadn't noticed until I pointed him out.

I tried coughing really loud to get his attention. He didn't move at all. We were about 60 feet away when my friend asked, "What's he doing? I said, "I don't know." I felt fear starting to rise in me and at that same time my friend snuggled up to my arm and said she was scared. We slowed down our pace to a crawl, barely inching forward. By the time we reached the bench we were both visibly shaking. That's when we could see it was a detailed iron statue of a man sitting on the bench. We both cracked up laughing. It was such a relief.

 

[michael59]

I was lying in bed in a half sleep one day and got this feeling that someone was going to come into my room. I had not properly awoke and thought it was my dad coming up to get me up for school, because of this my head was below the blankets hoping and praying I wouldn't have to leave my bed. I felt the presence of someone approach and stand over me and it was then that I realised that I was twenty five years old and lived on my own and I froze, I can't remember how long I lay there in fear probably only a few seconds until I felt the presence go. I did not look up, I regret that.

I don't know how to post a pic. but I have one that reads:

Sleeping is hard in the summer.
because the blankets are too warm,
but without them I am
Vulnerable to
Monsters.

It's funny how we duck under a blanket when we get scared, but I guess they have been saving us for centuries.

 

[michael59]

A was having a lovely dream the other night where I was walking through a sunny glade when suddenly, the duvet was pulled from me and as I looked at the bottom of the bed, it was wrapped around a figure obscuring it. Then it was flung back over me. There was a rushing noise in my ears and I woke with a start. The pleasant dream had become a nightmare in a split second. And there was no-one there.

Now the thing is, I was telling the guys at work about it this morning and one of them looked up and said 'That happened to me the other night'.

Anyone else experienced this?

Yes.

I was woke up by my blankets being ripped off me. I have always been a restless sleeper so that's what I figured had happened. Until the morning came and when I went to make the bed I could not find the top sheet.

About one week later, I had a doctors appointment. She said that I looked tired and asked if I had been getting enough sleep. I told her the above story and we both laughed. When I got home the top sheet was folded neatly and set at the bottom left corner of my bed.

 

[michael59]

What a fascinating story! If something like that ever happened to me, I'd be worried about what's going to happen next. A glass flying across the room like that ranks right up there as a very scary experience! That falls in the poltergeist category.

Couple of things I can report-

When my cousin and I were 12, we were alone in the house one afternoon. We'd been drinking iced tea, and I'd left my glass on a table across the room while I went to sit at the piano. Cousin had gone into the bedroom to talk on the phone. The door was closed and I could faintly hear her chattering from the other side of the wall.

Suddenly, the glass came sailing past my head and hit the wall nearest me at full force. While I certainly didn't see my cousin anywhere near, I jumped to the most obvious conclusion, and went to the bedroom and demanded to know why she'd thrown her glass at my head.

She looked at me like I was crazy and showed me that she still had her glass in her hand. I went back to the living room to check, and it had been my own glass that had been flung; it had still had ice in it, while cousin's did not.

Even if this had been my cousin's idea of a joke (not likely) she would have had to pause her conversation without me hearing, open the bedroom door, come into the living room within my line of sight, fling the glass, then scamper back to the bedroom, close the door and resume her conversation like nothing ever happened. I'll also add that cousin was nearly six feet tall by then and gangly 12 year olds don't exactly have the stealth of a ninja.

Granted, I did not see by what mechanism the glass had been thrown. I didn't see it being lifted off the table. But it must have been, somehow. The glass was thrown hard enough that it could have caused an injury.

Second case - this was not me, but my eldest son who saw this at about 8 years old. He's grown now and still swears up and down this is true.

He says that one night, he watched terrified as the sugar canister slowly inched itself to the edge of the kitchen counter and turned over, spilling some sugar onto the floor. Of course, I thought he'd done it, and fussed at him. He recalls this as a time I'd been blatantly unfair to him, not believing him when he hadn't done anything wrong, plus been scared out of his wits. But who hasn't heard some wacky excuses out of their kids?

This isn't the same as seeing things disappear or reappear out of nowhere, but seeing movement without any apparent cause might count for something.

It sounds like whatever it was didn't like you using the piano. I never would have touched the piano again if it had happened to me.

 

[michael59]

Agreed. We also use to hear footsteps coming from upstairs when all animals and family members were accounted for in the downstairs living room.

I would add though that we also used to suffer from a case of the borrowers in the same house. I did not witness this first hand, but my mother and sister were adamant that the event that I am about to describe definitely did happen.

