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.
So this has happened to me probably once or twice, one was last night. I have this hobby where I build and fly 3d rc helicopters (look it up). Anyway, now that I think about it seems to have happened a few times. I remember one where I just got a new pre-built one, and I kept finding it in my bed. I kept moving it around and trying not to break it. I just got a new one and recently started building it. Anyway, I was assembling a part right before I got to bed, and then I just kept assembling it in bed or something like that. I kept freaking out cause I thought I’d lose some screws or break something because I was in bed. I kept grabbing my phone and forcing myself to come back to my senses. But as soon as I put my head down it started again and I couldn’t ignore it it was like I was totally fixed on the task, even though I was telling myself to stop.
I’m here because I experienced my girlfriend having one of those visuals or hallucinations last night. I was just watching Netflix and all of a sudden she’s standing on top of me pointing at me yelling spider watch out!! I jumped up freaked out since I might have not seen it or something but there was nothing. So maybe it got away but an hour later it happened again so yeah I was getting a bit worried about her and it scared the hell out of me. She didn’t even want to talk about it the next day but she says it happened before.
That’s called fixation. You’re so intent, fixated, on a project or problem that you literally take it to bed with you. Many college students studying for exams do this. They study so intently, worried they’ll fail, that they continue “studying” when they sleep. Math seems to be the worst. Their subconscious will continue working to solve an equation that eludes them after they go to sleep. Mine was speech writing. I’d work on it till I passed out then work on it some more while I slept. I wrote some of my best speeches like that, lol! I asked my psych professor about it. He explained that the mind fixates on a problem and refuses to shut down until it’s solved. Your hobby is important to you and you look forward to finishing it so much that your mind won’t let it go. Once you’ve finished it will stop. Until your next fixation.
Sometimes, just as I am drifting off to sleep I jolt awake suddenly. It feels like my bed went over a big bump.
Has anyone else tried to turn on the light but it won’t go on? And feeling light and floating? That’s how I know I’m “in this state” as I call it – when I get up and walk but I’m weightless and can’t turn on my light. Anyone had someone grab your ankles and start pulling you out of bed? Or feel like someone is lying on you? I’ve had my pillow pulled from under my head, covers pulled over my head, someone shaking the covers, my comforter floating off my bed, heard water running in the bathroom, chains rattling, saw a person come in my room who tried to choke me, heard my name whispered. I’ve never seen spiders but once an animal was over my head staring at me. I’ve heard growling and scratching under my bed. Yet I never have nightmares. I also get a buzzing vibration and feel like I’m moving through space extremely fast. When I wake up I sometimes still feel buzzy in my nose bone. I take no drugs or medications and never have. They started when I was thirteen and I’m sixty now.
I wonder why spiders? I had a hypnopompic hallucination this morning: a grotesque spider up close to my face. I jumped out of bed. I had a sleep mask on and tore it off my head. Like many here, I have had these kinds of hallucinations since I was a child, including sleep paralysis, although I haven’t had that for years. I am under stress and anxiety these days, as well as dealing with a shoulder injury that makes getting uninterrupted sleep difficult. I wonder if the insectoid type hallucinations are connected to the geometric ones and these are all connected to the brain constructing images based upon seeing veins through the eyelids. At any rate, the images are really disturbing and even though I rarely get them, I too wish they would stop.
I have been having these hallucinations for years! It started when I was a teenager and woke up to a boy sitting at the bottom of my bed. I looked over at my dog and he was looking at him and growling. He was clearly scared of my dog and then looked at me and disappeared. Since then similar things have happened throughout the years, human figures, floating animals hovering and then disappearing, spiders crawling, geometric shapes, large networks of multi-colored spider webs (most frequent), bats hanging from the rafters, etc. Because of these I have often been scared of the dark and too fall asleep, leading to insomnia especially if I’m sleeping alone. It helps that now I have my husband and dog with me every night, but I have learned to embrace these visions instead of always being terrified, and sometimes even stop to marvel at the intricacies of my imagination (unless it really is another dimension we’re seeing into or something, haha.. ). Since I have done this they have gotten less scary, and can often be beautiful. Best of luck all! 🤗
Hello.
My question is…why do I always see multiple shadow spiders when I wake in the middle of the night, and never anything else if its a sort of dream? Wouldn’t I see different things? It is always big puffy shadow spiders crawling fast on my walls. Scary, but I tell myself they aren’t real.
