As a child at bedtime, I kept my entire body under the covers. Due to monsters, any exposed skin meant certain death. I told my mom we should invent a bed snorkel so i never had to leave the sheets, not even for oxygen.

Kate

I used to believe that any items in my bedroom - such as scarves, string, long sleeved jumpers etc - were possessed with an evil intelligence that awoke as soon as the lights went out and would strangle me in the night if I didn't tie them in knots. I finally stamped on this belief when I left home to live with my (now) husband when I was twenty !

Rachael

Once when I was little I asked my grandma if I could go to the park at night.Since I was scared of monkeys she told me that there were monkeys that went to the park at night.

Zane Dee

I used to think there were monsters in my bedroom. My wall was painted two colors at the time; white a little less than halfway up and pink below. As a way to reassure me that there were no monsters, my parents told me that the person at Lowes mixed in a special "Monster-Proof Fourmula" into the pink paint, and as long as I stayed below the white paint, I'd be safe.
I think this may have also been a way to stop me from getting up at night.
They still keep this up with my little sisters.

Katy

I used to think that the monsters under the stairs made a mass migration every night, and that their migration path led them right over my bed. If I lay very very still and held my breath, they wouldn't notice that there was someone under the blanket they were walking on and they wouldn't attack me. If I closed my eyes, I could see them all stumbling over me in a long long line...

Anon

I was always told as a child that the cupboard in the kitchen containing bleach, cleaning fluids and other hazzardous chemicals contained a monster.

However if my parents had told me that there was nothing of interest in there, I wouldn't have constantly tried to find out what the monster looked like.

Anon

when I was little I slept with about 27 stuffed animals in my bed at one time to protect me from the evil monsters under my bed. (I am not joking about the 27 stuffed animals, they were all ranging in size) and when I fell asleep the stuffed animals would "wake up" and have a dance party in my room. when a monster came out from under my closet they would stop dancing and start fighting the monster until it went away. My stuffed animals were Karate ninjas.

Kara

'twas the night before christmas and my horrible sister and i were sharing a bedroom at the time. i was about five or six. we were lying awake, really excited about the next morning when i heard my father doing his woodwork in the garage. i said, "i wonder what he's making." my sister, being the older and wiser and obviously benevolent one replied that she knew exactly what he was making. that it was a christmas present for me. when pressed for more details she told me it was a huge wooden reindeer that would sit in the corner of my room and stare at me with red glowing eyes. i think i was the last one down the stairs the next morning.

autumn

I used to believe that there was a shrunken head that would appear every time I turned around (in the dark), and if I didn't do what it said, it would kill me in some way.

Now that I think about it...how could a shrunken head hurt you??

Nahtiak

I used to believe that Dracula lived in the clock tower downtown. Why? Because my dad told me, and naturally, I knew my dad would never lie to me. There was a little blinking red light up on the tower so that plans wouldn't fly into it. My Dad said that those were Dracula's red eyes. And I thought he was winking at me. So everytime we walked past there at night I got all freaked out because I thought Dracula was telling me I was was next. *wink wink*

Michele

I used to believe that monsters could take you at night and bury you alive while you were sleeping. The only way to keep them from doing that was to sleep all sprawled out, because when they came to take you, you'd be frozen in whatever position they found you in. If they couldn't fit you into a coffin, they'd leave you alone. Needless to say, I slept in some pretty odd positions in my youth.

Doug

When i was younger my dad use to tell me to look out the car window when we were driving at night past woods, because i needed to look out for the goat man incase he attacked the car. i was terrified of the goat man.

Anon

When I was about 4, I would always make a wall of pillows around my bed leaning against the bed frame to protect myself from monsters. I had one pillow with my name stitched in it which I had to throw off my bed before I went to sleep because it acted as a labeling sign like the ones at grocery stores. If I didn't take it off, I was sure the monsters would eat me.

Nick

I used to fear the creature on the Pepperami advert. My sister had a Pepperami lunchbox and she told me it was inside it. I had nightmares for years.

Betasha Yelricka

When I was a little girl, I used to believe
that the sound of the pulse in my ear was caused by a little man climbing up my pillow to get me. Sometimes that sound still catches me off gaurd just before dozing off.

Racheal

When i was a kid i knew there were monsters under the bed. i grew up in california, and one night when i was around five, i was lying in bed when an earthquake hit, shaking my bed.

I yelled to my mom, who was in bed in the next room, "I told you so! I told you so! There are monsters under the bed!" She yelled back, "Don't come in here!" She thought she her bed was possessed by demons ala The Exorcist. That was comforting.

Anon

When I was about 4 or 5 i thought that gremlins would come and get me when I was a sleep in bed. I thought that the only way for them to stop them kidnapping me was to surround my self with all my teddy bears as I thought they would protect me from harm.

Anon

i used to believe in Wee WIlly Winkie who used to come round and see if I was in bed yet. I even heard him talking to my dad downstairs (it was my dad using two voices but it convinced me at 5). There was also the threat of Willy's brother Big Winkie (who i think had horns) if i continued not to go to bed.

Bob - Kent

This is a very strange belief... I believed that if I was alone for too long that everybody in the world would somehow be turned into living skeletons. I would obviously be terrified of them, but they would also be disgusted and scared of me because I was all fleshy and muscley. So whenever I felt I was alone for too long I would get very nervous and run around trying to find someone. I guess that's why I'm such a social butterfly now! I have no idea where this came from, but it may have had something to do with the animated skeletons in The Clash of the Titans or The Seven Voyages of Sinbad or something.

Freddy M., Seattle

when I was little and visiting my grandpa Paul's farm, there was an old outhouse that was dilapitated and unsafe to go near, he would always tell us younger kids that there was an untamed unicorn in there, that kept all of us away for years. I believed that until about sixth grade.

liz