Of course this was pre-renovation of the property, as I've previously stated, all unusual events completely ceased post renovation, but this was after the shop closed and the room with the horrible presence was our upstairs kitchen at the time.

In the kitchen was a large oak table. At one end of the table were numerous condiments. On this occasion my mother and sister were preparing themselves some toast for breakfast and were looking for the catering sized pot of Marmite that normally lived on the table. For the life of them, they could not find that unmissable, large pot of Marmite anywhere.

At a loss they proceeded to remove every single pot of jam, mustard etc off that table until finally they were presented with a completely bare table. They were in the process of discussing how strange it was and what 'Dad' could have done with it (perhaps they thought he had hidden it due to his dislike of Marmite and he wanted to tease them! Who knows?!?) when they turned back to the table with a great big pot of Marmite slap bang in the middle of it!

In shock they both ran out of the kitchen to tell my Dad who was fairly disinterested and dismissive of the whole affair, attributing it to over active imaginations.

I should clarify that the table was at the far end of the room closest to the front of the house and the entrance to the room was at the the other end to the rear of the house with my mother and sister stood between the table and the door, so no one could have sneaked in to play a practical joke.

That happens to me all the time. I attributed it to my age. I call it a seniors moment. Although I haven't even hit my 60's yet.

 

[michael59]

My scariest Fortean story would have to be when I was twenty nine years old.

*As a kid, when I would watch scary shows and see the person get up out of bed and go look. It was the scariest part of the movie for me. I would always say, "You idiot! Don't go out there, stay in your room!"*

At 29, I was living in a rented house by myself with my very large Newfoundland dog, two long haired Persian cats and one short haired domestic cat. The house was what we refer to here as a war time house. There is no basement, just a dirt dug out for ducts and pipes. There is also no attic to speak of. Not a attic that one could walk around in or store stuff. So, it was almost like a two bedroom apartment with all the benefits of living on your own property.

I kept having what I could only assume was a reoccurring nightmare. I would wake up for no reason and have that foreboding sense of fear that something isn't right. I would get up and try turn on the light. It wouldn't work. I would go room to room trying the lights and they would not work and the whole time the fear in me was growing. The next thing I knew it was morning and I was waking up in my own bed. But, the fear that I felt would linger for days. It happened about four times in a month. I was wracking my brain as to what I could do to get it to stop.

I remembered that when I was 8, I used to have a reoccurring dream about being thirsty and jumping into a huge pool to drink and a killer whale/Orca would appear and scare me awake. It ended when I started taking a glass of water to bed with me. So, I decided I would start sleeping with a flashlight under my pillow.

Within days of putting the flashlight under my pillow, it happened again. I grabbed my flashlight and turned it on, but moments later the flashlight failed. I tried shaking it and slapping it with my hand to no avail. I remember feeling defeated and then waking up in the morning. I immediately checked the flashlight, it was dead. When I tried to move, it hurt. Everything hurt, even the bottom of my feet ached as I walked to the bathroom. I came out of the bathroom and couldn't help but notice how strange it was that all my animals were still sleeping. Normally when I open my bedroom door I am bombarded with greetings from all four of them. I asked the dog if he wanted to go out. He didn't wake up. I said his name a few times in a louder voice, he still didn't move. I had to go over and shake him awake. He jumped up and looked all apologetic for not responding right away. I thought it was weird because at that time he was only 11 months old. I just laughed and opened the door. I was shocked to see that so much snow had fallen. There had to be about three feet of new snowfall. Olson had to go out to the neighbors property edge because the snow was to deep for him to lift his leg. lol

The weird part was that there were a few sets of footprints leading from the sidewalk up to my mailbox. I again was surprised to see that it was stuffed with mail and flyers.

We went back inside and I turned on the weather channel because I was hoping for more snowfall. In the city you only have 48 hours to clear away the snow or you get a fine. If it was going to snow again it would mean I didn't need to go out and shovel. I felt really awful, like I said, my whole body hurt. To my surprise again, four days had past.

The house was spotless, there should have been loads of hair after four days and all those hairy animals. The water dishes were full and the dry food bowls were still full and there was no mess in the litter box.

 

[Eponastill]

You lost four days? Should you have been at work during that time, or doing any other regular things like visiting friends, going somewhere you'd be recognised? Did anyone notice that you'd been gone? Or did they believe they'd seen you as usual at those places? What I'm trying to ask is, were you going about as normal feeding the animals and letting them out for a wee and so on, but you have absolutely no memory of doing so? That you might have met people but been on some sort of auto-pilot. or could it have been you did do all those things consciously at the time, but then had a little brain-sputter where you forgot them?

