Do strange images of geometric shapes, people or animals appear out of nowhere as you lie in bed at night? Perhaps you’ve heard voices or noises which can’t possibly be real?
If so, it could be that you’ve experienced what’s known as sleep hallucinations.
Despite leading to the occasional leap out of bed in sheer terror, they are usually harmless. And many people experience them at some point in their lives – including me.
My nocturnal flying geometric manifestations
As a child, multicolored geometric shapes would regularly swoop across my bedroom, just as I was drifting off to sleep. I remember simultaneously marveling at them and wishing them away so I could sleep in peace.
It doesn’t happen so often nowadays, but once in a while, I’m still prone to my mathematical manifestations.
Perhaps I should be grateful for my geeky hallucinations – especially compared to the disturbing experiences some people have.
What are sleep hallucinations?
Sleep hallucinations are imaginary experiences that happen during the transition between being awake and asleep, and can feel confusingly real.
They are also referred to as hypnagogic hallucinations if they occur while you’re falling asleep, or hypnopompic hallucinations if they happen while waking up.
The hallucinations are usually visual, such as seeing shapes or figures in the dark. But they can also involve your other senses.
The hallucinations can be vivid and frightening in some cases. If you see a giant creature in your room or hear a scary voice, it’s understandable that some people will jump out of bed and turn the light on to check what’s going on!
How many people have sleep hallucinations?
A commonly quoted statistic in medical articles comes from research conducted in 1996. The team interviewed 4972 people in the United Kingdom by telephone. They found that 37% had experienced hypnagogic hallucinations. And 12.5% had experienced hypnopompic hallucinations.
In 2000, another team of researchers surveyed 13,057 people and found that 38.7% had experienced hallucinations at some point during the day or night. 24.8% of the sample had experienced hallucinations at sleep onset, and 6.6% upon waking.
A sign of Narcolepsy
For some people, sleep hallucinations can be a sign of narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder which involves sudden daytime episodes of:
- Unexpectedly falling asleep
- Sleep paralysis
- Hypnagogic hallucinations
If you have these symptoms, it’s important to seek medical advice.
Symptoms
The main symptom is seeing or hearing things while falling asleep or waking up that aren’t real.
Researchers believe that the most common type of hallucination is visual. However, it’s possible to experience hallucinations that correspond to any of your senses:
- Visual – such as geometric patterns, shapes or light flashing. Sometimes complex forms like animals or people.
- Auditory – voices talking, phone or doorbell ringing, music, hissing, humming or whistling.
- Olfactory – pleasant or unpleasant smells.
- Tactile – insects crawling on the skin, rubbing, stroking, tapping or tickling sensations. Perhaps also feeling weightless, distortions in the body, flying.
Not the same as nightmares
Telling the difference between dreaming and hallucinating isn’t always obvious in the moment. But sleep hallucinations are not the same as nightmares.
When you wake up from a nightmare, you’ll know you were asleep (even if it takes a little while to come back to reality).
Sleep hallucinations, however, can feel like they are really happening. You know you’re awake, but you’re not convinced it’s merely your imagination playing tricks on you.
Coexisting with sleep paralysis
Sleep hallucinations sometimes happen during an episode of sleep paralysis.
During sleep paralysis, you might be unable to move your body in bed, which in itself is often frightening.
The hallucinations that accompany it can range from seeing a presence in the room to seeing and feeling a creature sitting on you.
Causes
The International Classification of Sleep Disorders manual suggests two causes related to brain function, though also states that more research is needed:
- An intrusion of dream imagery onto wakefulness.
- A lack of stimulus leading to the visual cortex in the brain creating images.
Health websites, such as healthline.com, suggest that sleep hallucinations can be caused by other conditions, such as:
- Sleep disorders like narcolepsy or sleep paralysis
- A medical condition or medication use
- A mental health disorder, such as schizophrenia
- Substance abuse
Risk factors
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, they are more common in children and young adults. Women might experience them slightly more often than men.
Some factors are thought to increase the likelihood or severity of the hallucinations, including:
- Drug or alcohol use
- Anxiety or stress
- Mood disorders like bipolar disorder or depression
- Insomnia
- Epileptic seizures
Research shows that fragmented sleep is associated with more hallucinations
In 2021, a team of researchers published an interesting study of sleep hallucinations (you can read it in full on nature.com).
Based on an online survey of 10,299 people, they found that poor sleep is associated with the occurrence of hallucinations – a point already confirmed by previous studies.
However, they further showed that fragmented sleep, i.e. regular wakings, is related to hallucinations. And that fragmented sleep is also related to the content, frequency, duration, and associated distress.
Interestingly then, people who had better sleep had less negative and less disruptive hallucinations when they did have them.
So the more you have them, the worse they might be. It seems to me to be a good motivation to tackle any factors you know that make you wake up more often in the night.
