Sleep Hallucinations: Things That Go Bump In The Night

photo of a woman in bed experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations

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!

image explaining that hypagogic hallucinations occur while falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations while waking up

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.
image of a woman in bed with patterns and animal forms around her

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.

1,718 Comments

  1. Hi!

    Today was the time, when I started to search something about that phenomenon. Last night it was proved for me that I also can see sometimes pictures from my memory, which are really existing things. Before these pictures I only saw random pictures e.g. a pub, a newspaper, a keyboard. But now, I saw 2 wallpapers which I checked on my laptop 2 hours before sleep. (Once I heard my highschool teacher’s voice (I was very exhausted, and I had sleeping paralysis about 5 times as well.)

    I’m wondering whether is there any way to induce these iconic hallucinations to see pictures from my memory?
    I find this phenomenon very interesting and fascinating. I experienced it for years, but that’s the first time I’ve started to search about it, whether other people experience it, or not.
    Sorry for my english, I’m not a native speaker.

    Best wishes!

  2. It’s so reassuring to read this! This has been happening on and off my whole life, as I fall asleep or wake up it’s usually spiders I see, not always the same form, sometimes the leggy ones with tiny bodies and sometimes big black house spiders. I see them in so much detail they look 100% real it’s not just shapes moving that my brain interprets as spiders I can see the articulation of their legs and eyes! Always makes me jump out of bed before I realise it’s not real, for years I thought it was real and the spiders run off as I jump up but this makes more sense! I wonder if I do have a sleep disorder as I feel like I need more sleep than anyone else I know just to function at a basic level . . .

    • I was so happy to have an explanation for this as well!! I too see spiders… and I HATE spiders!
      I am so glad to know I am not the only one! And I know I need to get better rest and go to sleep earlier, for sure.

      • I too see spiders. I wake up and an enlarged spider is always crawling on the wall trying to remove itself from my sight and then disappears. They look so real with long legs. Last month, I woke up and saw it on the pillow beside me and then it crawled away. I woke my husband and we sprayed our room for an hour, no spiders to be found. Then, a few nights later I saw it on the ceiling and woke my husband and it disappears. Glad I’m not the only one to see these spiders.

        • This just happened to me two nights ago. I woke up around 5am to use the restroom and saw a Tarantula on my wall above the bathroom door then just disappeared. I was searching for the meaning as to what it could be and found this sight glad I’m not alone but still scary.

          • This happened to me a month ago! I woke up and saw a huge, black tarantula crawling across the closet door. I immediately jumped out of bed and lost sight of it. I had my house sprayed that day and the guy searched my room, but no spider. It looked so real!! Then a couple of weeks later, I saw it again right as I woke up. I quickly turned on a light but it was gone. I was so freaked out. I’ve since seen a couple more as I wake up and after blinking a few times, it fades away. I still can’t believe how real they look.

        • I’ve been seeing them for years. Huge spider crawling down the wall. The first time I saw it, it scared the pee out of me! It looked real, woke husband, he thought I was nuts! I have used cannabis and drink alcohol, but this happens when I first wake up.

          • I smoke as well. Usually when I add another medication into the mix is when I notice it more. Or I’m just as stressed in my subconscious than I know about. I took Ibuprofen and smoked before bed last night. Woke up at 12:30 am freaking out that spiders were on me. I went to the bathroom checked my hair for some reason, then turned my bedside lamp on to no avail nothing.

        • Wow! I also search for explanations for this. Last night I dozed off on the couch. Lights and TV on. I opened my eyes and was ready to go up to bed, and I saw a huge..fat, black spider hanging down from an air vent on a web. It was about 4 inches of just its fat body! I jumped and ran to the stairs almost in tears, heart racing. Knowing it wasn’t real! But it took me a minute to snap out of it. I’m actually still shaken up today. I have had several experiences like this since childhood. Usually spiders. Sometimes snakes crawl between wall and ceiling. I was always sleepwalking too. I’m interested in learning more about what this means, but it kind of freaks me out. I have actually been getting great sleep lately. I am under stress. I do drink lots of water and have had no alcohol. Hmm. Last night also was a night of intense dreams and waking up every few hours. After “seeing” the spider. Before last night, I have been sleeping like a baby. 7-8 hrs of sleep a night.

        • I also see enlarged spider looking things crawling on the wall sometimes when I wake up. But they looked fazed like not fully in this dimension. They start to fade the more awake I become. Sometimes I wonder if they are really there just in a parallel universe. Weird I know.

