Do strange images of geometric shapes, people or animals appear out of nowhere as you lie in bed at night? Perhaps you’ve heard voices or noises which can’t possibly be real?
If so, it could be that you’ve experienced what’s known as sleep hallucinations.
Despite leading to the occasional leap out of bed in sheer terror, they are usually harmless. And many people experience them at some point in their lives – including me.
My nocturnal flying geometric manifestations
As a child, multicolored geometric shapes would regularly swoop across my bedroom, just as I was drifting off to sleep. I remember simultaneously marveling at them and wishing them away so I could sleep in peace.
It doesn’t happen so often nowadays, but once in a while, I’m still prone to my mathematical manifestations.
Perhaps I should be grateful for my geeky hallucinations – especially compared to the disturbing experiences some people have.
What are sleep hallucinations?
Sleep hallucinations are imaginary experiences that happen during the transition between being awake and asleep, and can feel confusingly real.
They are also referred to as hypnagogic hallucinations if they occur while you’re falling asleep, or hypnopompic hallucinations if they happen while waking up.
The hallucinations are usually visual, such as seeing shapes or figures in the dark. But they can also involve your other senses.
The hallucinations can be vivid and frightening in some cases. If you see a giant creature in your room or hear a scary voice, it’s understandable that some people will jump out of bed and turn the light on to check what’s going on!
How many people have sleep hallucinations?
A commonly quoted statistic in medical articles comes from research conducted in 1996. The team interviewed 4972 people in the United Kingdom by telephone. They found that 37% had experienced hypnagogic hallucinations. And 12.5% had experienced hypnopompic hallucinations.
In 2000, another team of researchers surveyed 13,057 people and found that 38.7% had experienced hallucinations at some point during the day or night. 24.8% of the sample had experienced hallucinations at sleep onset, and 6.6% upon waking.
A sign of Narcolepsy
For some people, sleep hallucinations can be a sign of narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder which involves sudden daytime episodes of:
- Unexpectedly falling asleep
- Sleep paralysis
- Hypnagogic hallucinations
If you have these symptoms, it’s important to seek medical advice.
Symptoms
The main symptom is seeing or hearing things while falling asleep or waking up that aren’t real.
Researchers believe that the most common type of hallucination is visual. However, it’s possible to experience hallucinations that correspond to any of your senses:
- Visual – such as geometric patterns, shapes or light flashing. Sometimes complex forms like animals or people.
- Auditory – voices talking, phone or doorbell ringing, music, hissing, humming or whistling.
- Olfactory – pleasant or unpleasant smells.
- Tactile – insects crawling on the skin, rubbing, stroking, tapping or tickling sensations. Perhaps also feeling weightless, distortions in the body, flying.
Not the same as nightmares
Telling the difference between dreaming and hallucinating isn’t always obvious in the moment. But sleep hallucinations are not the same as nightmares.
When you wake up from a nightmare, you’ll know you were asleep (even if it takes a little while to come back to reality).
Sleep hallucinations, however, can feel like they are really happening. You know you’re awake, but you’re not convinced it’s merely your imagination playing tricks on you.
Coexisting with sleep paralysis
Sleep hallucinations sometimes happen during an episode of sleep paralysis.
During sleep paralysis, you might be unable to move your body in bed, which in itself is often frightening.
The hallucinations that accompany it can range from seeing a presence in the room to seeing and feeling a creature sitting on you.
Causes
The International Classification of Sleep Disorders manual suggests two causes related to brain function, though also states that more research is needed:
- An intrusion of dream imagery onto wakefulness.
- A lack of stimulus leading to the visual cortex in the brain creating images.
Health websites, such as healthline.com, suggest that sleep hallucinations can be caused by other conditions, such as:
- Sleep disorders like narcolepsy or sleep paralysis
- A medical condition or medication use
- A mental health disorder, such as schizophrenia
- Substance abuse
Risk factors
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, they are more common in children and young adults. Women might experience them slightly more often than men.
Some factors are thought to increase the likelihood or severity of the hallucinations, including:
- Drug or alcohol use
- Anxiety or stress
- Mood disorders like bipolar disorder or depression
- Insomnia
- Epileptic seizures
Research shows that fragmented sleep is associated with more hallucinations
In 2021, a team of researchers published an interesting study of sleep hallucinations (you can read it in full on nature.com).
