The first time this happened to me, it was pretty spooky to be sure.  It went far beyond me freaking out because I found myself paralyzed.  There was a legitimate fear for my very soul. 

I was awoken one night only to find that I could not move a muscle.  It was a strange feeling but I was also aware of another presence in the room with me.  I struggled but no movement was possible except for my eyeballs, strangely enough.  Those, I could move around but without the rest of my muscles, that didn't allow for much of a field of view. 

The one thing I felt that I did "know" was that I would regain the ability to move if only someone touched me.  Where such an idea came from, I don't know and this part of it lends some weight to the psychological arguments that try to describe the experience.  It was very much "out of the ordinary".  My girlfriend wasn't in bed with me either, which was confusing.  So I tried to call out but after a few minutes, the best I could manage was some sort of groaning squeak noise from deep in my throat.  It was more like a whimpering dog than a man...lol  It also wasn't very loud.

Interestingly enough, the cat heard me and took an interest.  The cat ran into the kitchen where my gf was making a sandwich and started mewing at her.  It was like a scene from Lassie, in my mind anyway, "What's that?  Timmy fell down the well"?  She followed the cat back to the bedroom and found me laying there making that creepy sound.  The moment she laid her hand upon my shoulder, my entire body jerked back into full operational mode.

I never saw any old hag but I felt her presence and believed she was in the room with me.  That was seriously creepy.
 

Opposable thumbs are overrated...beards set us apart from the other animals.

For me, growing a beard isn't hiding my face, shaving is hiding my beard.

How can a man know himself if he's never even seen himself?