        • I saw a huge spider on my wall and it scared me so bad. It was very realistic and was moving across. As it did, at first it looked like a real and I mean huge spider. But then it looked mechanical, and then it was gone. So glad I looked this up because I thought I was nuts, I have seen other things as well but I was fully awake and saw a demon, so there’s that.

        • Just had this experience tonight as I was falling asleep in the wee hours. Watched a large black spider glide down from the ceiling, right next to my bed. Jumped up, turned on all the lights and started looking for it. I even grabbed my “house spider removal kit” which is a small plastic tub that I use to relocate them outside. However after a half hour of searching, nothing. Something similar has happened twice before, except what I saw those times looked more like walking stick bugs. One thing that might be related: I have been on a fairly high dose of an anti-depressant for some time, and one side-effect I’ve definitely noticed is very vivid, sometimes disturbing dreams. Anyway glad to find this explanation here, and that I’m not alone in this.

    • Don’t be alarmed the very same thing happens to me. When you notice them they tend to crawl away as if they are escaping. I once saw a robotic spider that was very defined as if it were made like a transformer. I’m beginning to become less afraid and more aware that it’s not real and I hope the same for you.

      • As of last night, I’ve had two hallucinations of spiders upon waking. Huge spiders the size of a grapefruit. The first time I saw one, I screamed my boyfriend came running into the bedroom, he was thankful it wasn’t real. I was terrified.
        This morning I had one, but this time he pranced almost straight across the bedroom until he went behind a mirror. Within a second of seeing it, I knew it was the same thing I saw before. It was still very scary. (anyone from FL. heard of huge fruit spiders? They terrify under the best of circumstances)
        I have epilepsy that has restarted after 6 years, and I’ve had three seizures this year alone, that’s the only explanation I can think of.

    • I see spiders crawling across my room wall. It’s usually only one but it’s crawling from one corner of the door trim all the way across the wall to the next door frame, and it’s looking just so real, but it’s huge so I know it’s not. It’s so weird!
      The other thing I see is a Mylar balloon that floats across the room. I don’t understand it! I finally looked it up bc I wondered if I’m crazy or something. It was interesting to see someone else has had this experience. I’m completely aware it’s a hallucination, and that’s what worried me. Years ago I woke to see my four year old standing at my bedside. That I was CERTAIN was actually her, but she vanished when I spoke to her. That is the only time it’s been an actual person, and that it appeared very real to me. As soon as she vanished I knew of course it was a hallucination. This type of thing has only happened a handful of times but worrisome enough I don’t want to mention it happened. I know hallucinations aren’t normal per se, and it has to do with your brain. A strange phenomenon for sure. I can’t tell you how glad I am to know others experience similar things. 😅 it’s a relief! Thanks for sharing!

    • Dear Chloe
      I have exactly the same problem! I wake up and jump out of bed inevitably after seeing a spider or two on my roof. This has been happening on and off for a year and my brain actually refuses to believe it’s not real each time. Sends me jumping out of bed at all hours of the night just as I am waking up! Were you able to resolve this? Piya

        • I had the same thing happen. The spider landed on my face, I hit myself hard and then jumped out of bed. But no spider. Anywhere. I tore the bed apart and then slowly realized I was having a hallucination.

      • This is a new thing for me, just in the last two weeks. I too see spiders, first just black shadowy figures but now detailed and in color as well. It started with a black cloud or smoke in the hallway of my house visible from my open bedroom door. It doesn’t smell, stain, or char anything. Then I saw a moth and heard it flap its wings up in front of my face. I’ve seen many spiders, a long insect like a silverfish but larger, and twice I have seen a woman, once right next to my bed and the next time she was sitting in the black smoke in my hallway. They all disappear when I turn on the lights, shine a flashlight, or try to approach them. It’s been very, very strange! I bought this house a year ago after the owner and sole occupant died. I have been having anxiety issues before and lately and live alone. I feel somewhat better after reading these posts connected to this article. I don’t really feel threatened just kinda unnerved. Thanks for letting me tell my story.

      • This happens to me too often!! It just happened this morning so I am researching. I know that they aren’t real, but I have to double check, just in case! So I got up, raced to find a non-existent spider only to go to the bathroom immediately afterward to see another on the wall!!! Of course that wasn’t real either!! Always spiders, WHY!!?? I hate spiders….But, I see writings on the wall, objects changing from one thing into another…It’s so frustrating…I had sleep problems as early as a teenager and saw a Gnome in my bedroom corner and was screaming for my mother (to come save me), She was sitting out in the living room just a few feet away…I Finally got my bedroom door open and asked “why didn’t you help me”? She said she never heard a thing, let alone yelling….and the saga continues to this day ( literally).

