This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. You wake up in the middle of the night. The room is dark except for the faint glow of the moon through your window. But something’s wrong. A weight presses down on your limbs, digs deep into the flesh of your stomach, and squeezes the air from your lungs. You try to move, but you can’t—all you can do is tentatively open your eyes. A shadow of twisted, gangly limbs writhes above you. A…