Treatment
Do you need to see a doctor?
If you’re experiencing anxiety or losing sleep because of regular sleep hallucinations, it’s a good idea to speak to a doctor or sleep specialist.
They would ask you about your hallucinations and look at your medical history and other factors like medication and lifestyle. They might decide that an overnight sleep study is needed to find out more.
They would also look at the possibility of another condition causing the episodes. And if they find one, give you the appropriate treatment.
Worried about your mental health?
If you suddenly start having hallucinations, it’s understandable that you might question your mental health. This is a point I’ve seen raised in the comments below many times, so you wouldn’t be alone in thinking something was ‘wrong’ with you.
It’s worth noting that if it only ever happens when you’re in bed trying to sleep, there’s a good chance it’s harmless sleep hallucinations. Perhaps it’s a sign you’re under a lot of stress lately, for example, but it might not be an indicator that something is wrong beyond that.
Having said that, if you have hallucinations during the day, or other symptoms that are making you feel anxious or confused about your mental health, then it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor. And if you’re still not convinced the nighttime hallucinations are benign, talk to your doctor to get a professional opinion.
If this line of thinking feels relevant to you, there’s a good article on psychologytoday.com in which a clinical psychologist talks a patient having sleep problems rather than a schizophrenic illness.
What can you do to help reduce them?
Here are some ideas which might help keep the hallucinations at bay:
- Get an adequate amount of sleep every night. Try to stick to a regular sleep schedule and don’t allow yourself to become sleep deprived.
- Avoid recreational drugs.
- Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water.
- Try to reduce your stress levels.
- Try using a soft night light in the bedroom. This might help fill the space that your brain uses as a blank canvas.
- If you tend to have auditory hallucinations, listening to music, radio or a podcast in bed might help.
- If you find yourself focusing on visual hallucinations, try to re-focus your mind on something else. Breathing exercises or muscle relaxation can keep your brain occupied.
- If it’s overwhelming, turn on a light and get up for a while, do an activity you find relaxing, and then try to sleep again after 10-15 minutes.
- Several readers have said in the comments below that wearing a sleep mask helps them.
Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are a normal part of life for many people. Once you’ve ruled out any serious illness or disorder, you’re left to deal with the experience in two ways.
First, try to adapt your lifestyle to make sure you do everything possible to sleep well. Second, relax and try not to worry about things that go bump in the night.
Your thoughts
Do you ever experience hallucinations when falling asleep or waking up? What form do they take?
Feel free to describe your experience in the comments below and share any ideas you have about dealing with them.
I have had this difficulty for years seeing people at the side or end of the bed and at first thought it was ghosts. After moving several times the people have followed me. Men women and children of all ages and more recently a grizzly bear!
I sometimes wake up in a state and have to check my husband is still alive because I think he is dead.
I am so happy I found this group!
I too see giant spiders on the ceiling and walls and on occasion people. One night a Green Beret was at the end of the bed with his rifle up to his eye like he was going to shoot. On another occasion, an old woman was sitting at the end of the bed.
I know they are not real but I usually put my head under the covers until they are gone.
I have seen spiders for a long time generally when falling asleep or if I wake up in the night, I’m not scared of them and think that they are a normal spider at first, but there is always something abnormal about them, they glow or are really big etc, then they disappear.
I have had these issues since my early twenties. Last night was the worse and led me here trying to figure it out. When I lived in Germany we had VERY large spiders, I always thought I was dreaming but it would happen as I’m falling asleep (of if I woke up in the middle of the night, but I didn’t know I was awake) – I’d see tons of spiders coming down to me from the walls/ceilings.
But last night, last night was terrifying. I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and I could have SWORN there was someone laying next to me in bed. I was so scared, I was so certain someone was there that when I got out of bed.. I even “crawled” over this so called person. I get to the bathroom and switch the light on, but no one was there.
I have been woken up in the middle of the night to what I think are noises, but now i am wondering if I am being woken up and then hearing them.
I have shared this exact experience many times! I wake up in the night and see someone in my bed with me. Once I tiptoed around my room setting up a camp bed on the floor for them because I didn’t want to sleep in the same bed. Then of course suddenly everything fades and you realise nobody was ever there!
I also regularly see people standing in the room, sometimes coming at me with guns or knives or sometimes just standing there and I wake up screaming in terror.
We also sleep with the curtain open so I can see into the street and I see things appear in the trees and shapes change outside- it’s so bizarre!
The worst part for me is how it terrifies everyone else in the house or my boyfriend in bed with me.
Hi,
I tend to see geometric structures either floating above me or falling down towards my face. It’s unsettling and I feel uncomfortable/paranoid for the rest of the night. During times of high stress I’ve seen creepy figures coming towards me or reach out for me. It’s extremely scary. My eyes are definitely open and the room is in clear view. All I can do is freeze and watch until the image fades away.