That’s is a really good question which answer I do not know haha… It’s been a while since I’ve looked up “hypnagogic hallucinations” on google but now I find a lot more things than when I started experiencing this for the first time back in 2011 when I was 18 years old. I too see spiders but it had first started with what sounded like rat screeches that’d wake me up as soon as I began to fall asleep. I do not know as the reason why I specifically see spiders but I figured that it was probably because I am afraid of them. I used to live in a city that had so many giant spiders and tarantulas and when I was a kid a tarantula had made its way into the restroom in the middle of the night and a giant spider once stood on my hand as I laid in bed. In 2011 I used to see spiders of all sizes, shapes, and number of legs. I still see them every now and then but I learned to embrace the fact that my mind likes to joke with me. I had never experienced seeing or hearing anything else until last night when I woke up and I basically saw a person wearing one of those cooking chef’s hats dancing side to side next to my bed and quickly vanishing. I kind of freaked out at first but I read that people like you and me tend to see different things. I remember reading back in that year how one person always saw the face of his grandfather. I also remember reading how another one would wake up to see a spider carrying a baggie with gold.
The same thing here. I see spiders above my head, running up walls, one time going in my boyfriend’s ear. Sometimes its a person. I don’t even fear spiders at all but in this state I do. This always happens the night after I’ve already been asleep.
And why do so many of us see mainly spider shapes? That’s seems very odd to me.
Sometimes I dream that I am flying, and my whole body shakes and gets very cold. This morning, I jumped out of bed and kept running. There were flashing lights and geometric designs around me, that woke me up. I had been having a dream, these dreams are so real that I’m not sure that they are not. Last night my dream was that I was a different person, working for a warehouse company. People were being lined up and shot because I had stolen a large amount of money. I ran and just kept moving through the warehouse until I made it out the back. When I exited a man’s voice gave me a message, in my head. And that’s when I woke up, actually running through my house. Everything was so real, in color, the blood, the smell the sounds like I was really there. These dreams happen often and make me tired in my waking life. Any suggestions would be helpful.
What I began seeing hallucinations back in 2011 I would leave my radio on and wear something around my eyes so I wouldn’t see anything when waking up (sometimes you still see things and more if they’re colorful but it helps). Then one day I discovered ASMR I believe in 2012 before it became mainstream. There were very few videos on youtube for relaxation but basically, I’d search for “hypnosis” videos. Not that I believe in hypnosis but it’d either relax me or bore me to sleep.
Well, this was helpful. I’ve been seeing spiders that disappear. Now I’m seeing a blue folding chair and a woman. All disappear quickly. This helped put my mind at ease. I have been really stressed due to personal issues and changes in my life. I don’t rest like I used to. I’m going to try to change my sleep pattern and see if they go away.
I can totally relate to these spiders as I have exactly the same thing myself. Around 14 years ago I would jump when falling asleep like taking a deep breath and as my eyes open in the jerk I’d see one huge spider then if you watch it, it disperses into nothing. I don’t have them every night but I have them once in a blue moon and of all things spiders and I’m not even scared of them. You’re not the only one with these spiders lol take care
I’ve been experiencing the “spiders crawling up the wall” thing a while now. It happens only when drifting off to sleep or waking up. I’m not afraid of spiders so it’s ok. This has happened about 10 times in the past few years but it happened yesterday (bright orange spider) and today (tarantula) which is the first time it has happened in such a short amount of time- which is what made me do an online search to see if it is a “thing” – apparently it is! I just hope it continues to be spiders and nothing else- I can deal with that.
It saddens and frightens me what the future would be for my dad. My dad has been forgetful but never confused. Just recently he not only forgets but he becomes very confused. It got to the point where he becomes restless, Loses his appetite, see things that are not there saying there are ghosts and that’s why he is missing things around the house. Lately he would wake up screaming that scary images are in front of him or standing next to him while he’s sleeping. I’ve tried so hard to explain to him that none of it is real but he goes out of his way trying to show me what he sees when it appears to him so the I would believe him. I love my dad so much but I can’t stand what’s happening to him, he looks hurt every time he sees disbelief in my eyes making him feel like he’s crazy. I wish there was a cure, I wish I could put a stop to what his going through cause it just tears me apart seeing him in this state.
Hi
So sorry to hear what you and your family are going through, it must be very unsettling. Is your dad receiving ay professional medical care regarding what hee’s going through? It sounds to be like it’s important that he does.