Based on an online survey of 10,299 people, they found that poor sleep is associated with the occurrence of hallucinations – a point already confirmed by previous studies.
However, they further showed that fragmented sleep, i.e. regular wakings, is related to hallucinations. And that fragmented sleep is also related to the content, frequency, duration, and associated distress.
Interestingly then, people who had better sleep had less negative and less disruptive hallucinations when they did have them.
So the more you have them, the worse they might be. It seems to me to be a good motivation to tackle any factors you know that make you wake up more often in the night.
Treatment
Do you need to see a doctor?
If you’re experiencing anxiety or losing sleep because of regular sleep hallucinations, it’s a good idea to speak to a doctor or sleep specialist.
They would ask you about your hallucinations and look at your medical history and other factors like medication and lifestyle. They might decide that an overnight sleep study is needed to find out more.
They would also look at the possibility of another condition causing the episodes. And if they find one, give you the appropriate treatment.
Worried about your mental health?
If you suddenly start having hallucinations, it’s understandable that you might question your mental health. This is a point I’ve seen raised in the comments below many times, so you wouldn’t be alone in thinking something was ‘wrong’ with you.
It’s worth noting that if it only ever happens when you’re in bed trying to sleep, there’s a good chance it’s harmless sleep hallucinations. Perhaps it’s a sign you’re under a lot of stress lately, for example, but it might not be an indicator that something is wrong beyond that.
Having said that, if you have hallucinations during the day, or other symptoms that are making you feel anxious or confused about your mental health, then it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor. And if you’re still not convinced the nighttime hallucinations are benign, talk to your doctor to get a professional opinion.
If this line of thinking feels relevant to you, there’s a good article on psychologytoday.com in which a clinical psychologist talks a patient having sleep problems rather than a schizophrenic illness.
What can you do to help reduce them?
Here are some ideas which might help keep the hallucinations at bay:
- Get an adequate amount of sleep every night. Try to stick to a regular sleep schedule and don’t allow yourself to become sleep deprived.
- Avoid recreational drugs.
- Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water.
- Try to reduce your stress levels.
- Try using a soft night light in the bedroom. This might help fill the space that your brain uses as a blank canvas.
- If you tend to have auditory hallucinations, listening to music, radio or a podcast in bed might help.
- If you find yourself focusing on visual hallucinations, try to re-focus your mind on something else. Breathing exercises or muscle relaxation can keep your brain occupied.
- If it’s overwhelming, turn on a light and get up for a while, do an activity you find relaxing, and then try to sleep again after 10-15 minutes.
- Several readers have said in the comments below that wearing a sleep mask helps them.
Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are a normal part of life for many people. Once you’ve ruled out any serious illness or disorder, you’re left to deal with the experience in two ways.
First, try to adapt your lifestyle to make sure you do everything possible to sleep well. Second, relax and try not to worry about things that go bump in the night.
Your thoughts
Do you ever experience hallucinations when falling asleep or waking up? What form do they take?
Feel free to describe your experience in the comments below and share any ideas you have about dealing with them.
I often wake in the night and see people standing or hovering near me with big, caricature smiles. They disappear quickly. The night after my father died I saw him hovering in my room with a smile. Once I saw a lady bending over to touch me. Ghosts?
That sent shivers down my spine dude!
I often wake up in the middle of the night and see a figure hanging on the back of my bedroom door almost. The first few seconds are quite scary because I’m convinced there is someone there but after a short moment it seems to fade.
I have had hallucinations on five occasions. Three at night, one at night but was a smell that made me gag and the 5th was during the day at work. The three in the middle of the night were people, a girl, woman in a wedding dress and a boy. With the woman and the boy I was in bed while the girl was seen when I found myself standing in my closet area. The latest was the woman where I looked away and closed my eyes and looked back twice and she was still there and then slowly walked farther out of the bedroom and faded into the wall. The one during the day was at work where I saw a cat sitting under a table in my office. All of these have happened within the past 12 months with the most recent being less then two weeks ago and the woman. I am a healthy 61 year old male. Not sure why they are happening but they are.