        • I felt the anxiety you were going through when i read this comment. I do not see spiders as bad and do not feel anxious about spiders and find them to be fascinating architects. Instead, I mostly see images of ‘beings’ that have large golden halos and often standing beside my bed, since i was a child. The odd thing is my husband sometimes see them over me because of the soft gold glow from them that awakens him. I am not religious and do not pray and so i do not understand that something that seems religious is around me. I am spiritual but not a churchgoer (and holy water does not help). I have found to make peace with the images, smells, sounds and odd dreams over the years helps. Numbers are constant for me and i see images of giant machines that look otherworldly in my dreams. i tell my mind that the things i see and sense cannot hurt me and that i know that nothing can hurt me while i sleep (or awake) and this helps lots. I no longer give fear to any of the beings that appear near me at night or daytime since i was a child. I did go through 6 years of therapy and no proof of mental illness. Medication made things worse and i saw them even more vividly, which became annoying. Telling my mind that i am in control and nothing can harm me helps the most. And i try not to watch scary movies before i go to sleep (so odd that i enjoy scary movies) but find them comical most of the time. i do not watch the news or read articles in the media and this helps lots. Love nature, be kind, do not give fear to images. I stopped being anxious about the giant cobra snake that often awakened me at night for years. Often, I simply tell the snake in a very firm voice to stay at least 10 feet from me and it does.

        • I’ve had very similar experiences. I think our soul, or our higher self, is able to see. So when we are in between being asleep and awake, something is happening. And some people are able to do this while awake. My spiders are two different kinds. One looks like a ball of energy but with lots of “legs”. I can best describe it as the Nickelodeon orange splat logo. Google Nickelodeon and search images. It’s orange from the 90s. Anyways.
          This spider is dark and it floats. I only see it when I am sleeping and wake suddenly. Almost like something is trying to warn me that it’s here. And then it disappears a few seconds after I see it.
          These other spiders are new. And very much mechanical-like. They come down like on a web. And when I see them, they go back up and fade away. What are the chances we are all seeing the same thing, but saying it’s not real? How can we all see the same thing if it’s not real???

          I’ve also had an experience where I was screaming but no one could hear me. I think dimensions are crossing. Or we are seeing what’s always there, we just can’t “see it”.

    • I also see a spider but when I sit up to see where it goes I can’t find it lol. I can even describe it as a large yellow sac spider.

    • Yes exactly me as well. As I fall asleep and then I’m awakened by the sight of them always crawling into a corner away. I verbalize that they’re there and my husband is usually awake (a sign he has made noise to wake me, he goes to bed later than me). Hmm… glad to know it’s not just me, but WHY! No drug use, no mental illness, some stress but not excessive.

    • Saw a spider last night after about 5 min of sleep. It wasn’t big so I wasn’t afraid, but I watched it fade and disappear right before my eyes as I became more fully awake. I touched the spot where it had been on the ceiling. It was never there.

    • I have the same experience as you, if I get woken up, I see a spider in full detail or a beetle-type thing with wings and it starts nearby and scuttles away in the air towards the wall until I’m awake properly and then it fades away! It’s bizarre as it’s very detailed.

    • Last night it happened to me i saw spiders on my bed and i was so scared, of course they weren’t there but “they were”. i live a healthy life, idk why sometimes it happens this

    • Exactly This has been happening to me recently and it’s the same spider I see that ends up disappearing ! Makes me feel better knowing I’m not alone , thank you!

    • I see spiders on the wall that crawl around the corner and disappear or on the bed and disappear under the pillow next to me or it’s on the ceiling coming down towards me from a string of a spider web. Freaks me out.

      • Hi Rosa l have been looking all through these comments because l too see all the spider webs very detailed and go as far as touching them and feeling the texture like old rubber bands sticking to the wall.

    • Hi Chloe! I’m so sorry to be replying to a message from 4 years ago and honestly not even sure you’ll see this, but I have what sounds like an identical experience to you, and it’s resulting in some intense anxiety about going to sleep and I was just wondering if you’ve found over the years any kind of fix or way of managing these hallucinations? Thank you so much!