Regards
Ethan
I’m 28 yo and often have “hallucinations” visuals, hear voices, see faces in patterns, light trails, and animalistic “demon” figures. It was a scary thing to encounter for a while. I don’t have any kind of sleep disorder or Alzheimer’s or anything like that. It started with sleep paralysis and I was terrified for a long time until I finally had enough of being scared and started breathing, listening, closing my eyes, and turning the darkness into what I needed. If that makes sense. Whenever he has those episodes I would try to just keep him calm and tell him you believe him and hold his hand and breath with him and talk to him about things he loves, sounds he likes, put him in a place he can imagine in his mind and then slowly pull him out of that fear by connecting reality to his brain. Like a lifeguard throwing someone a rope and pulling them to shore.
Also, look up the old wives tale called
The woman that weaves the world. That really helped me separate fantasy and reality in a beautiful way.
In the last 3 years I wake to see everything in my room a different color. Everything will be green or yellow or blue. It lasts about 5 seconds. I also see weird geometric shapes on my dresser and plants. Only last seconds before disappearing.
I had a sleep study done Last year and have a rem disturbance. I saw my eye Dr who saw nothing wrong with my eyes ( he never heard anything like this) and then a neurologist who saw nothing wrong.
I have been on Prozac antidepressants for years and wonder if that has caused this. Anyone else on long time antidepressants?
Linda
Wow, this sounds just like me. I am on new medication but I have the same symptoms. I wake up and everything ceiling to floor is yellow. Lasts a few seconds then goes back to normal. I always think I hear things banging, or I see a spider in my bed and then can’t find it also I see footprints near me and panic. I have been under soo much stress and have had my eyes tested by a dr in the hospital and nothing was wrong at all. He put me down to having a condition from stress and I believe now this is what I’m having. X
I just started seeing things at night. I rarely sleep well, so I’m not sure if I’m still awake or waking up. It’s usually a dark, very clearly defined man. Usually standing at the end of my bed or walking across the room towards the end of my bed……very scary. I’m 72, in good health and don’t do drugs.
yea I could be asleep and just wake up and I see spider clawing up the wall into the ceiling and sometimes I see them on the floor. It doesn’t happen every night but I was starting to feel like I was going crazy till I read these comments. I feel a bit more relaxed that I ain’t. There is a lot of people who are going through the same thing
I experience the same hallucinations! I wake up in the middle of the night to spiders on the ceiling and snakes on the walls. I feel better reading these comments knowing that I’m not alone!
I often wake up in the middle of the night and see a large black shape move across the ceiling or the wall. Usually, after a few minutes I’m able to relax and go back to sleep. However, there have been occasions where I’ve woken up standing on the bed with my phone flashlight pointing where the shape had been or I wake up standing in the middle of the room yelling that there’s something on the wall! Luckily, my husband has grown accustomed to it so he just calmly convinces me to lay back down and go to sleep.
I found a similar site to this a few years back. I was kind of relieved to find out I was not alone. For me it is all visual. Bugs, people in the corner. Objects coming at me or dropping from the ceiling, Only one time sensing someone next to me in bed, several times I’ve jumped out of bed flipping through the bed sheets only to find nothing.
I’ve known I have this issue, but each time it happens it feels so real that it couldn’t possibly be an illusion.
Since posting a few years back, I do sleep with a sleep mask.
I only need it during the first hour or so as I fall asleep and go into REM sleep. Once I am past that and I wake up for any reason, I can take the mask off and I am good for the night.
I’ve only taken it off too early a couple of times.
They say this goes away with age. I don’t believe mine ever will. I am 49.
I remember as a child experiencing something like this when I was 4 or 5 years old. It was always the same, a neighborhood kid would come up to my bedroom window, spit on it and it would turn black.
This went away for about 30 years, but apparently I had a bout of sleepwalking in there as a teen. The visions came back when I was about 35 and became more frequent.
There were a couple of things I thought that were causing it, like Milk, so I stopped drinking it, they went away for a while but came back eventually.
This went on for about 10 years until I discovered the sleep mask.
I put on my sleep mask every night, and as long as I leave it on through REM sleep, I have not seen one vision. Try it.
I have always experienced these, from when I was a child (I’m 40 now)… it has changed from animals like rats or slugs, mostly spiders… but what I get more often is people either (usually) standing looking at me or walking in towards me. I feel threatened and it is absolutely terrifying. I always wake up screaming at the top of my lungs!