I’ve had a lot of trouble falling and staying asleep since late childhood. Also bouts of restless leg type stuff and anxiety. I’ve always had very vivid dreams. I find I finally fall asleep and sleep deepest in the morning hours. The stigma attached to late sleepers is very annoying. During times in my life when I could not set my own schedule and had to rise early I was miserable and sick all the time, sleeping about 2hrs a night sometimes not at all. I’ve learned to just accept the sleep schedule that’s best for me and ignore the critics. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences. It makes it less scary.
Wow, that’s near enough my own experience described exactly.
I also awaken to see a geometric shape hovering above. It is always glows red, but the shape usually changes each time I see it. It doesn’t happen every night. I will awaken and open my eyes and see it hovering above me. It will linger there. I am fully awake and conscious as I watch it slowly drift away from me to eventually disappear. I finally know that I am not the only one who experiences this. Are your geometric shapes a certain color?
I have started to have hypnopompic hallucinations more often. Based off of what I have read and my own experiences mine seem to trigger by becoming overheated while i sleep. I usually have a nightmare or stressful dream, followed by waking up feeling extremely hot and thirsty and that’s when I usually have a hallucination. I have experienced seeing shadow figures in the dark across the room. I need glasses to see, but these images are crystal clear until I turn on a light and relax my self. These experiences are pretty frightening. So to stop this from happening I am trying to find a comfortable sleeping temperature. I also drink a glass of water every night before bed to avoid waking up feeling dehydrated.
I usually get tactile hallucinations most and it disturbs me so much that I can’t sleep. It feels as if either the blankets are pressing on me or “breathing” (moving up and down creating periods of lightness and pressure). I also get a paranoid feeling. I want to sleep and get a good night’s sleep, but this has been keeping me up. To the point where sometimes I go whole nights without sleeping. I’ve been very stressed out lately, so maybe that’s it. I admit watching some scary things a few nights ago did not help, but I really want to get rid of the sensations completely. I’m losing sleep because I’m too scared…as pathetic as that sounds.
I’ve seen people standing next to my bed. Last night it was a large cat.
I have had a LOT of weird sleep issues such as sleep paralysis, waking up thinking there is a giant bug on me and I scream and fling it off but then after we turn on the light there is nothing there. Last night I woke up and sat up to pull up a blanket and I saw a big bug and heard it buzzing as I disturbed it moving the blanket. I turned the light on and we tore apart the bed looking for a bug and found nothing. I’ve found that I’m always worse when I am over tired. I do have other serious health problems like myasthenia gravis, a seizure disorder and MS. So I wondered if it was related to that. I also have this horrible symptom where my brain shocks me back awake every time I try to fall asleep. It is violent and painful like im being electrocuted and my husband says it literally looks like I’m being shocked as all of my body jerks. So I wondered if it was a new type of seizure. Anyways, I’m a mess lol.
I always wondered if there was an explanation for seeing, hearing things at night. I feel a lot better after reading this article. Mine got so bad I couldn’t even watch a scary movie. I would always find my self sleep walking trying to hide. Lighting some sage always helped me.
Yes hello i struggle alot from anxiety and i cant cope with stress but last night i felt like a big giant spider was crawling on my arm i felt the long legs and everything so i grab it with my hand and throw it but i turn on the light quickly but dont see anything so about 5 mins later im falling back to sleep and feel that feeling of a big spider crawling on me so i wake up yelling and look around for any spiders but dont see anything im so scared that im hallucinating,im just so scared at this moment i drank depression pills in the past for severe anxiety and panic attacks, can this be something bad??do i need help??
I also have similar dreams like that. What makes me feel better is lighting some sage. Maybe you can try that.
So I’ve read through a lot of these comments, in some I recognise myself a bit, in some I don’t. However my problems seem to vary quite a lot from most of you, but maybe someone has experienced something similar?
I’ve always been afraid of the dark and seem to “have seen things” whenever the lights goes out. More or less since I turned 25 which is a few months back now I’ve seen a male figure in my room, it has only happened a couple of times and believing in paranormal activity, spirits and such I’ve just brushed it off as someone given me a visit (how scary it might be though!). However since a few weeks back it has gotten a lot worse. It started out with again a male figure (dressed in military suit if it matters), then couple of nights later I woke up by someone, something (my mind??) stroking my hand with the tip of their fingers, quite hard as this is what woke me up – yes it could’ve been my other hand, however I have quite long nails and it didn’t feel as scratching nails. Or my mind playing a trick?
Another night I woke up by someone, something slamming down on the mattress so I literally hunched back.. Then another night by the sounds of someone tapping on the mattress. I can wake up with a pounding heart without having had a nightmare. I have very vivid dreams and seem to remember most them.
