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.
My brother had a lunicar stroke in Nov 2016. Ever since, when he wakes up, he is seeing people ( images) that he knows are not there. Any ideas ? At first he was scared but he is a very rational person and knows they are not rel people just images. Anyone Dr have any input ? Thanks.
Hi there
Sorry to hear that. I think considering the medical history, the best thing is to consult his doctor to see if it’s connected to the stroke – which it sounds like since it started at the same time. They can tell you whether it’s something that needs to be looked into, or if it’s simply sleep hallucinations which have started and are nothing to worry about.
Regards
Ethan
When I was younger, I had night terrors. Now I wake up every night at 4 a.m. and I see various shapes, animals and people in vivid colors. They look like they are on peel and stick sticker paper. They don’t frighten me at all.
Holy &*%$. This always used to happen to me at night when i was growing up when i was falling asleep. I would see stars and geometric patterns and waves of colour and then i would open my eyes and see shadows and faces on the walls which would then morph into actual people and the feeling of being tapped it would always terrify me. I had completely blocked it out of my mind and it has started happening to me again. It’s so awful. I think a therapy i have started going to has brought up a lot from my childhood that i had blocked out.
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. This is where you stop breathing while sleeping. I have night terrors and hallucinations and bouts where I don’t know where I am and I think I am trapped somewhere in the darkness. I stumble about the room grabbing at things and trying to figure out where I am and what is going on. It is terrifying… almost enough to cause PTSD.
I believe that the confusion and hallucinations are from a lack of oxygen. I think the terror is from a burst of adrenaline released by my body/brain trying to wake me up to get me to breathe. I literally shoot out of the bed madly and scramble about trying to find out where I am.
Wearing my cpap mask helps… when it doesn’t make my nose all clogged up. Also I find that leaving a night light on helps. The night light may not stop the episodes, but it significantly shortens the time it takes for me to regain my senses. Walking around the house a couple of times before I go back to bed to shake off the adrenaline helps.
Every night without fail i see things. I get sleep paralysis. Just as i drift off i get the feeling im being watched and when i open my eyes i can see someone next to the bed and cant move. Sometimes i see massive spiders or things moving one my curtains. Freaks me out and takes me a while to get back to sleep after my heart stops racing
I often hear voices when I was falling asleep, and then, I woke up. I experienced these things even now. I once had been in a sleep paralysis. I also onc felt that I was unable to breathe easily and once saw unidentified small figure on the wall in the darkness when I was still a kid. I have also experienced Lucid Dream and it is very much awesome for me. However, now I mostly experience sleep paralysis and hearing voices when falling asleep.
Some people say that I might be a creative person when I have these symptoms, well, I love to write and draw stories. But, I am interested in these stuff actually. Some say that if I dont fighg my sleep paralysis I might enter a lucid dream while in my case I have that lucid dream on its own, without having sleep paralysis at first.
I am just sharing my experiences here :) But I would like to know more about these stuff.
I have this. I see my covers bundled at the foot of my bed. And then I see them moving but I know nothing’s there because I touch them and I can hear someone saying distorted things.
I have been experiencing this for 2 years now in my case when I wake up from being asleep quite late at night I see people that I know like a friend and the won’t talk they will just be standing there or sittin there and I will talk to them thinking there actually there then I will look away for a second and the person will be gone and it terrifies me I am now scared to sleep
I am 27 years of age. And I don’t care for anything really not interested in any strange stuff . But last year when I woke up, I very briefly felt a fizzing sensation of something hitting me. And this is only a very small example and I promise you this is truth.
Last night, I heard a skillsaw just outside my house cutting wood. So I opened my eyes – noise disappears. Close my eyes – saw starts again. Open close, start stop. So I knew it wasn’t a real saw outside. But the noise seemed so real it created a shockwave thru my body starting in my chest and feathering out to my extremities. Painful. Then the saw stopped, and next I heard my own voice whispering in the darkness. Creepy.