You say more than once that you tried turning on lights and they wouldn't work. That reminds me of dreams... I've had a few lucid dreams where I tried turning on lights and couldn't get them to work, as though our brains aren't very good at replicating that. I suppose in real life our eyes adapt immediately to the new light levels, pretty much. i don't know if that's relevant. Anyway, I'm perhaps suggesting that odd things were going on in your brain concerning awakeness / awareness of awakeness.

or it could be time travel.
But requiring pet sitters.

interesting story

 

[Annica2]

Michael59- how did you become aware that you had lost 4 days? I ask because it seems a long period to loose without anyone noticing or your animals becoming stressed & disruptive.

I have had a similar experience:

I once had a really bad dose of 'flu, fortunately short lived. I have very few recollections of the time- about 1 1/2 days before I "came too" but I must have been functioning on some level as I had 3 children at home and I was on my own. (my husband had gone away in the morning when I was feeling a bit off, he was away over the night and came home next day as I apparently called him and asked him to).

All I recall is aching all over,yes even my feet, constantly hearing an acapella group mostly they hid in the in the wardrobe and some really scary luminous monsters lurking in the house which I later worked out was CBeebies induced.

The whole incident is scary to me ( Prefer not to think of it or discuss it) as I really have no idea what happened, obviously I did function on some level but have no real sense of what happened.

 

[catseye]

I was also going to say that electricity doesn't work in dreams for me either. And surely your Newfoundland (an enormous dog) would have poked or prodded you for a walk at some point - he wasn't going to use the litter box, was he? Or were there any signs that he'd, ahem, got impatient?

After watching the TV weather report, did you go back to bed? Could the whole thing have been a 'false awakening'?

 

[Draheste]

Yes.

I was woke up by my blankets being ripped off me. I have always been a restless sleeper so that's what I figured had happened. Until the morning came and when I went to make the bed I could not find the top sheet.

About one week later, I had a doctors appointment. She said that I looked tired and asked if I had been getting enough sleep. I told her the above story and we both laughed. When I got home the top sheet was folded neatly and set at the bottom left corner of my bed.

Once in my late teens. early twenties, I woke up on my feet, in front of the bed looking at the pilow. I dreamed that I was bombarded by pilows from the ceiling and I had to escape. Nothing like this happened before or since. My heart was beating hard and I was as much terrified as puzzled.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

I'm trying to pick a memory apart here - it's tricky because I feel like I'm trying to parse my memory from the explanation that was given at the time.

Ok so I would have been pre-school age, say 4ish. And I'm pretty sure I was with a friend a year older. We were playing in the flat I lived in at the time, a nineteenth century townhouse that had been divided into flats.

We ran into a room (a bedroom?) and slammed the door. At that moment, several things happened simultaneously.
- I saw a man dressed entirely in brown, with a brown hat, standing towards the back of the room, away from the door.
- a pigeon fell down the chimney into the empty grate of the (unlit) coal fire, and then 'exploded' into the room.
- we realised that we couldn't open the door. It was locked, or stuck.

My friend and I screamed and hammered on the door, shouting that there was a ghost in the room. We were rescued (I don't recall how) and the capture of the bird became a dramatic household incident. With hilarity, part of the story of this incident was that my friend and I had mistaken the bird for a ghost - we had thought a ghost had come down the chimney. At the time, I could not have explained that the ghost and the bird were separate. That both had happened at the same time.

I did, as an adult, manage to talk about what had happened to other members of the family. They all remembered the bird, our being locked in the room (apparently we had locked the door ourselves with a bolt, but been unable to let ourselves out), and our abject terror. But they can't vouch for the man in brown.

The memory is still vivid. But did I imagine it? And if I did, did the imagining happen at the time, caused perhaps by the fear of the bird? Or did it happen later, hearing the story of my mistaking the bird for a ghost I have inserted a memory of a 'real' ghost.

The memory is still enough to give me the creeps. Especially now I know that in folklore there is a strong link between indoor birds and signs of death.

 

[EnolaGaia]

How sure are you that you were with the friend when this incident occurred?

Did this friend ever acknowledge having seen the man in brown figure?