    • Wow Chloe, I have been seeing the same thing. Just last night I saw a huge black spider just appear out of nowhere on my wall, like a shadow. Just how it formed and appeared in front of me it just disappeared. I had to focus to realize if it was there or not. This is the 3rd time it has happened to me. Last time I saw a spider coming down from the ceiling on its web like it was coming towards me while I lay there facing upwards looking towards it. And I just jumped out of bed very frightened. I thought I was losing my mind and I thought I was the only person that was seeing this.

  3. I have these hallucinations when waking in the middle of the night. Birds in my room gathering on the curtain rod, squirrels playing, people talking to me and once sliding down the stairs on my mattress. I screamed as I have a fear of falling. Also think I see bugs at the top of the wall. I lie there and say this is not real.

  4. For years, I’ve seen objects, creatures, and other things I barely remember. The occurrences are heightened by stress and anxiety, and I find myself daily convincing myself that they’re not real. Having a light on just prolongs the experience. I’ve seen spiders crawling behind curtains, under pillows, and behind headboards. Faces appear; tonight, a male face with a black glittery rectangle on his forehead. It’s all very strange. While it still unnerves me, I often fully awaken while trying to catch these apparitions. It’s worth noting that during the day, I wouldn’t attempt to catch a spider. There are other things I barely remember, but I know they frighten me, and I only recall them in that split second before they disappear. I should place a pen and paper by the side of my bed. I don’t recall these experiences happening when I sleep outside my bedroom, but I do have memories of this happening as a child in my family home. On the odd occasions when I’ve slept elsewhere, I believe the experiences were paranormal, as I’ve seen and heard people. But after reading up on this topic, I’m even more confused. I don’t like these experiences, and I wish they would stop, as they’re freaking me out.

  5. I every day experience hallucinations, suddenly I wake up, I see something appearing in front of me and coming closer and closer to me like wire mesh or web or sometimes geometric shapes,I am taking antidepressants once in a week at night. From last year I am under medication for depression,I continued my medication through out the year or more then a year because I was in wrost condition of depression,now I am much better living a normal life and so I reduced my dose also, it’s now once in a week,but at night I suddenly wake up searching something, talking to myself, sometimes shouting, it became my normal life.

    • I have hypnopompic hallucinations the same as you described, the webs or geometric shapes close to me or on my walls and things crawling on my walls above my head. I don’t take any medications.

  6. I had one recently where someone was going to hit me with a club so I dove out of bed and hit my foot on the end post of the bed injuring my foot. I had one where there was a bat flying over my bed. I could feel the breeze from its wings on my face. Another time one of the bed posts was a head. I have seen spiders running across my sheets. These seem very real at the time. It may take several seconds upon waking to realize they are not real.

  7. I have always slightly worried that I might be crazy, but it is comforting to know that others experience the same thing. Mine is always different, ranging from spiders or balloons dangling over my head, to shapes and humming noises and even dark figures hanging over me. Lately I’ve been waking up to “people” in my room coming towards me. I’ll grasp for my phone to shine a light when they don’t grab me, because I am certain they are still in my room, but when a light shines over the darkness nothing is there. Im sure my neighbors have heard me screaming when I wake up to strangers coming towards me. Sometimes I see things before I fall asleep and other times I wake up minutes or hours after I’ve fallen asleep. I have struggled with sleep walking since I was 13 years old, now 27 and I very rarely sleep walk but I do struggle often with night terrors and hallucinations. I wonder if there is any type of therapy that helps with this sleeping disorder.

  8. Im a 26 year old female and they started when I was 16. I went to an aquarium on holiday in malaysia and when I went to sleep that night I dreamt of a giant squid. I opened my eyes and saw it on the ceiling and I jumped up and ran out screaming. Since then I’ve had many, sometimes once a month, recently every other night. They definitely increase when I am stressed or depressed. I have especially vivid ones, waking up and thinking the pile of clothes in my room is a sleeping horse and im actually in a stable, and getting out of bed and creeping out the room. Once I thought a duck was in my room and it had pooped on my pillow, so I got up, put the pillowcases in the washing machine and washed my hands and then went back to bed. It takes about 5 minutes to realise its not real but I’m still not fully sure until 10 or minutes after. And the usual thinking theres a spider or an insect in the bed. I wake up and scream quite a lot and have a lot of hallucinations where I think I’m being bricked in or trapped some way into my room. I find turning on the light or going into the hallway snaps me out of it. Its quite upsetting sometimes and when it happens frequently Im afraid to go to sleep. But im not sure what I can do except try and reduce stress levels. Is there a special doctor for this kind of thing?

