I feel so, so sorry for you, Tinytail. It may be a combination of a freezing room, eating before sleeping, etc.
You should ask your parents to raise the thermostat at night, and...
The shadowy figures.
Those may be a half-formed illusion by your mind of some sort, and I told my mom once that before falling asleep once that I saw a "shadowy figure with green eyes." She said it may have been my cat, but then I described it better-- A tall, shadow man with eyes of green, with a darker green at the rim.
I also have had a few recurring nightmares, and details in some dreams. The dreams part is, however, irrelevant.
Also, jigsaw-puzzle-piece shaped lights in my room appear time to time.
Recurring nightmares include things I can only describe as puffy blue zombie things, caused by burger gunk.
Then the non-recurring ones, since I don't think I actually had any other recurring nightmares.
Slendermen all over the place in the Guest Bedroom. And then I got captured.
Giant fricking wasp in a room down in our old Texas house...
And that's about all I can remember for now.
A few last details; I always wake with tingling feet. It's hard to describe.
And I am RIDICULOUSLY detached from reality nowadays-- So, yeah.
And the strangling may be Sleep Paralysis as was stated possible.