*Does anyone else find that this occurs more often if they are either too hot or lying on their back? Why would this be?*
I woke up, and on the ceiling was a web of spiders. There were about four, and they had started to crawl towards me. I immediately threw my sheet over me to hide. I saw them again, and since I was on a loft bed, I actually jumped off the side and onto the floor. I called out for my family, flicked on the light, and nothing was there. It took me time to realize I had imagined them since I knew I saw them while awake. (This article helped so much because this is the first time this happened)
Note:
I just started college so this could be stress related, and am also a female so it’s statistically more prominent.
I have seen stuff similar with the spiders or bugs on the wall and I scream flick on light and gone or I have seen shadowy figures at times trying to reach out for me :x
I feel so reassured coming across this website! I’ve experienced my third sleep (what must be) hallucination now and after a bit of a googling here I am. I’ve been waking up and seeing bugs, spiders etc. It’s quite terrifying, to be honest as I’m not a fan of them at the best of times. The first time I woke and sat up in bed and saw hundreds of little spiders crawling up the wall and across the ceiling and towards the lampshade – awful! It took me ages to realize I’d been asleep yet my eyes were open!
The next yet another spider.,.great! This time waking up my partner. And more recently something that resembled insect-like but huge and on top of my covers peering over at me – I shot out of bed. I find it quite hard to settle back down and go back to sleep, after checking all the bedsheets for bugs and convinced there’s something there!
I’m going to try a sleep mask as I’ve seen that might help. Don’t think I can face any more of them.
I’ve been experiencing these since I was a child. No matter where I’m sleeping in the house, I see a spider crawling or coming down from the ceiling and I would run out of the room. It happens once in a while. I’ve also experienced the geometric shapes and a sea of actual jellyfish moving on the ceiling and on the tv that is off. A couple of times I have seen my cats climbing on the ceiling fan or objects that there is no way they could reach them. I see shadows and dark objects moving outside at night when I let my dogs out. I really thought I was going crazy, when I’d try to fall asleep I would hear conversations and names that I have no association with or knowledge of. I have heard an explosion happen at least 3 times as if I was there. The one time that really got me was when I was trying to sleep in a recliner. I looked to the right and saw Mrs. Claus ( totally evil by the way) trying to run at me and grab me. It was very intense and she looked real. That was probably the weirdest thing that’s happened.
I was so relieved to read many of these comments. I, too, often see spiders in the first moments when I am waking up. It used to be a large leggy spider crawling up the nearest wall or curtain. And – yes – I would leap frantically out of bed and lunge away in terror, groping for a light switch in the same instant. Just recently, the spider – still large and leggy – is dangling on its long thread of web directly above my face when I first open my eyes. Thank you for educating us and reassuring me that I am not insane.
It started when I was a really young child. I would lie, scared to moved as I saw people in a line just walking past my bedroom door some would look in and look past me, I couldn’t move for fear they would see me. They walked in a line and disappeared through the wall. I was awake, I know I was, I would see them a lot. Now grown up, I have sleep paralysis a lot, I have learnt to shout for help, through gritted teeth, I can’t move my mouth and I sound like you would if you were trying to be a ventriloquist. I shout for help and usually my son will come in turn my big light on, call me stupid and walk out, while I thank him for waking me up and getting me out of the situation, usually a dark figure trying to suffocate me, it’s awful. I saw my dead husband a few days after he died, his mouth was moving very slowly and he looked like he had been dead a few days, no lovely looking visit from a dead relative! I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say to me. I have also woke to the feeling of him spooning me in bed, I love that feeling.
When I get up to go to the bathroom at night, obviously awake, I see my dead cats and dog walking about in the dark, the dog gets up from where his bed used to be on the landing, I only see their dark, outlined bodies, the cat will walk over and rub up against my leg, I reach down to stroke it and there is nothing there, the black shape just disappears. Just the other night I woke up to a light being on in my bedroom, I thought it was from my iPad that was charging on the floor at the side of my bed, I half sat up to reach down for it and all of a sudden a bright, white flash filled my room for a split second, I closed my eyes as it was so bright, I just sat there wondering wtf it was? It wasn’t lightning or a camera flash, I don’t know what it was but it was weird. I wish I could stop the sleep paralysis as it’s so scary, it’s awful, I really think I am going to die, I am glad I have learned how to shout for help and I have made my son promise me that he will always wake me up.