Last night I woke up at least 10 times, with a unsettling feeling, there was something weird.. One of those times I woke up as I sat back down in my bed, I’d sleep walked, which I haven’t done since I was like 7 years old. It is hard to explain exactly what it feels like and what I am experiencing, but something along these lines!!
Now this sounds probably like I’m on drugs which I can assure I’m not, haven’t even tried once.. Or like I’m mental which again, I’m sure I’m not..
So have anyone else experienced something similar? Not only seeing things but actually feeling them…Or am I going crazy?
Hi Hanna
Thanks for your comment. Tactile hallucinations are something that some people do experience. If you read the article about sleep paralysis, you’ll find lots of examples of people talking about feeling like that they were being touched or there was something in the bed with them.
Regards
Ethan
If it helps, I can relate. I see a male figure in my room almost every night. He is also a soldier. Dressed up in uniform and everything. Sometimes I’ll see him crawl onto my bed and can feel the mattress moving under his weight. Even after I close my eyes and hope he goes away, I can hear him talking to me or sometimes yelling or singing. He’s said some very disturbing things to me and the whole thing really creeps me out. I was given lunesta by my psychiatrist and while I can usually go to sleep faster, the hallucinations are worse.
Oh gosh, Kitty, I’m sorry to hear that. That’s quite scary. I feel that many of these images we create can be pent-up emotions, feelings, frustrations, and anxiety stored within our subconscious. I am a psychology major, and as I go through my courses learning about our brains and our social and developmental skills, I often apply what I read to my own thoughts, which sometimes influences my life and experiences. It may sound crazy, haha, but I think that’s a part of it. I have recently started hallucinating upon waking. The first incident was this past Tuesday. I woke up at precisely 3:31 am, and when I opened my eyes, through the reflection of the fridge (since my room and kitchen are adjacent), I saw a woman in a robe with a head scarf on, cooking breakfast. At first, I thought I was going crazy, but after blinking a few times, I realized I was indeed seeing her because she remained there. After what felt like an eternity but was about three minutes, she simply shrank to nothingness. My second experience was last night. I woke up around 2:35 am and saw a figure of a man standing in my doorway leading to the kitchen. Half of his body was in my room, and the other half in the kitchen, as if he were trying to hide from me. I could discern that he wore a blue cotton t-shirt, had black square-framed glasses, and a short haircut. He remained motionless, but given his proximity, I discreetly grabbed my phone, activated the flashlight, and directed it at him. Poof! He disappeared. I wanted to ensure he wasn’t real and that I wasn’t in imminent danger. While I can laugh about it now, it really unsettled me at the time because it made me wonder: Is this a hallucination, or am I suddenly seeing ghosts in my house after 16 peaceful years? You know what I mean? I believe it’s my imagination playing tricks on me. That vacant space in our brains, waiting for a thought to occupy it, can sometimes be our worst enemy, manifesting our deepest fears. I plan to observe if it happens again. If it does, I want to know the triggers. Why is this happening now when I’ve never experienced such visions before? I hope sharing this might help someone else. I also sleep with the TV on, but surprisingly, its light didn’t help. Message me back!
A few minutes ago actually, I woke up to my hair, like a noose hanging from the ceiling. I pull it down to stop choking me, then all the sudden I hear a lot of rats squeaking under my bed. After a few seconds a man in my dream, that was stalking me, with his huge grin I could feel right beside my ear, he said, “I see you” He laughed and I heard my bedroom door jiggle and turn, he ended up banging on the door very loudly, it seemed like it got louder, then it just stops. I then blink and I hear people talking about how they would kill them, the last person ended up talking about Freddy Kruger, I then hear her scream a blood-curdling scream as she tries to wack him with my little wooden shelf with a sharp edge, the screams die down. I then hear his voice say, ” You tried” but his voice seemed to be above me so I look up and I just see him staring down at me, with his big unrealistic grin, I then quickly turn on my lamp and open my bottle water and splash my face with it and look around seeing nothing. Currently, it 5:40am so I’ll try to get back to sleep now after being a little calm now wish me luck.
After I relax in bed at night before I go to sleep I feel something bump my bed and then I feel like small foot steps walking on my feet and legs. Sometimes I feel my husband get out of bed and flip the covers back. I look over on his side of the bed and he is sound asleep. Sometimes it feels like the bed is rolling up and down. I am frightened and I freeze. Then I get out of bed and go sleep in my recliner. I do not have these sensations in my chair. This is all disturbing to me. My husband has slept on my side of the bed and feels nothing. This has happened every night for months. I just told my husband and daughter. I thought I was hallucinating and was embarrassed.