I'm wondering if it's possible there were two separate incidents that you've conflated into one. Such conflation is common in memories from early childhood.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

That's interesting. And all memories are certainly unreliable - conflation a is certainly possible. The strongest part of the memory is not directly of the event. Instead it's of other people talking about the bird and me not quite being able to articulate that the bird isn't the only thing that has happened. I remember being unable to find the words to explain that there was a bird, and we did cry 'ghost' but the bird and the ghost were distinct.

I think this memory had stayed in part because it is one of the few memories I have where the limits of nascent language are palpable. Where I remember feeling what I wanted to say, but being unable to say it. It feels significant for this reason as well as for its place in the story.

Regarding the friend - I'd say about 90% sure she was there. But memories are fallible. I don't remember her take on the ghost, unfortunately. And I don't have any way of reaching her now.

 

[michael59]

You lost four days? Should you have been at work during that time, or doing any other regular things like visiting friends, going somewhere you'd be recognised? Did anyone notice that you'd been gone? Or did they believe they'd seen you as usual at those places? What I'm trying to ask is, were you going about as normal feeding the animals and letting them out for a wee and so on, but you have absolutely no memory of doing so? That you might have met people but been on some sort of auto-pilot. or could it have been you did do all those things consciously at the time, but then had a little brain-sputter where you forgot them?

You say more than once that you tried turning on lights and they wouldn't work. That reminds me of dreams... I've had a few lucid dreams where I tried turning on lights and couldn't get them to work, as though our brains aren't very good at replicating that. I suppose in real life our eyes adapt immediately to the new light levels, pretty much. i don't know if that's relevant. Anyway, I'm perhaps suggesting that odd things were going on in your brain concerning awakeness / awareness of awakeness.

or it could be time travel.
But requiring pet sitters.

interesting story

Hi

I was not working at that time. I had been unemployed for a few months. I also had chalked it up to a reoccurring nightmare because of the lights and I do know that I do have lucid dreams. That's why I tried the flashlight trick.

Back in that time, there was no call answer or call forward or voice mail. I also did not get an answering machine until a few years later. The reason I bring this up is that if anyone did try to contact me they probably just thought I was out.

I did give my neighbor across the street from me a hard time for not checking on me because she said that she thought it was a little strange that my living room curtains were closed for days and that she also noticed that she hadn't seen the dog.

I did explore the idea of not having any recall for 4 days. I decided after talking to many friends and even a psychiatrist, that it was not the case.

Funny you should mention travel. I went to the doctor because I felt so bad. He called me and asked if I did a lot of traveling by air plane. He said the name of my affliction but I can't remember what it was called. He said it was like getting the bends when you come up to quickly from a deep dive. He further explained that what I was suffering from was usually only experienced by pilots, or stewardesses, and or astronauts, when they have experienced extended periods of low gravity.

 

[michael59]

Michael59- how did you become aware that you had lost 4 days? I ask because it seems a long period to loose without anyone noticing or your animals becoming stressed & disruptive.

I have had a similar experience:

I once had a really bad dose of 'flu, fortunately short lived. I have very few recollections of the time- about 1 1/2 days before I "came too" but I must have been functioning on some level as I had 3 children at home and I was on my own. (my husband had gone away in the morning when I was feeling a bit off, he was away over the night and came home next day as I apparently called him and asked him to).

All I recall is aching all over,yes even my feet, constantly hearing an acapella group mostly they hid in the in the wardrobe and some really scary luminous monsters lurking in the house which I later worked out was CBeebies induced.

The whole incident is scary to me ( Prefer not to think of it or discuss it) as I really have no idea what happened, obviously I did function on some level but have no real sense of what happened.

Hello

I realized that I had lost 4 days when I checked the weather channel because it also has the currant date and time on it.

I can't explain what happened. I have theorized that whatever level of unconsciousness I experienced, the animals must have had the same experience. They were all very groggy and I know from having them from day 1 that they never all seemed to sleep at the same time. That's why I never let them sleep with me in my bedroom because I was always being woke up by one or the other jumping on or off the bed.

I didn't have the flu but I did have to stay indoors for the next 6 weeks because my lungs would freeze up within 30 seconds. It was really cold out but I am used to the cold. My lungs never did that before. I also had to take high doses of antibiotics.

 

[michael59]

I was also going to say that electricity doesn't work in dreams for me either. And surely your Newfoundland (an enormous dog) would have poked or prodded you for a walk at some point - he wasn't going to use the litter box, was he? Or were there any signs that he'd, ahem, got impatient?

After watching the TV weather report, did you go back to bed? Could the whole thing have been a 'false awakening'?