Hi
I’ve been experiencing something as I awaken and it’s not shapes, colors or dragons. I see detailed images on my tv. So this is what happens:
Say I’m watching a movie and usually I fall asleep but as I awaken I see a totally different moving image for about 3 seconds then reverts back to the movie I was watching.
A kind stranger just told me I might be experiencing these hallucinations. I see a lot of comments talking about giant spiders and shadowy figures, which all sounds so terrifying. Luckily all mine are benign, however bizarre. They’re mostly very tactile and spatial. Sometimes when I’m half asleep I have these very odd sensations, one specific instance was when I felt as if my body was made of a thousand tiny violins. Just the other night I experienced one I hadn’t since I was a child, where it felt like the back of my throat had fallen away and I was semi-floating in a horizontal position within the confines of a coffin-like space. I wasn’t touching its walls, it just felt like a small enclosed area the length of my body. This was accompanied by a myriad of visual hallucinations as I had left some fairy lights on and was staring at a dragon kite hanging from my ceiling. If I kept my eyes focused on it, it would hyper-saturate itself and a minute shift in my focus would cause it to almost fluctuate into a sort of embossed bas-relief with heavy contouring. My most common hallucinations are when it’s pitch dark and my eyes are trying to focus on the blackness. That’s when these greyish rings start to expand from the center of my vision like rings of smoke and pass over me like waves. They’ve also often morphed into faces and figures floating towards me. As for auditory, if I’m on the verge of falling asleep and a sudden sharp noise erupts (like the chirp of a smoke detector), it often causes a jolt of energy to shock my brain and manifests itself as a sort of momentary visual static or jagged lines. Very rarely do I hear voices, and they’re very brief. I’ve only ever experienced sleep paralysis once (thankfully) and leading up to it I could feel myself waking up because I decided to focus on this ringing in my ears that got louder and louder, and with it came that quintessential crushing feeling. Luckily I was on my stomach so I didn’t ‘see’ anything…
Just last night I was at my father’s house and I was on the couch with a pull-out bed. I had been asleep for what I believe to be at least 30 minutes and I saw things moving. There was a stool next to me (which was real) and on top of the stool was my cup of water (that was real too) it was pretty normal at first because those items had already been there, but then, the cup slowly started moving back and forth on top of the stool. I wasn’t very scared but more confused. I ended up falling asleep again and I woke up to my tablet being on top of me. I put it back where it belonged and went back to sleep. I’ve had other experiences like this too. When I first got my hamster, I had to sleep on the floor in the kitchen because my room was being remodeled. I was laying in bed when I see my hamster running across the floor and I start freaking out and trying to catch him. My mom hears me and she is worried what’s wrong and all I keep saying is “Get Rocky!” “My Hamster Got Out Of His Cage!” And stuff like that. (My hamster’s name is Rocky Road.) My mom told me it wasn’t real and showed me my hamster in his cage. I went back to sleep after that. Other times I’ve just seen moving shadows which didn’t really scare me but all of those times I had those sleep hallucinations I haven’t been in my bed. I was always at my Dad’s house on his pull-out bed couch thing, and when I was very young like 3 to 5 years old, when I stayed the night at my grandparent’s house I would see these circles on the walls and on the ceiling and sometimes they would even fall on me. They were round and some of them were spiky and some had cartoon faces. They were blue, red, and green and they had a soft glow to them. I had told my grandma about this and she told me they were just nightmares. Other times I had sleep hallucinations I was sleeping on the floor. So, I guess I need to get a better sleep schedule, I need to use electronics less, eat healthier, drink more water, and go outside more and hopefully that will help.
I really believe that you are seeing into the spirit realm.
Interesting you should say that Jess, about the spirit realm. I have thought of that. Maybe one or the other or a combination of hallucinations (things that aren’t there) and some kind of spiritual connection where you see things with your “third eye” and has a spiritual meaning) Of what faith are you?
I am 42 years old. My first time hallucinating was about 11 years ago.
I was laying in bed about to fall asleep and was startled by a humanoid type figure in the shadows of my closet very vivid very detailed and definitely not human. I even felt a sense of momentary paralysis, I couldn’t move any part of my body turn away or blink. Then to my horror, it whispered something unintelligible and moved deeper into the shadows. After my fear subsided a bit I got up to look and nothing.
I have had thousands of experiences since this, rarely humanoid shapes as intense and realistic as my first one but some very frightening.
