Unexplained Phenomenons

My husband and I moved into the apartment we currently reside in a little over two years ago. It's quite spacious and has updated amenities. There is a master bedroom with a full bath attached and a guest bedroom with a restroom just outside of it. We live on the top floor of a 3-story apartment building and have only one neighbor with whom we share a wall with that is seldom noisy. With that being said, there have been a few instances where I've questioned what I saw and heard.

The first few months that we lived here, I'd notice that the hall light outside of the both the bedrooms would be on in the morning two to three times a week. At first, I thought surely it was one of us leaving it on at night and forgetting that we had. Then, after several occurrences and both my husband and I denying they we left it on to each other, I decided to verbally acknowledge that I was turning it off. I looked at my husband before we went into the master bedroom that night and said, "Ok, this is me turning off the light, so we know for certain that it should be off in the morning." I said it jokingly but part of me was serious and needed an explanation.

There would be no reason for him and or I to venture out at night because there's a bathroom in the master bedroom and we always came to bed with full bottles of water. You can imagine my surprise in the morning when I came out (while my husband still slept) and found the light on yet again, the switch turned up and all. This made my hair stand on end. However, as time went on, the light being on in the hallway lessened and has finally stopped about six months ago.

I've tried to come up with an explanation for it, and the only thing I can think of is that I may be sleep walking, which is something I used to do up until about five years ago. I don't think this is as likely though because my husband says he hasn't seen me do it since then, and he always used to catch me doing it (from what he tells me as I of course have no memory of it, haha!)

The next instance happened about a year ago in the master bedroom. I was asleep and was woken abruptly by a soft sound (a thud or a pop). The south side of the bedroom has a door that leads to the balcony and always has a bit of light shining through its blind due to the street lights in the parking lot below. As I woke, I turned my head towards the door and saw what looked to be the silhouette of a person standing about a foot in front of it. There were no features, but I could tell by its shoulders and torso that the figure was male (perhaps about 5'7") and it was wearing a hat. Our bed sits opposite the door, so the figure was turned directly towards us about seven feet from the end of the bed. I was so startled that I jolted out of bed and turned on the light for the entire room (my husband was confused and I didn't explain until morning to him what I had seen). Of course, there was nothing there.

My heart would not stop pounding for about 30 minutes after the incident. I tried rationalizing what I saw as a dream leaked over into reality (if you know what I mean). I had a similar instance happen to me when I was about 14 and saw a figure directly next to my bed standing and looking down. It was so close to my bedside lamp that I thought my eyes had plaid a trick on me, but at the time, it felt so real. That figure also vanished as soon as I turned on the light.

The final and most significant thing happened to me last night, leading to me writing down all of these occurrences. I was laying on my side of the bed (right side) which has a nightstand and a lamp directly next to it. If you were to lay on your side facing out, you'd be facing a window that let\'s a little light in much like the patio door. I fell asleep at about 11:30 PM and woke facing the outside exactly 45 minutes later (I checked the clock). I don't know why I woke up, but I immediately noticed something on my nightstand. It was roughly the size of a bird, and that was what my brain made it to be. It was completely black and sitting about a foot from my face. I then saw it move to the left, much like a movement of a bird walking (with a little sway). I was so frightened I yet again jumped out of bed and turned on the light fully expecting there to be a creature on my nightstand. As you can guess, there was nothing when I looked.

I checked high and low (no sign of anything, and there had been no noise) and told my husband what I saw. He thought it might have been the dream leaking into reality again, but to me it was so vivid that I was nearly positive there was an animal in the room. I was so exhausted that I wasn't even afraid to turn the light off and attempt to go back to sleep.

Here is the odd part. Almost instantly after turning off the light, a memory of my grandfather came into my mind. I could see and hear him so clearly as I lay there trying to fall back asleep, and the thought of him and his voice eventually led me to drift off. He passed away a little over four years ago. There was no reason for me to be thinking of him and I did not even question it until the morning. Was it him that I saw, a ghost, a dream, or something else?

Side notes: I sometimes find our closet light on and hear thuds in the space above our apartment (all minor things).

With all these stories being shared, I'd love to hear your opinions on them. I'm not the type of person to say paranormal experiences are untrue, but I also try to be rational and come up with explanations for the unexplained. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks for reading, and I'll update if anything else happens!