I was behind a closed bedroom door so the dog could not reach me. I still to this day wonder why and or how they all went without food or water or relieving themselves for that long. I can't believe I went that long without relieving myself because I drink about 15 liters of water a day. Needless to say, I pee a lot.

 

[Eponastill]

That's really interesting, thanks for replying. So the implication is that either a) all of you, pets included, went into some kind of suspended animation (which is supported by the grogginess of the dogs) or b) the pets went about as normal and you looked after them albeit in a state of consciousness you have no memory of (which is supported by the fact they were healthy and there wasn't poop everywhere). Or c) some sort of alien abduction hypothesis with tidy pet-sitting aliens. Probably not the latter but who knows It's interesting that you felt awful afterwards and were ill for ages. But you imply a doctor told you other people experience the same symptoms you had (not the missing time I assume). And is there a hint there that if astronauts / people who fly get such things... that maybe you think you were whisked away and I'm not so far off with the aliens?

I'm not mocking at all. I'm more into fairy folklore and there are plenty of accounts in that of missing time / being whisked up high into the air. I tend to think those accounts are the older equivalent of abduction accounts. And so that we're dealing with a human phenomena that does happen. I'm not so sure about what is really happening though (i.e. I kind of hope that there might be a more palatable explanation to do with the brain that doesn't involve creatures from the underworld / out reaches).

15 litres sounds like me and cups of tea btw. Must cut down. But I'm too much of an addict.

 

[catseye]

I would be inclined to think you'd been very ill, had run a very high temperature and gone about your normal routines with no memory of it. I've done similar things when I've had to look after my kids and been very very sick - managed to take my kids to school whilst suffering meningitis, although I don't remember it. The animals may have been groggy simply because you'd not been able to interact with them, so they'd gone into 'eat, sleep, shit' mode' rather than been active and playful.

Interesting what your doctor said - did he do some intensive testing? Your symptoms sound like a bad case of 'flu, followed by bronchitis.

Not trying to nit-pick your story at all, just trying an Occam's Razor approach.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... At 29, I was living in a rented house by myself with my very large Newfoundland dog, two long haired Persian cats and one short haired domestic cat. The house was what we refer to here as a war time house. There is no basement, just a dirt dug out for ducts and pipes. There is also no attic to speak of. Not a attic that one could walk around in or store stuff. ...

michael59:

What type of heating did this house use?
Was the house warm when you got out of bed?
Were the cats as slow to wake up as the dog was?

 

[Carse]

How exactly did you discover the missing time? Are you sure you didn't just get the days of the week mixed up? I work shifts, including nights, and quite often find it very hard to keep track of what day of the week it is as I don't watch TV or read newspapers so every day just sort of blends into the next. Could it be possible you had a seizure and became confused about how much time had passed?

If you really were unconscious for four days then the type of symptoms* you describe would very likely be down to the severe dehydration you would have undoubtedly suffered. The longest I have slept is 19 hours straight after taking (doctor prescribed) cocodamol and diazepam for a back injury and I was pretty dehydrated after that.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration#Signs_and_symptoms

 

[Eponastill]

Ah but the neighbour said "she said that she thought it was a little strange that my living room curtains were closed for days and that she also noticed that she hadn't seen the dog."

 

[michael59]

I would be inclined to think you'd been very ill, had run a very high temperature and gone about your normal routines with no memory of it. I've done similar things when I've had to look after my kids and been very very sick - managed to take my kids to school whilst suffering meningitis, although I don't remember it. The animals may have been groggy simply because you'd not been able to interact with them, so they'd gone into 'eat, sleep, shit' mode' rather than been active and playful.

Interesting what your doctor said - did he do some intensive testing? Your symptoms sound like a bad case of 'flu, followed by bronchitis.

Not trying to nit-pick your story at all, just trying an Occam's Razor approach.

It's okay with me, Catseye, pick away.

He did send me to the hospital and they did some kind of test where they stick a needle in your wrist, it supposedly checks for gases in your blood. It was a very painful test and he had to do it twice because I flinched the first time and that was apparently a no-no. Then he asked if I would mind if a group of residents watched. I said I already feel bad enough. I don't need an audience. There was some other procedure he wanted to do and I whined and said do we have to do that. He said, in a harsh, angry tone, well if you think you know better than me. What are you doing here. I didn't say anything else. I got dressed and left. All the while he followed behind me apologizing. I got in a taxi and went back to my doctors office.

I don't allow anyone to speak down to me.

