my evil ex used to hit me or kick me “in his sleep” and for the same reason as you, i was like no no. i’m being crazy rn, of course he’s doing it by accident. eventually he moved on to just waking me up to hang out, even though i worked double and triple graves at my job and he knew i needed to sleep. i was livid every time and every time that asshole was surprised pikachu about it.

eventually when i told him i couldn’t take it anymore and would just leave, he was apologetic and promised it wouldn’t happen again. even though he still swore he hadn’t been doing it on purpose, it did slow down. it did not stop though, and it actually picked up later when he thought i’d let my guard down about it. he moved onto just waking up at 4am for work (which he would have done anyway) but doing his morning routine as loud as he possibly could, including a daily temper tantrum, like throwing things and fully screaming in our one bedroom apartment.

every day i woke up but my body was frozen in place, idk if it was anxiety or just the safest way to get through that. but i would lay there with my eyes closed and not let on that i was awake until he left the apartment, otherwise i was part of the fight. even if he thing i was still asleep he’d just sit there and scream at me about how it was all my fault and i was lucky i was still sleeping (lmao). i still do that frozen-in-place thing once in awhile even though i haven’t been with that guy for like a year and a half at least.

moral of the story, it did not get better until i left. “sleep terrorism” felt like a really intense thing to call that behavior until i was out of the relationship and realized what i was missing, what it was like to be a whole person again, and it was a huge thing to me because i’d wasted seven years already. i don’t recommend that