I’ll probably not remember myself ever making this comment on here to go back to but a few nights ago I woke up all of a sudden in the middle of the night, I’ve been sleeping in brothers bed for a while since we’re in the process of moving but it’s a bunk bed. I woke up and couldn’t stretch my legs or move, I was stuck there for a while feeling claustrophobic, eventually I sat up and tried to get out. The space where the ladder normally is was moved (or I thought it was) when I got down I tried to find the light to see what happened to the bed but I could make out a white shape and could’ve move any further it felt like the wardrobe was in the way and the furniture had been moved, I kept pushing at it so I could get to the light eventually giving up and decided to find my flashlight from my phone. When I did find it and turn it on everything was back to normal, the bed looked normal, there was no moved furniture. Nothing was in my way. So I’m really confused to what happened last night. Any ideas?
Hi Chloe
Have you heard of false awakenings? It’s where you dream that you woke up, often with some strange differences, but still seems real. Then you finally wake up for real.
Regards
Ethan
Every time i close my eyes i feel weakened as If someone will break my neck or start inflicting horrible pain on me but then when i open my eyes there is nothing there. I turn on all my lights and check the whole room. I try to fall asleep again and even though i know the room is empty i keep feeling like someone there. I also keep hearing frequent sounds like the floor behind me cracking or my tv turning. Even If i try really hard to think of something good or do something relaxing its like my brain cant deny these bad things once i close my eyes or it gets dark. I cant even sleep with the light lighting up the whole room at this point. I also recently started hearing things like a baby endlessly groaning. I know its not real but no methods work please help. Sometimes my brain also misinterprets sounds like the wind blowing as someone banging or climbing up the window or a mosquito as a demon or weird being coming closer even though i know the facts.
I just woke up to a vision of a huge spider on my bed, I can’t fall back asleep in my room now cause It’s always so realistic..
For the last two nights I think I’m asleep my husband doesn’t sleep with me but last night and the night before I placed my had on his side of the bed and felt a body I had a crazy dream the last night I felt the body again but I try ed to wake up at fist I couldn’t then I sit up screaming his name when I got my eyes open there was a black form in the corner of my room I’m scared this has never happened before
I have always had night terrors and I even sleep walk from time to time, and sometimes I would wake up to see weird shapes and things of that nature. More specifically I would see things that i can only describe as cluttered spider webs covering all of my vision. I came across this article because I woke up to whispering tonight. It scared me but after a while i fell asleep. I then woke up again to the earlier described webs. Eventually again i fell asleep not as scared as that typically happens to me. So then I woke up a third time to what looked like maggots on my bed. I started screaming and turned on my light. There were no bugs or anything. So I started to do research and here i am. I really hope this article helps. Either way im going to set up an appointment with my doctor.
Red dye number 40 does this to me. I avoid it at all costs.
I used to get sleep paralysis a lot, esp after a big dose of stress. But lately if i go to bed after 11pm or midnight, ive been getting these weird dreams. I wake up with a gasp and see things in my hallway for a few seconds. The item starts to fade but it takes me a while to realize it isnt really there. Its been all sorts of strange almost circus characters. Weird freaky shapes but a ‘person’ walking but not. I can wake up like this between 1 and like 4 times within an hr or two before falling to sleep. Nice to see an article on it. When i have a better understanding i tend to be able to control things a bit more
Hi, I’m not really what is it that I’m experiencing or what is the actual definition of it.
Basically sometimes after i fall asleep for about an hour or two i feel that someone has punched me and i wake up. or that there is someone in the room despite the fact that i’m alone at this time. and i feel like i can’t move or that i’m scared to move and look around. and when i have the courage to do so. i find sometimes things that aren’t there. and they are different each time. yesterday it was a small side bed lamp that is floating and goes right and left. i kept looking to it and i was already awake and pretty sure that i’m hallucinating and it kept fading away. sometimes it like a small light/dark circle that is always right on the ceiling corners. sometimes i know i’m awake but it seems that my mind and actions are not my own and i found myself trying to control them with my hand (Sounds weird and creepy now that I’ve actually said it). and the most disturbing parts is the laughs and the unknown sounds that doesn’t make any sense. it’s like i hear it inside my head only. yeah i know i’m the only one that hearing them but it’s not like i hear them out like they way you hear the radio or tv sound. it’s just in my head. it freaks me out. sometimes i hear those sounds and i understand them but it’s always really terrible things and i believe them like this one time they told me your brother is dead. it’s really sad and really bad and sometimes it’s overwhelming and i don’t know what to do. besides, i have nightmares like 3 – 4 times a week. and i mean nightmares and in black and white. i wake up after them terrorized and i can’t shake the feeling that i’m still awake. it’s like for the next 5 seconds i can’t tell if i’m awake or still asleep. i already seen someone and they told me it’s just stress. but that doesn’t make any sense. i took some meds and they aren’t helping at all. it seems even worse that actually recently i feel like my mind is playing more tricks on me. like when i’m working or watching tv. for a second i feel like there is someone there. and when i look of course there is no one.