The bugs are creepy.. waking up to see a spider 3 feet long crawling across the headboard less than a foot from your face.. or the army of unclassifiable insects taking up a third of your wall marching in formation directly at you, or the squadron of flying unknown bugs covering the ceiling….
I’m sick of being jolted awake 3-4 mornings a week. Or falling asleep after some weird experience..
I just woke up and scrambled for my phone to use the light to see if this tarantula sized spider crawling on my headboard was really there…
Of course it wasn’t………..
I have been woken by movement or feeling something crawling on me. I have seen shadows coming through the walls or closed doors. I see mechanical type bugs, real bugs or bug-like shapes, and geometric shapes. The shadows usually scare me and I will yell at them to make them leave usually from a dead sleep. That would scare the crap out of my wife and later a girlfriend after the wife passed away. If I start doing that I ask for protection before I go to sleep and believe that takes care of the shadows. The shadows tend to appear if I’m really tired. The bugs and geometric shapes occur more often and used to scare me, now I try to get a better look at them out of curiosity and of course they disappear. The spiders still frighten me at first but I try to get a better look at them because of the crazy color schemes and they to disappear. Strange stuff.
I remember having these hallucinations when I was younger. I would be looking at dark objects like the toys on my desk or the pictures on my walls. I literally saw them moving or forming different objects. Now it’s happening again as a teen.. and to be honest I feel like I’m going crazy or something.. I don’t want to freak out my parents. Really it’s terrifying because you’re awake and it seems real.
Know you are normal and it might mean you are more nervous lately. I’ve had these since I can remember, I was 3-4 years old. My parents confirmed to me that I was seeing things upon waking up. They can also happen when falling asleep. They still happen now, I’m 32. Not as scared anymore, now that I know they’re not dangerous and benign. Sleep well and take care of yourself.
For years I have woken from a sound sleep, suddenly jolted awake to see people standing beside me, like a silhouette surrounded by static. The night after my mum died that day, I startled awake to see someone laying next to me. I’ve had things shove me when I’m trying to fall asleep, heard voices, seen strange kaleidoscopic patterns dance across the ceiling and disappear through the wall, but always black and white never colour. Tonight I’m frightened because I was startled awake to see a spiderweb-like substance hanging in the air all through my room. It sort of was moving closer to me but I turned on the light to make it go away. I am so tired but too scared to sleep. My husband never believes me when I saw I see or hear things. I’m not crazy now! I’m also feeling really hot tonight even though it’s winter and it’s cold, interesting.
I’ve recently been researching all this wake hallucinations thing 😳 I read tonight that sleep apnea can be contributed to this, I know I snore don’t tell my kids or bf lol having some seeing, hearing, and me reacting to something that obviously wasn’t there but was so so real!!! Has me shook up honestly! The dream/awake episode wasn’t scary but what actually happened and how I reacted is! Sorry didn’t mean to ramble but I read about the apnea and also a possible link to hot flashes which I am definitely having! And I’m 50 so which is the cause hormones, this or sleep apnea, it’s all up in the air for me at the moment but I wish you well and have gained some insight from this msg board also.
The first time was waking up to a tall dark figure of a man at the foot of my bed. Although it was like looking at a shadow just completely black, the figure was also clothed and I could distinctly see what he or it was wearing. The second time was waking up to a human skull hovering over me that kinda vanished into smoke. Also my cat was with me by my pillow just sitting there like he could see what I was seeing? Just recently I woke to find some twisted animalistic shape or figure in the dark corner of the wall above my bedroom door. It was there for at least 6 or 7 secs than disappeared when I leaped towards it. I also felt a tightness in my chest afterward which was pretty unsettling but went away after 30mins. Pretty spooky
A giant spider hanging from my ceiling right above my head. I’m scared to death of spiders and this set me off. I checked my room and bed for it, obviously nothing was there. I was so confused because I couldn’t tell if it was real or not. My husband has had it with me waking him up so abruptly.
Omg… I’m going down the rabbit hole here trying to figure out what is happening to me. Just like you described, it’s happened 4 different times now all within the last month. Never had this issue before either, I wake up in the middle of the night convinced there’s a spider crawling across my face or dangling right over me. I come to and swear I see it and then nothing. I’m scared out of my skin, I’ve checked the walls and my mattress and first I wondered if I had bed bugs, or maybe a south Florida summer critter had found its way into my bedroom. But nothing. The past couple times I’ve seen it out of the corner of my eye but last night clear as day I saw what looked like a daddy longlegs crawling right above my face I screamed to wake my husband up and I watched it disappear. I don’t do drugs and the only new thing I’ve taken is over the counter zzzquil, and only a single dose. I’m so confused about what’s happening and I would feel fully crazy but one of the times I woke up my husband he said he thought he saw something too. Not sure if I find it comforting or strange that so many people are experiencing the same phenomenon.