    • Hi there
      You could speak to a sleep specialist, either thorough private consultation or through referral from your primary care doctor; the system functions differently in different countries. It might help to start with your doctor to ask for their advice first of all.
      Regards
      Ethan

  9. I’m a 20 year old man who has been having this problem my whole life. At first every night, then spaced, and then they went away. However tonight it happened again…never do you ever get to see the things and feel the emotions you feel when these hallucinations happen. Its both a blessing and a curse, but i think mostly a blessing

  10. I have experienced this many times in the past. Not very frequently anymore. The most resent one I experience was when i was sleeping at my boyfriends appartment but I was alone he was at work. I woke up and it was very bright outside. I couldnt move but I could open my eyes. I felt the bed moving as if someone was crawling onto the bed. I then felt like someone grabbed my hand and was just gently holding it. very shortly after I was able to move, looked around and there was no one there. Have also had very intense auditory hallusinations where I am not asleep at all but trying to fall asleep. one time I could hear a jumble of voices all talking at once. it would go away if I opened my eyes but everytime I closed my eyes to try to sleep it would instantly start again.

  11. I’m experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations more and more regularly. I used to have them every couple of weeks but now I have them almost every night. I see people mainly, who are always dressed in old fashioned clothes but also creatures swarming through holes in the ceiling and lots of other really stupid things (like chickens under the bed!). I’ve possibly linked this problem to the contraceptive pill, but I’m still researching this. I’d like to know if there’s any more I can do to get rid of these for good, I feel like a zombie most of the time!

  12. This helps me, I thought I was crazy because for all my life I’ve seen my dead cat whenever I turn lights off or close my eyes.

  13. I have this issue. If I have hypnagogic hallucinations it’s almost always seeing a spider (which means jumping up in fear, freaking my bed partner out), though sometimes it involves a sound or a physical feeling.

    I have no idea if it’s related, but sometimes I wake up only slightly (not enough to move, but aware) and have all these thoughts that don’t make sense. Like I’ll be thinking “It’s okay if the elephant wears pink, because the pinecones are shaking.” What does that even mean? I’m awake but it’s as though my brain is messed up. Sometimes I’m even aware while thinking it that it makes no sense, but it’s like my brain believes it to be true. Does that even make sense? Does anyone know what I’m talking about?

    • I know exactly what you’re talking about with the thoughts that make no sense the same thing happened to me several times those always happen to me while I’m falling asleep

  14. I’m a 63 year old female and feel relieved with this explanation. I will follow up with my Dr. Last night was the worst and the best. Beautiful images of fluttering birds and butterflies but this lasted for several hours the room also seemed to have been painted with glitter. When I touched my comforter it would light up under my fingers. Towards morning people were appearing. The most disturbing was the damn music! I have checked out some medical conditions this seems to be the best option possible. Thank you

  15. I remember as I was younger I had something very similar to sleep pyralysis, but sometimes when I experienced it I could still move my arms and eyes. I would put my arms over my face so I couldn’t see because it was very scary. I would see a black figure that floated above my bed on the wall for a few seconds then i would close my eyes real fast and when i opened them the black figure would be in my face as it was screaming but i heard a loud pitch almost buzzing sound and it was extremely scary and I did feel like I had pressure on my body but could still move and made me feel terrified. Another thing that also happened is I was in the middle of having a dream and my friend woke me up and I immetialy had that scared terrified feeling and saw a black figure behind her just covered my eyes real fast because i was scared to see it and it felt real I had said there is something behind you, which scared her but im wondering what that could have been if you can’t move in sleep pyralysis

  16. I sleep in a very dark room and also wear eye blinders. Total darkness. I was near morning and I could see a TV screen with people on it. An old TV. black and white. I could have watched the whole thing but I woke myself up. Very strange.

  17. I am 44 year old male. Who just recently have been experiencing visions, when I wake up. It only happens when the room is dark. If there is a light on, they either vanish before my eyes or don’t show up.
    Its been insects, like Beatles or some type of bug with about 8 legs, crawling on the ceiling or wall. If I see them manifest themselves, I will turn the light on my phone and it goes away. Most of the time, I just get mad and go to sleep. I just think to myself, they are not real and cannot hurt you. I started taking Clonidine before I go to bed and it only seemed to happen when I started this medication. But, I do take meds in morning and before I go to sleep. This just freaks me out, never had anything like this happen to me before and it seems so real. Any advice would be welcomed.