I’m going through this right now and it’s AWFUL for me. The wall beside my bed has a window, and one more lighted part of the window frame appears to be disjointed and suddenly very close. I can move my hand through it, but if I push it, it moves back to the window. Sometimes it multiplies to be two or three items hovering. I also see specks swirling and forming blobs. One part that I find terrifying is with my nearsightedness I see the large red numbers of my clock as a fuzzy animation of a puppet head turning it’s head to look at me and then I usually have to wake my husband to sit up with me with the lights on. 2-3 AM fun every night this week. I have a call in to my doctor now. I thought it was aura but I never get that daily.
I have this thing after me at nite it is making a mess of my sleep ,some times its theses BIG spiders climbing up my walls & big bunny rabbits that you can see though, I ‘v gotten so bad with out my sleep that some time when I wake up like that I feel like I’m going to die & that makes me really have a bad feeling any one else going though something like this
Yep indeed see spiders all the time when it happens. Like what most people see. Sometimes it’s faces, or hands, a couple times a shadowed figure. I would even talk to objects in my room thinking they were actually something or someone. I had a funny hallucination one time, thought my laundry basket was a tiny robot, and I started questioning it, I said “what, whoa are you real?” Lol and then I realized I was talking to my basket. But yeah I don’t ever have sleep paralysis when I wake up and hallucinate, I always jump out of bed or move my hands around to where I saw the thing to see if I could touch it. While I’m still half asleep or whatever. But the most I always see are spiders, sometimes two at a time or really big ass spiders crawling around on my wall or bed or me lol.
OH and I’m not even scared of spiders, I find them really cool actually. I think it’s the “outta no where” sense that makes me jump,out of bed because they were right there when I opened my eyes.
My elderly mother (who is definitely not senile!) has recently started having frightening and very vivid hallucinations at night when she wakes from sleep and they continue for a while when she gets up and goes downstairs sometimes. But never during the day. We think it is due to her poor quality of sleep and being basically very over tired. She is only taking routine painkillers which she has taken fpr years
She fully understands that they are not real but still finds it very scary. We are comforted to read this article and know that it isnt all that uncommon.
I am 82 and started having vivid hallucinations just as I go to sleep. People with brightly colored clothes, etc. not always frightening except for close proximity. Some, however, are frightening. I’m just trying to get through the night. I don’t think it’s medications, not senility, etc so these posts have helped. Tell your mother to hang in there. I am. Mary
Currently reading this article because as I was sleeping one side of body went immovable and I heard wild, loud laughter coming from outside my door. I’ve experienced the feeling of someone kicking my back, I’ve see the door knob move, but I am grateful because I know many of you have experienced worse and for that I am so sorry. Thanks for the article and for the reassuring comments.
**if you’re a believer, I encourage you to also pray and read Bible verses intending for times of anxiety or stress as it calms you**
Sweet dreams (fingers crossed)
It happened to me this morning two times the first a man with a checkered mask was standing next to my bed. The second time my bedroom door was hanging wide open but when I finally got up later it was closed. What does this mean ?
I’ve had sleep paralysis and hallucinations for much of my life, but they only became terrifying as an adult. I would see random benign objects floating overhead, but nothing sinister. 99% of the time now, I see one or more dark figures standing by my bed, and often lunging to grab me. Occasionally I can describe every detail about them. I often wake and sit up gasping or calling my husband’s name. Last night I woke up in the worst terror, ever. As usual, a person was standing just next to me and then lunged to grab me. I screamed so badly and cried. It took the longest time to stop shaking and crying. I’ve been crying off and on when thinking about it this morning. My poor husband hates seeing me like this.
I experience this a lot – people lunging at me, staring at me or sitting on top of me. I once ‘woke up’ and it was like I was in the middle of an old battlefield and there was a man with a musket pointed at my face.
Totally empathise with the distress this causes. The amount of times I’ve woken up with my heart hammering is unbelievable. I hope it lets up for you.