The only good thing that thank god i’m aware that it’s only my mind playing tricks but it keeps going and going and sometimes it really effects me and i really don’t know what to do and how to handle them any more since i keep waking up after 1 – 2 hours each day. good really use and advice.
Sorry for the long comment and pardon my English since it isn’t my first language.
omg I experience exactly the same things here..
Any luck finding out the reason. symptoms keeps getting worse here :) yesterday i woke up because i kept hearing a music in my head. for a minute i wasn’t sure if i were still asleep or not. so i got to the kitchen, poured some juice and smoked a cigarette and the music were still playing. wtf is this :D
I’m not exactly sure when this started. I have always had night terrors and lack or over sleep. However, as of lately (I’m 25 year old female) I have been having trouble sleeping at night. I usually began getting tired around 3pm and falling asleep around 4pm. I exercise and eat regularly health at the exception of sweets. I drink tons of water. The only health issue that I’m aware of is high blood pressure which is due to family history and stress. When I sleep I have very vivid dreams that I can mostly control. The biggest issue I have been having is waking up terrified. Breathing deeply, staring and checking the room as if there was something terrible lurking. I wake up to the sounds of human screams at times, but mostly the feeling of someone watching me. When I wakeup I am very scared, but assure myself it’s not real and there is no reason to be scared. This will happen even if I have pleasant dreams. I have known to wake up at least 5xs per night (I have a fitbit that track my sleep). Sometimes I catch glances of what appears to be shadows descending as my vision comes clear. I have tried calming my mind before bed, praying, sleeping with low lighting, and no lights at all. I’m not quite sure what to do. I’d really like to enjoy a peaceful full nights of rest.
Ive been having what I call waking dreams, for a very long time, since I was a child. I was a sleep walker and I would wake up and still be in my dream in a different part of the house. I remember last year I woke up standing in front of the back door trying to shake the darkness out of my blanket. Yup. Its that weird. I would see strange figures, gremlin looking creatures, snakes, bugs and all sorts of strange things. I remember not being afraid after a while of being used to it and I tried to touch the hallucinations. The one that creeped me out the most was when I felt my son crawl over my legs one night, I woke up and saw him smiling at me while he was on my legs and when I turned over, my son was sound asleep next to me. Yet I just saw and felt him on my legs. This past week ive had hypnagogic hallucinations almost every night. I even charged at my husband when he opened the bedroom door because I thought he was someone in my dream. It usually happens when I am really stressed and it just so happens that I started a new job last week, so maybe that is the cause of it.
Anyways, its nice to know im not crazy, im not alone and there is a real name for it. Although, it will always be known to me as my waking dreams.
Hi Linsday
Thanks for your comment. Have you heard of false awakenings? You might find that an interesting read!
Regards
Ethan
In the last few weeks, unsure if between falling asleep or waking up. I have seen up on the ceiling, up on the left a falling, folding spiders web. Or similar veil like object floating down towards me. Have always been a very light sleeper. So glad I have read peoples similar articles. I am not frightened, just thought it odd.
When I was about 4 – 5 years old, I slept with my bedroom door open to the hallway. At the far end of the hallway I saw dancing shapes in the pitch darkness, usually colorful dots, tools (hammers, saws, nails), animals, or kitchen utensils. This occurred most night as I fell asleep. I was a pretty anxious kid though, hated the dark and was always afraid of robbers breaking in. I turned these shapes into my buddies that would help scare away the robbers and their constant presence become sort of soothing lol.
Now I’ll have auditory hallucinations when I’m incredibly tired and forcing myself to stay awake. It sounds like a radio playing in the background of my head, constantly changing the stations. I usually don’t even notice it’s happening at first because I’m so tired. Sometimes I’ll recognize the voices and I think my brain is replaying things I’ve listened to over the last several days.
Sometimes I’ll also wake up in the middle of the night hallucinating and it’s ALWAYS a giant freaking spider somewhere on my wall. I always leap out of bed and turn on my light at lighting speed since the light will make the hallucination go away. One time I spent about 20 seconds searching for the spider before I realized it had been a hallucination. I’m pretty sure these are stress-related, but I’ll get one every two months or so.
I am 30 and since my childhood hallucinating very scary figures , while sleeping in dark. The thing disappears but I end up shouting with my heart beating fastly. This I suffer only when I switch off lights. I can’t sleep in dark. I wish sometime in life I sleep in dark without hallucinating and shouting like crazy.
I am so glad I found this to read and that I am not alone. I have had a lot of the smaller issues but just started about a week ago to have more. Now I wake up (or think I do) and when I look at my husband next to me it is not him.
1. First time it was our dog laying in bed with me.
2. Second time it was a HUGE Doberman laying in bed with me. Which freaked me out.
3. Last night my husband was a Baked Chicken. Not sure why but was frightening just to see that.
I have not told him that one yet. I am afraid he will really think I am insane. But after reading everyone’s stories I am glad to know I am not alone. Thank you everyone for sharing.
