Was this a demon or was it all in my head?

[Fleur de Frost]

I fell into a half asleep/half awake state last night. Just before I fell totally asleep, though, I was jolted awake by something like a screech in my ear. (Not in my head - it sounded like it was physically there.) It's silly, but the best description is a human imitating a bird squawk.

The noise kept playing over and over again, and I couldn't get it stop. The more I kept hearing it, the more it felt like pressure was building in my ear. Same feeling you get when you clean it with hydrogen peroxide - Literally as if my ear was filled with something. It took about 5 minutes for for the screeching to stop and 10 for my ear to feel 'cleared'.

Eventually, I fell asleep, but woke up at exactly 4:44 (?) and have just never felt so overwhelmed by fear. I'd forgotten all about the noise - but it felt as if every one of my deepest, darkest fears had come to the surface to taunt me. It lasted for a good 30 minutes, and I couldn't do anything except cry from pure fear. I felt helpless.

The only truly 'paranormal' experience I've had was my dog growling at an empty corner, but that's the extent of it. Do you think what happened to me last night should be correlated with a mental condition - haven't been diagnosed with anything - or was it something else?
(Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it!)

maybe you were fixing to astral project and fear took over the experience? just a guess...

[Squatchit]

Hiya Fleur-de-Frost

Have a look at this common (and natural) occurrence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

Especially check out the 'Sensory phenomena' section.

Hypnagogia can be a precursor to OBEs/astral projection, but it's also a precursor to sleep and so happens to everyone every night. It's just that for the majority of us, the majority of time our bodies have already shut down by the time hypnagogia kicks in. Therefore, we don't recollect it.

Waking up full of fear could suggest you've literally just awoken from a bad dream that you can't remember, but your subconscious can. Many times people wake up feeling odd, strange, fearful, happy etc., and they don't know why.

My advice would be rather than jump to conclusions such as demons or mental health issues, do a little research first - you'd be surprised how much of these types of experiences
are normal.

Hope this helps and puts your mind at rest somewhat.