Sleep Paralysis Or Something In The Attic?

A quick background on this story:

This takes place in the house I currently reside in. At this point in my life I was in my earlier teens and there was much pent-up negative energy in the household from constant fights with my family. This was the hardest point in time for my family to date, and I attribute our negativity to drawing in the activity which has led me to share my experiences.

At this point I had witnessed many 'shadow people' and dark figures walking around my upstairs but for some reason I was the only one able to see them. However, my little brother was able to hear them which gave me some peace of mind knowing I wasn't losing my marbles.

So besides seeing these shadow people walking around and hearing their footsteps in the hallway at night, things were considerably "normal". One more note before I begin that is a key element to this story: my closet has a panel in the ceiling which leads to the attic. This is the only entrance to the attic in our house.

The activity stayed at that level until I began researching the paranormal. I had watched a few ghost hunter themed television shows and it led me to draw conclusions about the activity I was experiencing on a day-to-day basis. I figured they were just restless spirits and decided to let them be and try not to interact.

As conditions in my household worsened, the activity grew. The spirits began interacting with me at night and I could hear noises outside my window and on the roof. The sounds were like scratches and small taps, like an animal. Squirrels get on the roof all the time and I figured it was something of the likes. After a while the sound moved from on top of the roof to INSIDE of the attic. Although mildly discomforting, I still led myself to believe it was an animal of sorts. The other experiences with the sounds led me to believe otherwise.

One night I awoke at around 2 AM to my bed shaking. I thought it was my mom or brother trying to wake me up but when I looked around my room nobody was there. My bed then jerked once as if someone had pushed it with a quick, large force which scared the living daylights out of me and I quickly laid back down and pretended to be asleep until I actually was again.

At another point in time I heard footsteps come down the hallway from my parents room and a tapping on my door followed by the sound of the doorknob shaking gently. This made me uncomfortable because of seeing the shadow people. It made me think they were trying to get into my room to get me or something.

On this particular night that the story takes place, I had fallen asleep on my back. I have heard this can lead to nightmares and the likes and since then have refused to fall asleep in that position. At around 2:40 AM I abruptly awoke. I checked my phone to note the time and was about to roll over and go back to sleep when I heard a scratching sound above me in the attic. By above me I mean right above my bed where I was sleeping. Out of curiosity I rapped on the wall 3 times with my knuckles. The scratching became instantly louder and whatever was in there began pacing around. I got a shiver down my spine and the mood of the room instantly changed. It was as if my room had grown darker and I felt a very ominous feeling. My playful thoughts of messing with an animal were shattered by the worrying feeling growing in my gut. At this point I heard thumping sounds over the panel in my closet. I tried to sit up in my bed to look but it literally felt like a heavy person had laid on top of me and I could only barely lift my head up to get a better view.

Feeling trapped I tried to ignore the growing feeling of panic as I heard the ceiling panel in my closet SLIDE out of place and drop and wooden beams creaking in my attic. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I told myself it wasn't real and I heard my clothes moving around in my closet (hangers clicking together) as if someone was climbing down out of the attic into my walk-in closet. To my horror, the doorknob began violently jerking left to right and scratching sounds emanated from behind the door. I thought whatever it was would get through and I couldn't move still and to make things worse, I tried to yell for my parents but no words would come out.

When I was convinced I was about to be face-to-face with some sort of monster, I began praying in my head that it would leave me alone and go away and not to let it hurt me. At the instant I closed my prayer, the sounds stopped for about 20 seconds or so. I heard again whatever it was moving clothes around, but this time it sounded like it was climbing back up into the attic. I heard the ceiling panel yet again slide on the roof and fall back into place and the scratching went to the far corner of the attic away from my room and faded into silence. As the noise stopped, the room seemed to grow lighter and the blanket of bad energy was lifted.

Since then, I have had several more experiences in that house. None of which were as frightening as that night. The experience was questionable, as it seemed like sleep paralysis but from what I know that usually happens from the instance of being awoken, and I was not paralyzed until the feeling of oppressive energy had engulfed the room, which was several minutes after I had awoken.

Regardless of it was a case of sleep paralysis or an actual entity, the experience was frightening and I remember it clearly as it happened to this day. I will likely post the other strange experiences I have encountered over the years and hope you enjoyed reading this!

P.S. Since this event, I have cleansed my room, as well as inside my closet right up to the attic, with sage and have had no further experiences in this particular area of the house. My parents do not like incense or the smell of a lit smudge stick so I was only able to cleanse my room, leaving the rest of the house open to activity (and believe me it lingers there still- especially in my parents' room).