It’s crazy to me that no one thinks any of these are supernatural. I know the ones I see are. I see shapes that float and sort of glow. I know there not harmful. They even woke me up once my daughter was burning up 105.2, I’m positive they are keeping us safe!
It’s so scary and so surreal… it usually happens when I have a rough time falling asleep. I wake up roughly an hour or two into my sleep in a panic. I have seen such vivid images. I’ve seen spiders and huge bugs crawling on my bed, I saw my friend across the room, I have seen two masked guys walking towards me, I’ve seen a scary girl run towards me, one time I woke up feeling as if I was being choked, I’ve seen my boyfriend curled into a ball on the floor when he was actually sleeping next to me and one time I even woke up and started walking to my tv to turn it on but my whole room was changed and when I actually woke fixtured my eyes I was standing by the wall. I remember everything and when I come to reality I’m usually sitting up straight panicing with increase heart rate. It’s insane because when it’s happening I get up straight and actually talk and know what’s going on. It’s a bizarre thing. I take adderall and lexapro, I think that could be a cause.
My husband has for many years said he sees people in the bedroom at night. He started taking Lexapro about 2 weeks ago and has now started seeing more vivid images like dark smoky creatures running along the ceiling & then disappearing into the roof, a mouse running up the curtain and along the curtain rod. He left the ensuite light on but the images still happened. Like you I am also thinking that the increased incidence may have been caused by the Lexapro.
Hey
i’m only 17 and this has started when i was about 15 . I see mostly really disturbing things like a girl watching me with a white dress and long black hair that is hidding her face . Yesterday i’ve seen several people holding dolls on strings and all laughing at once and when i put my lights on they dispear . I see these kind on things when i sleep on the left side of my bed , i really want it to stop and it freaks me out , i’m already a stressed person . Nowdays i’ve been having it more often like around 3 times a week and i hate it so much
You hear sounds ..doors closing then bangs then another door closing. Then bottles or something being dropped one after the but too quickly. I knew it was hallucinatory when I seen my door open and close and my iPhone apear by my hand and a screen came on it beeped. The reality was my iPhone was off with the headphones beside my bed. These are probably perceptions of other dimensions. Ive felt a energy try to force inside and I felt a scratching sensation on the side of my head but burning. And a tickle alone the top.
That sound very interesting story!…I am a film maker I love making my own short films can I used your story for making a short horror film is that be ok with you.
I do love making films.
Yeah but this is feint sounds in your head, and feint hallucinations you only just noticed them. They do not last long you wont even believe what I experienced you wont find it in any film. My most recent hallucination was last night. Rarely they happen I know I was dreaming a lot went to bed at 00:00 then I woke up at 2:00 after dreaming. When I woke up I heard a laugh like the type when you breath in but it was short not haha. Then I clapped my hands in fear but nothing after that just my dad up at 2 in the morning.
Sorry I meant I heard a laugh as if your breathing out with your mouth type of laugh. When I seen my iphone appear it was feint , very quick little visual hallucination my black iPhone screen a little timer of some sort came on and beeped. This was after seeing my door close when it was open just a bit, before that I heard a lot of doors closing and knocking about and plastic bottles being dropped it sounded like 4 people where in the house at once. This happens when you wake up still in a dream state and you are very tired. My Iphone was in fact completely dead and beside my pillow but it appeared by my hand.
These are all of the things my husband sees in our bed when we’re supposed to be sleeping: worms
bees
snakes
spiders
crabs
rats
mice
kittens (??)
lizards
squirrels
long furry monster with teeth
skunks
snakes
snakes
snakes
He’s adamant they’re real. We go through a whole routine where I turn the light on and he searches for them, until finally we can turn the light off and go back to sleep. Sometimes there are multiple instances per night. He’s absolutely positive they’re real. It usually starts with him screaming bloody murder and thrashing the bedsheets around trying to get said critter out. He recalls these incidents probably 90% of the time. Any ideas?
