In all seriousness though, when I was around 12 years old, my family and I lived in a 3 bedroom apartment here in Dallas. My dad has vices and has struggled with a different one depending on the point in his life and it so happened that one night he wasn't home by midnight, so my mom decided to wait up for him. Since they had a huge comfy bed, I decided I was going to sleep in it until my dad got home and they wanted to go to sleep. My younger sister (I think like 6 or so at the time) was already asleep on one side, so I laid on the other, closer to the window of the room. I fell asleep and awoke for some reason in the middle of the night. The room was pitch black and I couldn't see anything. I started to sit up when I heard breathing to my right, sounded very raspy (makes my eyes tear and hair stand on end when I remember it).
I thought maybe I was hearing things outside so I sat still, then heard it again. I lay right back down and turn the opposite way, facing in toward the bed. The breathing continued and actually moved around the foot and to the other side of the bed where my sister was. I was curled into fetal position at this point, lol, and I reached my hand out to my sisters and held it while she slept. I actually heard the breathing cease for a moment when I heard whatever it was, bump into my parent's dresser. Eventually I fell asleep I guess as I remember laying there, terrified in the fetal position so tight that my muscles were burning and then later waking up with sunlight coming through the blinds.
I don't know what happened. We didn't have pets, the windows were painted shut, and nobody had been in the room according to my Mom who stayed up all night. I told her what happened and she told me that my dad had been sleeping on the couch for the past 2 months on a nightly basis because he didn't feel right in that room.
The first night we stayed in the apartment, we hadn't brought our furniture so my dad and I had made like a bed out of blankets and stuff and sort of camped out in their big walk-in closet. What I didn't know is that it took my dad a few minutes to open the door the next morning as it was lodged shut somehow while we slept. Unfortunately we didn't move out of there for another year, so I just stayed in my room on the opposite end of the apartment at night with a light on.
I only jest because if the kids actually experienced something like this, they'll definitely be affected for the restof their lives. Something small like what happened to me makes me unable to sleep without the television turned on, even during the day for some reason.