  18. This started to happen to me when I moved into my college dorm. At first, I would see a young girl at the edge of my bed looking at a tapestry I had on the wall. I would see her every few weeks or so while living in the dorm. My roommates also claimed to have seen her but I always suspected they just wanted to participate in something exciting. The last time I saw the girl she was next to my bed and transformed into what looked like a large orb of wire with soft lights coursing through it. It’s been several years since then and I still see strange geometric or cellular beings like the one the girl transformed into every few weeks. I guess I always assumed they were ghosts or some kind of otherworldly beings. I used to keep a log of when I would see them and what they looked like. I had even tried to talk to them or jump out of bed to grab them. This article does a good job of explaining it. Nice to know I’m not just crazy (unless I fall under the Schizophrenia category).

  19. I’m a 49 year old female and mine have come on fairly recent. I’m on a lot of different medications so I wondered if one or more of these is causing it……..any way, First off I typically wake up every hour on the hour. And it’s always, always the same thing that i see which looks like a very large spider, looks like a tarantula but larger like the size of a grapefruit, maybe a bit bigger. And it’s crawling up the wall and within about 10 seconds it’s gone. It’s kinda freaky but reading through just a few of these comments it seems like quite a few people see spiders. Is there any significance to seeing spiders? Well, in my case it’s only 1 spider but it’s huge.

    • I am also a 49 year old woman who has just started having these visions within the last year. And a lot of the time mine are of a giant tarantula type spider! It’s nice to hear someone else has had the same experience. On at least two occasions I have found myself jumping out of bed to get away from these spiders. I used to have wall paper on the wall behind my headboard that had black silhouettes of daisy like flowers mixed in with other geometric shapes. That wallpaper came to life nightly so I took it down and painted large stripes. Now the spiders crawl across my pillows!

    • I used to see bugs and mice crawling on the walls and ceiling as a kid. Now I am 48 and it turned into seeing people. Scary.

  20. I wake up about half the morning with geometric shapes usually going from large to small. I only get this on waking. I have it for years and never saw an explanation

  21. Well my son 21 started seeing snakes in his bed room as soon as he is on the bed n trun off the light to get some sleep. It makes him paralyse by fear . As soon as he turn on the light that feeling of snakes just vanish away and he sleeps comfortably . Even if he sleeps in company in darkness he feels the same and in light he sleeps well. Few days ago he has total different feeling that as the is out some one is standing and bending on his bed ….again light is on he is comfortable ….can any body explain…..i am worried

  22. I see these types of manifestations, but it can happen when I’m wide awake and not sleeping as well. It usually happens at night when I’m lying in bed. But I have not been to sleep, nor drowsy. I will see writing appearing on walls.. some times insects such as spiders will only appear if I have been sleeping and awake suddenly. The “writing” will flash before me some times it will be there as long as 60 seconds and I can make out what it says. Other times it is too distant for me to observe clearly (I am near sighted and wear glasses). I believe that some of this may actually be demonic. No one wishes to discuss that. But I believe it can be influenced by things that wish to invoke fear in people. I am still uncertain , though, if it is demonic, or its its purely physiological.

  23. I usually dream of spiders.. But usually I dream that I am asleep and I wake up and there’s a spider either above me or right next to me.. I dream that I jump to get away from the spider.. the thing is when I I wake up I’m in the position I was on when I was dreaming.Whatever action I did on my dream I do while asleep… This doesn’t occur as often as it did a year ago. I used to get them at least twice a week, and now they’re rare occurrences.

  24. I am 18, female. I just started having these extremely unsettling nightmares. I wake up quickly and dart my eyes around the room and usually see weird figures but if I look harder it’s not there. I just thought I’d look it up, seemed really weird to me. I’ve never had this problem before, I sleep with a small light on every night but still manage to wake up in a cold sweat terrified

  25. Great article. This was the first logical explanation that I could find online. I am 46-year-old female and my began just about a year and a half ago. It was very simple I could see a black outline of a woman when I woke up. Honestly I thought it was a ghost. Nothing for about a year and then couple times a month I will wake up and be in a room that I have never seen before. The first time was quite scary as it was a dungeon. But after that if it happened again I would know that it wasn’t real and I would just look around but I was able to close my eyes and it would go away after a minute or so. I’m definitely going to try some of the ideas in the article but due to stressful conditions I may be stuck having them every once in a while. I have noticed that if I don’t sleep for 36 hours the hallucinations will happen the period of time I’m waking up.