Hi Margot
Thanks for your comment. That sounds like it must be causing a lot of disruption to both of you. Does he see them or feel them on his legs or body? Have you tried sleeping with a night light on so he can easily see they aren’t there without having to get out of bed?
Regards
Ethan
Have not tried the night light, that is something to look into. I’m not sure if he physically feels these animals or just has some other sense they are close. There is a lot of screaming sometimes, which affects him wanting to be in proximity to strangers (embarrassing for a man his age for sure.) We def feel at a loss on how to do anything about this.
Hi Margot
I’ve just replied to your comment on the other post about this:-)
Regards
Ethan
Hi my name is Steve, when I wake midway through the night ,I often see many smaller sized moving “almost dancing animals. It started with just a form of my cat that I would bend down to pet him only to find he was not there. Now it has progressed to a bunch of “almost dancing” animals. I have recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder an I am taking medication for it. Thank you for your article to insure me I’m not alone.
I’ve been having these hallucinations for my whole life. I usually see people, animals and bugs, but sometimes I feel someone sit or lay on my bed. When I see someone or something in my room, I’ll stare at them and focus on what is behind them until they disappear. One of the clearest one’s I’ve seen was a few years ago, I woke up and saw the face of an elderly man looking at me, so I screamed and took the contents on my bed, threw it at him, and ran out of the room. I’ve also been convinced that I was locked in my room. The other night I woke up to see someone in my housemates room, crouching beside her bed, it made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t stare at it any longer. These hallucinations don’t happen all the time, and they’re not usually paired with stress, but I do get them when I sleep in new places.
I’ve had these all my life and so have a few of my family members on one side. I have auditory hallucinations often, usually while falling asleep and I’ve had a few really vivid visual ones while waking up. I think I’ve had sleep paralysis, but it was never scary for me, I just knew that I couldn’t move yet, and then it was over, and I could. I’ve also had the geometric ones you described although mine have spinning pinwheels and sometime small pictures scattered throughout. There’s a lot of movement and colour. I call them my “circus shows” These have become very common since I started using a cpap. I never have hallucinations that combine senses, i.e., image with sound. My, non geometric, visual ones are usually people: a man who jumped from my mirror as a lion but stood up as a person; an old lady clutching her purse, leaning over me, smiling at me in anticipation( of what, I couldn’t tell you.); two small people with black hair and black eyes going through my sock drawer; etc. I never took note if they were in colour or black and white. The auditory ones can be the sound of someone calling my name or telling me something (sometimes I recognize the voice), someone yelling like they are falling from a cliff, a loud bang, a crowd (applauding, cheering, or just the din of many people talking), and sometimes it’s just bits and pieces of conversation, like someone tuning a radio. The only two that I found upsetting were the old lady (she felt like a ghost in the moment) and the one I had during postpartum depression when I woke up convinced that my infant would kill me if I went back to sleep. The last one was truly terrifying not only at the time ,because I really believed it, but also to this day, because if I had been the type of person to react quickly and not second guess myself, I could have harmed my son. Luckily, in the moment I remembered an article about a woman who had killed her children during an episode and I considered that I might be wrong. I woke my husband to watch the baby because I still believed he would harm us if we slept, and I took time to go clear my head and wake up fully. When I did, the whole idea that I could think like that felt completely ridiculous, except for the seriousness of it. It was a hallucination but I still feel guilty today that I ever even believed it for a minute. Perhaps the last one falls under delusion rather than hallucination or maybe it’s a version of the “scary presence in the room” feeling. I do think that postpartum depression is related to sleep deprivation, as I don’t have trouble recognizing reality in general (even during the other hallucinations, I’ve listed, I always knew I was seeing or hearing something that wasn’t real) and I was running on very little sleep at the time. My son was large (11lbs) and I was breastfeeding. He fed often. If I got one uninterrupted hour of sleep, it was a really big deal. I had a second son and my husband and I ensured that I got more sleep and I had no scary episodes. I’ve always had trouble with sleep. I fall asleep easily at any time, but I dream a lot and I wake as tired or more tired than when I went to sleep. I was assessed for narcolepsy but they found nothing in the sleep study. The CPAP is for UARS and I’ve only been using it for about a year. It helps a little as I have a little more energy, but as I said, the hallucinations are just different not decreased and I still dream a lot. Well, as Lo says, “I don’t know if this will help anyone but I thought I’d share. Peaceful rest to all.” You are not alone.