I had this for the first time and it was unbelievable and kind of frightening.
I was having a night terror and forced myself up rather quickly (I’ve had so much that I know how to force myself up). When I woke up there was the figure standing on my bed RIGHT next to me. What was jarring was that I realized I wasn’t in sleep paralysis because I quickly realized I could move. It seemed so real that I could easily visually describe it if I had a picture. The figure was standing on my bed to the left of my shoulder and was wearing ALL black clothes with its back toward me, hands in its pockets. The figure also looked like a kid. It wasn’t showing a speck of skin and it honestly looked sorta like a ninja of some sort but it looked like it was wearing modern clothes just all black. After seeing this, for some reason my mind isn’t scared but is curious. I reach my hand to touch it and it goes right through. After that, the figure LITERALLY starts to float through the wall and that was it. I thought I saw more stuff in the dark but honestly scared at this point and just wanted to turn on a light. I should also mention that this all happened in like a span of 15 seconds, it was pretty quick. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to me and it was honestly unbelievable. It’s crazy what the mind can do because it looked SO REAL I’m not even joking believe me. I will also mention that I’ve been having night terrors for about a week now so that also might’ve been a cause.
This morning I woke up very suddenly, almost with no trigger at all, but I did wake up.. as I was waking up I immediately looked over at my hand and saw a large black bug of some sort hanging on the tips of my index and middle finger. So immediately my reaction was to bang and flick my hand off the side of my bed to get the bug off. I take a second to adjust and wake up more.. feeling shocked still and I get up and strip my clothes. I got back into my room lights on looking for this huge bug I KNOW I flicked off my hand and yet I find nothing… it was terrible and I’ve been awake 30 minutes since..
Your experience sounds like mine. I fell asleep watching TV with my white dog laying up against me. I woke up and saw a huge black bug crawling up to my dog and me. I jumped up out of bed looking for the bug and hitting the bed. I woke my husband up. He was laughing at me. He said it was nothing but the chocolate I ate earlier that day. For about two months now I have strange dreams and not sleeping well at night. I’m constantly waking around 2 or 3 a.m… I have skin sensations like someone is touching me constantly. Even my hair feels like someone is touching it. This happens when I’m asleep and during the day when I’m awake. I started walking and exercising to try and achieve a better sleep. It helps if I exercise before bed. No more coffee or caffeine on a daily basis.
When i finally in the nights feel i can fall asleep I see a brown girl with long eyes in shapes of a cat, in a like “yoga” position. Just staring into my head. Haven’t figured out what the girl wants. In over 10 years i had a sleeping disorder. I have seen this picture of this girl many times before. I get a feeling of fear, paranoid and getting extremely warm in my body. the same picture of that girl in the background of an antfarm looking thing with dungeons of very small black, stick figures climbing around. Its strange but its not the first and I guess not The last thing that keeps me awake all nights.
I think this is what I’m having. At least 2 nights a week if not more I’ll see things and hear things. It was especially bad after just moving in and getting used to the different sounds but I still get very nervous and scared. I will hear noises of all kinds and see things like flashes of light. I have been dead asleep and woken up because I’ve heard something i thought was the front door opening. I experienced what felt like someone touching my hair in my sleep. But even durring the day I get uneasy feelings. I watch over my back and I always try to stay more alert of my surroundings. I thought I’ve seen a face in my living room window before. I have gotten out of the shower and looked out my bathroom window and it has looked like someone wiped the steam away. I always see my x bf or his mom when I go out. I’m diagnosed with hypersomnia
And bi polar 2 but my mom thinks I may be bi polar 1 or schizophrenic. I’ve had day time delusions about my boyfriend cheating. Fears that when I go out I’ll be in a car accident or shot I’ve even thought about earthquakes and storms. I get nervous about what time to leave and avoiding things. If I leave to early it could cause a wreck. I’ve been in 2 wrecks this year but I could of been in at least 5 more. I get nervous about my child’s well-being in public. Scared of him being taken or hurt. I can’t focous our breath easy.
I never realy had them till I was with my x bf he started to harming me and it met me up now I have had them every day for the last 5 years they have gotten better over the years but I never new what it was till now . Make me happy to know I’m not crazy
I am 40 years old and have been seeing things that’s not there since I was 15. I first saw a snake then started seeing bugs. Now I see people or faces and this is extremely frightening. I’m glad I’m not alone as other people have experienced similar situations
This has happened to me about three times in one year that I can remember of. Before, when my sister and I used to share a bedroom, I’ve queekly woken up in the middle of the night and didn’t rlly endurstand why bcz I was deeply asleep. I then turned around.. and on my side of the desk that was between both of are beds was my sister sitting on the floor holding her knees tightly towards her chest with her face hidden(looked like if she was crying) but it didn’t look real, she looked like a hologram. This time it was something kinda different, so I now have my own bedroom and before going to bed my mom used to say good night and turn off my room light. the last thing I saw before closing my eyes was my mom walking away from my bed to turn off the light. So then in the middle of the night I randomly woken up queekly and what I saw was my mom standing up in the same potition that I saw before closing my eyes, but it wasn’t moving..it was weird and it was the same kind of hologram that I saw of my sister but one of them were green and the other white but I don’t remember which was which. I haven’t seen those things since then but I have one after that hear loud breathing under my bed, like if there was someone sleeping under me.