 

[michael59]

How exactly did you discover the missing time? Are you sure you didn't just get the days of the week mixed up? I work shifts, including nights, and quite often find it very hard to keep track of what day of the week it is as I don't watch TV or read newspapers so every day just sort of blends into the next. Could it be possible you had a seizure and became confused about how much time had passed?

If you really were unconscious for four days then the type of symptoms* you describe would very likely be down to the severe dehydration you would have undoubtedly suffered. The longest I have slept is 19 hours straight after taking (doctor prescribed) cocodamol and diazepam for a back injury and I was pretty dehydrated after that.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration#Signs_and_symptoms

The last thing I remember was talking to a guy on the phone. He was a bit long winded and after about 2 hours I finally said that it was late, I was tired, and that I had to go to bed. I told him I would call him back in a day or two. That was a Thursday at 1130pm. I woke up to what I thought was the Friday morning, but when I checked the weather channel, it was Monday around 8:30am.

I may very well have been dehydrated, Carse. I don't remember being parched. I do vividly recall feeling like I had been run over by a truck.

 

[EnolaGaia]

I think the doctor may have been onto something, but I don't want to say any more until I get answers to my questions in post #379.

 

[michael59]

michael59:

What type of heating did this house use?
Was the house warm when you got out of bed?
Were the cats as slow to wake up as the dog was?

Oops. I almost missed replying you.

It had central heating.
Yes, the house was warm when I got up.
Yes, all three were snuggled up together. I didn't try to wake them, but they started to rise slowly after I came back in from letting the dog out.

Which reminds me. There were no dog prints or trails in the snow. Just a couple of sets of footprints that I am assuming belonged to the postman.

 

[EnolaGaia]

What type of heat source / fuel?

 

[michael59]

What type of heat source / fuel?

Sorry, it was a gas furnace.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... it was a gas furnace.

OK - thanks. That's what I suspected ...

Now here's my first guess ...

The situational context and symptoms are consistent with hypoxia - insufficient oxygen reaching the tissues, possibly resulting from (e.g.) oxygen starvation or carbon monoxide poisoning.

This was an older house, winter time, and a period during which a major amount of new snowfall occurred. Your older house's small attic probably had passive venting (e.g., louvered openings high up on the exterior walls at one or both ends). Ive seen major snowstorms / blizzards result in these (or other ... ) passive vents getting buried, covered up, or buried. When this occurs there can be a build-up of stale / toxic air inside.

The pets seemed to have been inert / inactive on the other side of your bedroom's closed door. This implies:

- they were similarly 'out of it'
- a common cause throughout the house.

I suspect you and the animals weren't so much 'asleep' as 'unconscious' from oxygen deprivation as the gas furnace chugged along and the interior air didn't get vented.

This would explain why the dog seemingly struggled to get awake / active.

It would also explain the all-over pains you had upon finally waking up.

In a hypoxic state you very well could have intermittently awakened only to soon fall back under without remembering it.

I think your doctor may have been on the right track. If my suspicion's correct, you and your animals were lucky ...

 

[michael59]

OK - thanks. That's what I suspected ...

Now here's my first guess ...

The situational context and symptoms are consistent with hypoxia - insufficient oxygen reaching the tissues, possibly resulting from (e.g.) oxygen starvation or carbon monoxide poisoning.

This was an older house, winter time, and a period during which a major amount of new snowfall occurred. Your older house's small attic probably had passive venting (e.g., louvered openings high up on the exterior walls at one or both ends). Ive seen major snowstorms / blizzards result in these (or other ... ) passive vents getting buried, covered up, or buried. When this occurs there can be a build-up of stale / toxic air inside.

The pets seemed to have been inert / inactive on the other side of your bedroom's closed door. This implies:

- they were similarly 'out of it'
- a common cause throughout the house.

I suspect you and the animals weren't so much 'asleep' as 'unconscious' from oxygen deprivation as the gas furnace chugged along and the interior air didn't get vented.

This would explain why the dog seemingly struggled to get awake / active.

It would also explain the all-over pains you had upon finally waking up.

In a hypoxic state you very well could have intermittently awakened only to soon fall back under without remembering it.

I think your doctor may have been on the right track. If my suspicion's correct, you and your animals were lucky ...

It's very possible and even probable so, I am going to say, 30 year old case solved.

Where the heck were you thirty years ago. lol

 

[EnolaGaia]

It's very possible and even probable so, I am going to say, 30 year old case solved. ...

Glad to be of service - particularly if it put your mind at ease ...