I see figures while sleeping, but I noticed that they are coming only when I over sleep or having stress and cant sleep or do not go into deeper sleep. I also noticed that if I took a sleeping pill and have a good night sleep, then I do not wake up seeing things.
So my advise it to try and get a good consistent sleep cycle, and a deep sleep so that your mind is at rest and do not wake you up like a restless person. Its all about relaxing your mind.
I hallucinate bugs sometimes. When I’m trying to fall asleep and when I’m woken up after not being asleep for a very long time. They first started happening when I was a teenager. I would see a huge spider coming down one string of web from the ceiling right over my face. The first few times it happened I looked for the spider, couldn’t find it, and slept on the couch. I eventually realized that the spiders weren’t real. This usually happened when I stayed up really late and it was always the same thing: I spider dangling over my face. They stopped happening for a few years after I graduated but started again after I started spending nights at my boyfriend’s house, but this time I didn’t see spiders. One time it was bees, and one time it was a bug that I think I made up in my head. I’ve been experiencing it again recently. It’s been so long that I was thinking the bugs were real. Just a few days ago I was falling asleep and I saw I huge spider on my covers trying to creep under them. I tossed them off and jumped out of bed and fell to the floor. It was so loud it shook he house. My dogs started barking and it woke all my room mates. Just last night I saw a bunch of mosquitos carrying away my glasses from my bedside table (weirdest one yet). When I was younger it happened when I was sleep deprived, but I’m healthy and get a proper amount of sleep now, so I don’t know why these hallucinations would resurface. Really wish they weren’t always bugs. :/
I have the exact same thing with spiders! I would run out of the room screaming at first. After years of repitition, they still scare me, but I don’t panic like I used to.
I used to think the things I saw were ghosts when I was little and it scared me. I never get up, i dont know if i even can, i always stare until it disappears. Mine are monochromatic, never in colors. The worse one I had that caused me to look it up cause and discover this was I thought I had a death omen 4 years ago I woke, turned my head and saw 3 demon figures standing over me. HOLY CRAP I was terrified. Now I usually see spiders on the wall or ceiling, objects directly in my face that cause me the be startled and move my head like a chainsaw once, baseball bat last night. Sometimes i wake up to my name being said. I guess, explaining it, I do only move my head until the object is gone and then I turn over and go back to sleep. Doesn’t scare me anymore knowing that this is a common condition, just sometimes makes me jump. I only get 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night, I figure that may be the culprit.
I’ve suffered with sleep related hallucinations on and off for years, but in the past few months I have hallucinations upon waking several times a night. They are visual hallucinations, usually just shapes and patterns that I see in the walls, but are often accompanied by feelings of unease and I sometimes feel a very threatening presence. It’s not particularly nice, but I feel so used to it now that I’ve learnt to deal with it. However would it be advisable to see someone about it? I sometimes worry that my hallucinations are a sign of an underlying condition. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Laura
Thanks for your comment. I think if you feel like you’d like to speak to a professional about it, then by all means do so. If it only happens in the night, then it’s probably nothing to worry about. But if you feel that hearing that from a professional will reassure you, then go for it.
