Last night I flipped the switch to turn on the back porch light, heard a pop, and the light didn't come on. I thought that was strange if the bulb died, to hear a noise at the switch like that. I soon ventured outside in the dark and found the sensor light wouldn't come on either. So I thought that's REALLY strange, they couldn't both burn out at the same time. Eventually MY personal light bulb came on, and I found that the nearby bathroom light also was not working. So I struggled to reach the circuit breaker box in the basement... found the right switch for outdoor lights, even though it didn't appear to be flipped (?) not sure if slightly... I turned it off and back on again and everything works again. I just find this very strange and it's worrying me. I'm alone, somewhat disabled, and clueless, but I've become paranoid about things going wrong in the home. Absolutely nothing was overloaded when I turned the switch on; I had maybe one or two other lights on in the house. Why would switching on a light switch cause this? Can it just be a freak occurrence?

There may had been a short in the light or that circuit past the switch.

Breakers trip due to two possible events, either a short circuit or an overload.

Once the short occurred, and breaker tripped, the actual short cleared, allowing you to turn on the breaker.

The short clearing may actually be an open circuit that exists. But you state all that is affected is now working.

Sometimes shorts occur inside lamps (light bulbs), usually the lamp is burned out, there may be a short a lamp, not shorting out now, may be intermittent.

Lesson learned, always keep paths to and at panelboards clear to allow easy access.

If all is working now, keep an eye on it, it it trips again, may need a professional to come in and troubleshoot the issue.

Thank you! :) I'm hoping it won't trip again... but if it does I will have to get help I guess. Yeah, all the light bulbs were still working after I switched the breaker off and on. It's just that I can work myself into a panic imagining an electrical fire in a wall or something... well I've had any number of problems this year with plumbing, roof leaks, a gas leak, etc. So it's like "now what?!" I've become a nervous wreck I think. I just found it so strange, how this happened... but hopefully it WAS just a freak occurrence.

Thanks for responding!

If it tripped once, experience tells me it will, or should, trip again, sometime in the future.

There is no such thing as a freak occurrence when dealing with electrical equipment.

It tripped for a reason.

I hope, for your sake, it does not trip again, or holds for some time to give you a chance to catch up.