  26. I have recently had one of these hallucinations. I recently got a new table put in my bedroom that day and after falling asleep, i woke up to see a figure floating on the right side of the table. The figure looked like a young, very pale, skinny tween with straight black hair falling in her face and wearing what looked like a tattered, white night dress. After switching on the light next to my bed, she dissapeared. I then figured that i would hide myself so she couldnt find me so i pulled the duvet over my head, switched off the light and went back to sleep.

  27. As I was a child often ended up sleeping next to my sister, cause I was really scared of darkness. Now (being 36) I am not afraid of that but see visions almost every night if my hubby is not there (he is pilot). It rarely happens if he is at home.
    Lately it has become only worse and makes me worried. I wake up not rested at all. I have visions from flying objects, downfalling cieling until the worst – faces and people coming closer to me. There was a period of time I saw constantly same old woman with curly gray hair sitting on my bed and looking at me..just next to me. She seemed to be nice though :D I related her to my recenlty died beloved grandmom…but that was so scary though. Now I havent seen her couple years. But other persons like a darkskined man with a huge white smile starring at me which was one of the worst experiences. This is night I saw a face of a boy ,beside all the other objects..so my night is usally- switch on the light, switch off the light…and so on. Sometimes a image can be so scary that I push with my legs or I scream..and my heartbeat is raised so much that it takes me very long to fall a sleep. As I was young I had complicated brain surgery and after that suffered on epilepsy few years, maybe it has to do smth with that. But otherwise I am fine :) I was very good in school, I am a profesional musician and speak many languages. Just to say that I dont belive my brain is damaged and earlier I was controled every year. Dont suffer on headaches or anything..I think my next step is to buy a nightlamp..I have tried to cover my eyes but I dont like it either…

  28. I just posted a comment here but forgot to tell about another gruesome vision I had once. I was sleeping at a friends house, we were sleeping in the same bed. I wake up, turn around and see her body being impaled by 40-50 perfectly lined up iron rods, going vertically from down to up through her whole body. I thought she was dying and I screamed like hell of course. Today, a couple of years after it happened and a lot of analysing later, I guess what I saw must have been a bunch of geometrical lines and my brain interpreted them as being iron rods.

    I want to thank you for this article, it’s a great source of information and seems to have become a meeting place for us that experience these things. It’s a big relief to hear others talk about similar experiences and to know I’m not alone. and ps. I only now I saw that you wrote about waking up from sleep and seeing stuff, opposite of what I wrote in my comment earlier. Sorry. Thanks again.

  29. I’ve had visions since I was 18. I’m always in the middle of sleep when I see things (the opposite of what the article says but in a lot of the comments i see people describing how they are like me, asleep when it happens).
    I see people, insects, sometimes a thin line sweeping through the room towards me, I’ve seen a hand come through the window curtain, a child sitting on the table in my room and in the corner of my bed next to my face. But 90 % of the time it’s insects I see, spiders and ants.
    I wake up, see these things, sometimes I scream. It lasts for 5-20 seconds and when my brain realises it can’t be real, I calm down. Sometimes I’m so scared I crawl over my partner to get away from “it” and accidentally hurt her.
    But by far the scariest thing I ever saw, or rather HEARD – was a mans voice talking to me. I was sleeping, my partner was watching TV in the other room. The hallway light outside of the bedroom was lit. I woke up and literally stood on all four in the bed, staring towards the door. I was wide awake. Something had alerted me that I was in danger I heard a mans voice talking to me as if he was right in front of me but there was no one there. The deep and dark voice said “I know where you live, you’re on the third floor. Don’t even try to imagine that you are safe there.. I’m coming up to you now.” As these words were being said, sweat started pouring down my face. I didn’t scream because I was in shock. I was waiting for the man to show up in the door opening. Nothing happended. I withdrew and started crying. It felt like my heart had imploded from fear

    I wish there was more info available but I’m happy to hear all of your stories. If someone is taking notes, here is some basic info:
    

Since my first vision I see things every third month to once a month, sometimes several times a week. I usually remember the experience with great detail the next day but sometimes I don’t remember at all and my partner has to tell me that I woke up screaming the other night, asking her if she can see “it”.
    I’ve started noticing a pattern, it usually happens when I’m stressed or worried in life (like if worried about work, economy or not having a stable apartment). It helps if a nearby lamp is on so that the room is not pitch black, that way I can get out of the hallucination faster.