Regards
Ethan
I’ve had this as long as I can remember. I believed for a long time I had seen a ghost but I’m pretty sure that was my mind playing tricks on me. I didn’t experience this for a long time but it has been more frequent recently. I’ll wake up or just as I’m falling asleep I’ll feel something or hear something then I’ll see lights, shapes, huge bugs, people or strange blob entities. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for what I’m seeing to go away and this used to make me blurt out “someone is in the house!” I’ve gotten pretty good at trying to let it fade away before I freak out but it’s still disturbing. Once I woke up and I saw an old lady leaning over my bed trying to grab me and I rolled over my husband and did a backwards somersault off the bed. Does anyone else have fibromyalgia or migraines? I wonder if this has any connection. It makes me feel crazy and embarrassed to talk about. The other night it felt as though someone sat down at the end of my bed and just stared at me. This is quite a haunting condition. As far as medication goes I can’t take much of any thing cause my fibro creates a sensitivity or intolerance to most drugs. I’m glad to know I’m probably not insane and others experiences these unpleasant nighttime visions. I get migraines on a regular basis and when I get an aura I notice my hallucinations increase. I don’t know if this will help anyone but I thought I’d share. Peaceful rest to all.
Ya know, I have never thought to look up what I’ve been experiencing. I’m glad I did though. I’ve been having these hallucinations at night ever since I was a wee child.
Sometimes I see wonderful, beautiful images like Ribbons waving back and forth and people dancing on my ceiling.
Other times it is frightening, like having an old lady sitting on your chest staring into your soul. Or hearing something whisper your name, so you open your eyes and see a hooded figure in the corner of your room is pointing at you.
My hallucinations are usually very vivid and sometimes terrifying.
It happens on and off.
Right now I’m in a 2 month long stretch where it has been happening every night. But eh, I’ve gotten used to it. I try to remind myself it isn’t real.
Nice to know it happens to other people.
It’s 11:36pm & I just woke up screaming again. I woke up to see a man walking down the side of the bed towards me so I screamed like I do every time and turned on the light and he disappeared. Then I felt like an idiot & hoped the neighbours hadn’t called the cops because they thought I was being murdered. This happens to me once in a while. Sometimes it’s spiders but usually it’s a man. A few times I’ve woken in the morning and see someone standing beside my bed just staring at me. A little boy once. A woman once. They slowly just faded away. I used to think they were ghosts. I wish I knew how to stop this. I’m so tired.
For years, mine have been seeing spiders on the walls, roaches in the bed, or that the ceiling is cracking and I need to get out of the room. Turning the light on usually snaps me out of it. In the last year or so, though, they’ve changed. I now wake up with a racing heart because someone is telling me that my students (I teach middle school) are missing, or that a student died because I was neglectful, or that I forgot to do something that everyone was depending on me for… I often am in tears, panicked, before I realize that it is a hallucination. I’m wondering if this could be connected to the fact that I was in a major car accident last summer. No one was hurt, but it was my fault and the cars were both totaled. I often think about how it could have been so much worse. Does psychological trauma perhaps lead to these more emotionally intense hallucinations?
Hi Katie
Thanks for your comment, and I’m sorry to hear you’ve been dealing with these issues. I can understand why you must be concerned. It certainly sounds like a possibility there’s some lingering anxiety, perhaps from the accident. Have you spoken to anyone about it, such as a therapist or counsellor. You might find that it helps to talk through what happened and what’s happening for you now. It might also help to wear an eye mask if darkness helps, and to do some relaxation techniques before you go to sleep. You can also try those methods if you wake up feeling anxious or panicky.