I’m 21 years old and remember seeing things since i was 10. Last one was today I saw a larva of a fly wiggling my way on my mattress (from tv show survivor) what was weird was how detailed it was even though i now sleep with lights on or in day. It kinda feels like i hallucinate in the day seeing shadow figures in corners of eyes/flying orbs of light/ and what feels like ants running from my knee up to my neck. My night hallucinations when i was younger was just terror, (black cat on floor corner of bed/old mans rotting glowing face 1 foot away flying at me screaming as i open my eyes/ and what looks like if you poured a liquid out in zero gravity i experience visuals with sounds that have lasted 5+ minutes till I run to turn on the light and i am wide awake during that time.
Hey man, 25yrs old and like you I’ve had these hallucinations since around the age of 10. I don’t experience them as often anymore, unless I’m stressed at work, but in high school and college I saw them 2 – 3 nights a week and more often than I would’ve like they were terrifying…girl from the ring in the corner of my room, person with a bloody head, troll in my closet, etc. for the most part these hallucinations were benign and never caused fear, but I’m glad they’ve stopped…
Anyway, hope you’re sleeping alright! Don’t let it get to you!
I am 75 years old, I have always seen things at night that I knew were not there. The illusions were kinetic, organic in form, sparklely and benign. I would often find myself batting at the air as the visions flew toward me. I was always aware they were of no substance, not real, and only seen by me. My childhood was one of poverty and stress. My adult life was rarely without stress. At this point I have the least stress ever in my life and have not had a reoccurrance since my husband died in 2015. Interestingly the only daytime version of this occurred when I was ironing his shirt and glance up to see his face melt off…I was 30 at the time. It is a relief to know this phenomenon has a name. I never doubted my sanity but felt this would not be understood by anyone not having experienced it.
I am 75 years old, I have seen things at night that I knew were not there. The illusions were kinetic, organic in form, sparklely and non threatening. I would often find myself batting at the air as the visions flew toward me. I was always aware they were of no substance, not real, and only seen by me. It is a relief to know I am not alone in this.
I don’t know if its the same thing but one night a few years ago i turned off the light and ran to my bed and jumped in i laid down and all of a sudden i felt cold hard floor instead of my mattress and i realized i was on the floor then these weird colorful ghost-like figures that were making a strange noises and started to push me in the ground then i started dreaming
I only had a drink of water and thats all
First of all, sry for my English…
I’m 30 years old, not using any pills…
It happens roughly once a month, beginning with last year, when I suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, seeing small animals, like rats/mouses, lizards, bugs, spiders, snakes… in my bed, near me, always running away from me, crawling back under the bed and other furniture… Actually, I just see shapes and shadows of these animals, and I’m never assured what kind of creature was there. It always seems 99% real, and often I’m forced to turn on the light and follow/find these things but of course, I never found them. Usually, I’m not afraid of above-mentioned animals,
except snakes. Until I read other comments I was thinking that this thing must be some kind of aliens experimenting on my body when I sleeping, and when I wake up and noticed them, they run away…probably I was watching too many alien movies ;)
same here – sometimes i feel like bugs and spiders are crawling on my walls its like real almost and creepy
I am 73. I began hallucinating spiders crawling on my legs (have neuropathy and restless leg) which turned into baby crabs clawing at my toes. Last night I saw a snake for a few minutes and it went away when I realized it really was not there, but a persistent owl was sitting on a flower arrangement on my armchair, and although I knew it was not real, I could not disperse it. Instead, it became more of a multicolor feathered bird and stayed until I went back to sleep. For about six months I have been caught in an apparent dream, although if you asked I would tell you I don’t dream, and my mother, father (both deceased) and yesterday my son were there individually although in absentia, and I was compensating for them until I was awake enough to realize I was in my bed in my own bedroom. I have a multitude of health issues, not the least of which is macular degeneration, and just read that it can have an effect on night hallucinations. But I also have osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, and fibromyalgia, which would also account for the crawling sensation and the crabby stuff; however, this is a daunting experience in addition to my inability to sleep through the night or for more than a few hours at a time. Reading these comments, I realize that the majority of the older folks have similar issues. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were answers out there? The situation is quite unconscionable and makes me feel disheartened. Just one more joy of elder life.