  30. This happened last month when I fell asleep sitting on the sofa. My husband had gone out. i woke and opened my eyes and saw my husband walking past the window in the front garden. AS he did not come in I thought he must be talking to the neighbour but after A few minutes I started wondering where he was. i realized to my surprise that he had not come home yet. There was nothing strange about what I had seen and did not doubt it was him. He was also surprised to hear this when he arrived half an hour later. It was not frightening but I hope it is a one off thing

  31. I sleep in a basement which is completely dark expect from a blue night light in my bathroom(and i always shut the door because it just bothers me) and ive woken up 3 times, 1. To a giant spider on my ceiling, 2.to a hand on my bathroom door which which is just to the left of my bed and i sleep on the right side, and 3. A spider crawling down my wall really fast. I still question myself as to if it were real and if i even saw it even though i know i did and honestly its frustrating, i still dont understand it honestly

  32. I’ve had these hallucinations happen with just about everything (seeing figures, bugs, furniture rearranged, etc.) None of them are really pleasant. The latest ones have been waking up to see the ceiling cracking and about to fall on me. I get up and run for safety, genuinely thinking I’m about to be seriously injured or die. One time, I got all the way to the front door to leave my apartment when I snapped out of it. When this kind of hallucination happens my adrenaline starts pumping and my heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest. It takes a while to calm down enough to go back to sleep. Sometimes in my panicked scramble to get away I accidentally trample things on the floor or knock things over.

  33. Now its been nearly 7months this hallucinations come regularly while starting and end of the sleep at day and night..but the intensity of dreams fade away ..which means now just dreaming day to day things not scary things like before.I think all these things related with due to some toxic substances absorbed to the body.
    Thanks

  34. I have been seeing animals, shapes and people. I always get scared because I always think it’s real. Seeing people is the worst, because I always think they want to hurt me. I once saw a bottle on my closet falling down and splatter, and blood came on the wall. I panicked and ran over there only to realize that nothing was there. I thought I was going crazy because none of my friends see stuff like this, and it feels like I’m all alone in this. Reading these comments makes me happy, as there’s other people who has the same problem. Can this happen because of stress and anxiety?

  35. Spiders…omg the spiders, I thought I was losing it, it’s starting to happen more and more now, wish it would stop.

  36. I’ve been having it for a few years now, it’s always human faces, elderly, young, middle aged, and very scary, last night it was a China doll coming towards me. I have them regularly and I get very scared, I’ve never heard of sleep hallucinations but I wish they’d stop

  37. I’ve been having this problem for a LONG time. I’d say most of my life but it’s been worse the past few years. I’m a 29 year old female with no diagnosed mental illnesses or sleep disorders but I am under a lot of stress and I wake up probably more than 10 times a night that I know of. I see a lot of spiders. Almost always above me on my ceiling coming down towards me. Sometimes I freak out to the point where I have to wake my fiancé up to check. I also have two pictures of Marilyn Monroe on my wall and I wake up almost every night and think the images have changed to something completely terrifying. For a few years, I’ve also been seeing shapes float across the room after waking up in the middle of the night. They almost always look like a sea anemone. Strange, I know. And, I’ve definitely experienced Exploding Head Syndrome. Sometimes I’ll need to get up and check the house to see if something has fallen or something. I experience a lot of other things but those ads definitely the most reoccurring.

  38. When I was younger if see people and monsters with glowing eyes staring at me from my bunk bed is this connected with this?

  39. I am 20 and i mostly wake up to read and while i go back to bed and tring to sleep i feel like some strange thing pushes me hard and i cant open my eye, move my muscles…. this thing happens for at least 10second then i will wake and try to sleep again… what is this … is this sleep paralysis?

  40. Growing up i had frequent nightmares and would see shadows. Now that I’m older I just find it got worse I’ve see doors open… lights go on off. I’ve seen the house on fire or just last night a bird trying to fly out of my house and hitting the glass. It makes me feel uneasy and it concerns my family and my husband. He’s gotten used to it but it’s so frequent and it’s so real …I can’t. Sometimes I end up getting no sleep from it.. It is kind of sad it’s just something myself and others have to deal with. One thing to as a side question …I dream every night I’d say and I can normally remember my dreams with detail. I can remember dreams from long ago too, is this somehow connected to the hypnogogic hallucinations?

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