Regards
Ethan
I use to see figures in my room or the clothes in my basket change into a figure when I was little and I would have to turn on the light to show myself that it’s nothing. I was like 15 at the time when it stopped. And now it’s happening again and I’m 21 years old and 40 weeks pregnant. I’m glad that I’m not the only one experiencing it but I just wish it would stop. I can’t go to bed by myself anymore, I need my fiance to go to bed with me now even when he’s not tired. Or I’ll wait for him to finally get tired so that way we can go to bed together. I remember when I was younger my doctor gave me a low dose of sleeping pills to help but it barely did. I always thought that it was just something that happened when your young but I guess not
I’ve had these experiences off and on for a couple of years. I’m a very light sleeper and work a combination of overnight tours as well as day tours, so for the past 21 years, I have not had a normal sleep routine. I generally wake up to see brightly colored objects coming out of the ceiling, and recently saw my 12 year old son walking on all fours along the ceiling, LOL. For some reason I don’t get frightened, and the object may last for ten seconds with me looking at it before it goes away. The instance with my son, he walked back and forth for a bit, then walked out of the room on the ceiling.
I “wake” up I’m not sure if I am asleep or not and there’s a man, same man every time standing in my room looking at me and I run out of my room as fast as I can and then turn on lights . I become calm and go right back to sleep after running out to forget about what just happened . It’s terrifying and has been only on twice a week for about a year .
I think I sleep pretty good but lately when I go to bed tired and feel like I will go right to sleep I end up in like a twilight sleep and have confusing thoughts. I will start out thinking about say what I have to do tomorrow, or what will I wear for work and then my thoughts end up with something totally unrelated like I see myself washing the car. I feel that I am consciously thinking something through and then out of nowhere strange thoughts appear that sometimes I can’t seem to remember what I was thinking and did the strange thought have anything to do with my original thought. I’m 72 years old, not on any medication, very healthy and active.
I have several episodes of hallucinations Hypnagogic on a weekly basis and its been going on for many years. I first realized I was experiencing this when I was in college and it now being 17 years from that discovery it still exists. And I know before that that I was always a sleep talker and walker as my parents have described while growing up. These hallucinations are always scary episodes where I scream or need to turn on the lights to make sure whatever it was I was seeing wasn’t’ there, it takes even longer to get my brain to actually believe it isn’t real, even though I logically know it isn’t. My poor husband has a very disruptive sleep pattern because of this. I have come to terms with it and try to make light on it but it is a major disruption to my husbands and my own sleep cycle. I guess it makes me feel a little better that its so called normal. But I really haven’t met someone yet that has as many hallucinations as upsetting as mine. Its really not something I want to live with for the rest of my life. Would hypnotics work to get to the root of if? Thanks for the article.
Hi Kristen
Thanks for your comment. Medication could help you, but that’s something to speak to your doctor about really. You’d have to weigh up the pros and cons of taking them with the pros and cons of not sleep so well. Perhaps it might help to take some steps to cope better as well, such as sleeping with a soft night light to provide some information to your brain when you wake up, doing relaxation exercises before bed and if you wake up with one of these episodes.
Regards
Ethan
I had spiders or puppies and what not visit about twice a year up until a few years ago. Then intruders started visiting my bedroom (which REALLY scared me) about 2 or 3 nights a week! I did some experimenting with my evening routines and figured out it was a combination of my medication and sugar (in dessert) that was causing it. Now i don’t eat sweats in the evening. I’m cured!
Hi Julia
Thanks for your comment. It’s great that you found a direct connection there, and that it’s helped!
Regards
Ethan
Well thanks for getting me informed I always thought it’s the weed Am smoking.
Hi there
You’re welcome! It’s very possible that smoking weed will either cause it or make it more vivid or frequent!
Regards
Ethan
I’ve experienced these since I was a child. I always thought it was cause I player with the Ouija board and that the things I see were because of that. I see people, objects, and sometimes feel things. Last night was by far the worst one I had and I yelled out to my husband. It was a very tall aboriginal looking person. I had just ginished watching Six on the history channel and was at the part where members of boko haram were killed. Not sure if what I saw was some piece of that. I took some mucinex DM last night cause I’ve been sick but not sure if that’s the cause. I wish these hallucinations would go away. Unlike other comments I’ve read I in fact do not like them. I do take some comfort in knowing that it can be normal but I just wish I knew my trigger. I wish I had answers so my husband doesn’t think I’m crazy or have some sort of sixth sense.