I see floating swirling numbers. Shouldn’t be frightening lol but it is. It feels ominous and almost sinister. Very weird. Started about three weeks ago. So far. I’ve found Last night That looking at my phone screen for a minute or so shuts it down. Flashlight (As mentioned by another poster) might work as well. God Bless and good luck.
Last night I saw a thing staring at me when I woke up around 3:00 and it was there for about 5 seconds and then it went away. But I was terrified I didn’t know what to do so I just froze. It looked like a human shape that was completely black in a Cloak holding a black staff. It was about 6 feet tall and standing 2 feet away from my bed. It was so scary. I thought I was crazy.
I have been having the same thing!! Mostly every night. It’s a black image of someone and then it goes away. Do you know what it is?
A week ago, I turned over in bed and saw someone dressed in a hooded, black cloak right next to my bedside, looking down at me. When I saw “it”, for about 3 seconds, it disappeared. Funny thing is I turned back over and went right back to sleep. Really frightening. I KNOW what I saw.
About a week ago, I turned over in bed and saw a tall, dark, hooded cloak next to my bedside, looking down at me. I did not see a face. After about 3 seconds, it disappeared. I then turned right back over and fell asleep. I was wide awake and I KNOW what I saw. Upon arising the next morning, I felt very frightened. I am a born again Christian. Since this being was black, was it demonic or evil? After a few days, I anointed my doors, windows and other things with oil, carried my Bible with me, reciting The Lord’s Prayer in each room and telling this “thing” it was not welcome here and I demanded every evil thing to leave and never come back to my house, in the Name Of Jesus! Could it be that we are seeing into the Spiritual Realm?
Lately, the past few weeks I’ve been hallucinating in my sleep daytime, and at night, at work, and at home. Hearing visuals scary voices familiar voices and feeling like somebody is standing at the end of my bed watching me or walking around my room.
I had been seeing spiders since 2012. Waking up in midnite seeing black spider hanging a few feet away. I quickly throw my blank over it and throw the blanket outside then I go back to sleep. Next morning I shake the blanket and of course nothing there. Before I had ever seen what CV19 looked like I started seeing this ‘spiked’ red ball hanging right in front of my face when I would suddenly wake up! No lie! I did not know what it was, again I would throw my pillow over it and there it went, disappeared. One day I was browsing the internet and saw CV19 spore..OMGosh that’s exactly what I saw in front of my face and head just hanging there. Then the virus spread everywhere in the world. Just last nite I saw it again crystal clear a little bit diff looking but just about the same red ball with spikes! I threw my blanket over it and went back to sleep. I am no longer afraid of it but not sure why this happens. It has to be hallucinated of course. I am extremely careful about wearing a mask etc. very much so. But my “spider” from 2012 turned into a CV19 spore. I never saw a pic of CV19 spore prior to the one that was above my head and very close to my face. Very weird and imagine my astonishment when I first saw a pic of it online! I have had premonitions on and off in my life. So perhaps this was one.
I got up around 5 AM today, left all the lights off. Went in master bath and I could swear I saw a cat walking around my bedroom. I turned on all the lights and even checked under the bed! Just Googled my experience and I’m so glad I found the information. Also glad to know I’m not alone in this.
I do take medication, the only thing that changed is I have to take a blood pressure pill, Norvasc.
I wake up right after I fall asleep thinking I heard the doorbell. Or someone kicking or knocking on the door. I know it’s not real because my dog would be going bananas if it were.
Sometimes I see a persons outline in my room. Lately I also see geometric shapes covering my walls.
I’m so glad to know I’m not crazy….at least not about this.
OMG. I recently started seeing weird things when I wake up in the mornings. I have seen this light that forms into a woman, she’s dressed like in the 1950s, she’s happy, she’s walking up my stairs with her purse on her right wrist, I’m afraid so I close my eyes and shes gone. I wake up another morning and I see this object moving across my ceiling, this morning was really weird, I woke up and saw the alphabets and numbers on the wall all of them were mixed-up ..so glad I am not going crazy, so thankful I found this site and that I am not alone on this journey.
Tracey,
I’m Tammy. I have experienced the same thing, I’m so glad to know that I’m not the only person. I haven’t responded to anyone else but yours is so much like mine. My little lady had a cute hat too! lol. I’m curious if our lives are similar, I’m a 60 yo pastor’s wife. Raised in the South.
When I wake in the middle of the night I see things like stables, donkeys, cats, rats, spiders and even Jesus a few times. He was on our fridge on a cross! (Ok…I’m Baptist). Last night I saw my sister (who passed away seven years ago). She was in a long white gown and was nonchalantly cooking at our stove (our bedroom is adjacent to the kitchen). I have learned that what I am seeing is not real. Sometimes, I will just look at it and take it in for a minute or two.
I have been having hallucinations upon awakening since I was a little girl. It can be quite frightening even as an adult. Recently I woke up and saw a hand reach out and touch me. I felt it touch me and I was awake. It has made me afraid to go to sleep sometimes. I have seen all kinds of spiders too. My mother has REM sleep disorder where she now gets out of bed and talks to people she is seeing that aren’t really there.
Pam,
My name is Tammy. This has been happening to me for three years and tonight was the first time I have been able to touch one of them! I was always able to wave my hand through them and they would disappear. Mine has been progressive, started out hearing music or tv. I would jump up to see if they were on. Now I will see a scene like from a projector.
And I have seen people. Tonight was the first time I have ever been able to touch one! My people are sometimes family members. Especially right after my Mom died last year. Mine have not been too scary, I just thought I was going crazy and therefore would not share with anyone for fear they would think I was nuts. So glad I found this website!
I am so glad I am not alone. The past month I’ve been experiencing these crazy things only when I am waking up from my sleep in the middle of the night or in the morning. It started off by me seeing red and oranges lights and whenever I would look at my hubby When he was sleeping it would look like he was dead or hurt the shadowing on his face was scary. What brought me here today was waking up this morning I seen my first vision of a person I don’t even know it’s crazy to me… it only happens when I’m waking up it’s the craziness thing I swear. Can we stop these?
For a while, I’ve tried to explain to my boyfriend what I see when I wake up and “see things” and when you say red and orange lights and the shadowing is completely on point!!
Sometimes these lights can almost be flashing inside an electric cloud.
Only recently though it’s changed and I have started seeing objects like a feather floating down above me or barcode-like shadows on the wall beside my head.
My heart races when this happens and it’s amazing to read similar situations!!
I am not sure how long but it’s many five years or more since I noticed these. I see lots of faces always male. I never recognize anyone as people I have met or know. Once I start to go to sleep but still fully awake I see them. I am not aware of anything that is a trigger as in stress. I usually distract myself by turning on my bedside light. I am not taking any medications. It is comforting to know that I am not alone.
I always see a giant spider on my wall. It can be anywhere and it’s always really fast! I don’t have these hallucinations a lot, usually I get them if I wake up early in the morning or in the middle of night.
Hello, I’ve started seeing hallucinations of shape hanging things I would just like to ask of you only see it during the dark and how do you stop it.
I’ve been wondering about that – why they only happen in the dark. That’s why I stay up all night. I only ever had one in the day and it was not scary. The night ones are always scary. I don’t know how to stop them other than to get enough sleep. They seem to happen most often when I’m overly tired and/or anxious and when I go to sleep in the dark. I work 4 to midnight so I usually get enough sleep during the day.
I am very happy to finally understand what I experienced my whole life. When I was younger I used to see persons next to my bed and it ended with me screaming in terror and waking everybody in the house. Now, that I am older, I don’t scream anymore, usually, I jump from the bed and turn all lights on. I now mainly see big fast spiders hanging over me. I still look down the bed after I wake…I guess I will have this all my life. My mother, grandmother and grand grand mother had it. Only once it was a horrible animal tahr came running and breathing and attacked me. Luckily all the other times were pacific.
I’ve been having hallucinations for months now. I only have them when I am waking up and the room is dark except for the night light, If I move or turn my flash light on it disappears. I have been taking a flashlight to bed for this reason. If I leave several lights on. I never see any. They are objects, like it looks like a hand Muppet, I’m not sleeping well at all, I stay up so if I wake up I know what I am facing.I’ve read up on this a lot,and has helped more than anything I’ve had other things I saw but they only last a week or so and go away.