Wow good luck my comments will be up in a couple of days
When I wake up suddenly at night I see images floating above my head, right above my eyes, sometimes it is something like a jellyfish or a dna intertwining and moving up. It’s the same sensation when you go to 4d cinema movies, the image is right above my face. Sometimes I see a giant spider that is really close to my face when I open my eyes and it slowly starts to climb its way up on a spider web towards the ceiling. The first time I saw that I was so freaked out that I jumped out of my bed and turned on the lights because it seemed totally real
This has been very interesting because I am the only person within my family & friends circle who experiences this. I slept talked & slept walked as a child. In college, I dreamed or hallucinated being in a tunnel w/a train bearing down on me. In reality, I jumped out of bed, over several objects, scrambled onto my desk & pounded on my eighth floor window before fully waking up. Luckily, only some cuts & bruises as a result. I’ve seen spiders, heard voices, seen colorful lights & was sure my recently deceased cat was walking around on the bed. In recent years, most of my visions are of shadowy people staring at me who are there to kill me. Last night there was a dog who came to kill me. I love dogs! Once I saw each blade of our ceiling fan as a machine gun shooting down on us. When I travel with friends, I always have to warn them that I may wake up screaming. Ugh. Scary, but also embarrassing. Turning the light on is the only way to get them to disappear. My poor husband. Thanks for the info.
Hello, my name is karmend I’m 49 and mine started after I nearly died from a dead gall bladder I had emergency surgery to save my life. After that I started being startled awake by knocking on my door and when I’d wake up I’d see a ghostly old man standing at the backdoor and shadow people and different creatures I’d see the trees talking to each other and some weird worms falling from the sky. And this would happen when I was awake driving as well once I saw God and angels and how all life was connected how good and evil are connected. I kept seeing God standing in the sky for 3 days finally I don’t see any of those things anymore. But I did see a bush morph into a tiger one day when I got off work I was terrified my husband had to come outside because I was afraid to get out .its true that sleep plays a role in the hallucinations I’m bipolar and sometimes stay awake for 3 days when I do I notice I hallucinate a lot I see smell and hear my hallucinations. But atheist I know I’m hallucinating or dreaming while awake.yes you can dream while awake because I do. And yes I’m sensitive I truly believe I have psychic abilities I can accurately see death coming for someone never been wrong. And I saw my mother after she passed away. All I can say is I noticed a lot of people have had my same experience with seeing the same things like the lights that float and things changing shapes mysterious spiders. I have dreamed of spiders and snakes.
I wake up in the middle of the night seeing either spiders or someone staring at me. Last week I woke up and realized I was sitting up straight having a full conversation with a lady sitting on my bed but when I finally woke up I couldn’t remember the conversation. Do you really believe it is sleep paralysis? Cause why do these things happen at certain locations?
I have been experiencing these visual things for years and had thought everyone else did when they woke up in the night/morning!
Mine are beautiful geometric shapes or hieroglyphs and I can see them all over the walls and ceiling. If I get up, they move with me and sometimes they make a low vibrating/humming noise (they don’t of course!) Never exactly the same each time but the general appearance is always similar. The shapes and images glow in tones of golds and copper as I look across them, like words emboldened on a page. I feel fully awake when I see them and always think I should be able to read them, as if I’m being shown a message. Only a very few times, the shapes were replaced by what looked like an entire universe, planets, stars – but set against grid lines – all glowing in these beautiful tones of gold and copper. Very peaceful.
The weird bit is when I have this experience I feel immensely calm, warm and contented. If I go back to sleep after them I have the most amazing dreams.
I’m 52 and look forward to seeing them, probably once every couple of months. No idea why I get them or why they always present so similar. As I said, I thought this was normal when you woke up. I don’t drink, smoke, or take any medication.
Peace and happiness x
Same I can’t tell if I’m crazy because it’s rare for me?
For the past two years I find that if I go to bed and even think about a spider, I will wake up and think said spider is dangling over my head. Doing the only logical thing, I would throw my blankets off, to where it hits the spider, then run out of my room. The crazy thing is I do all of this but have no idea what is going on until it’s all said and done. Tonight was the first time it happened in a long time. This time I screamed bloody murder and the entire hour heard me. I at-least know what is going on with me.
I’m a resident of an aged care facility, I woke this morning to see a young blond-haired woman holding a bunch of flowers standing beside me smiling. I thought to myself “gee I’m still in bed and I’ve got a visitor”, I blinked and she was gone. I am not demented, my brain still functions well. However, this experience has never happened in my life before.
Hi Pamela
I don’t normally reply to the comments on this thread any more as it’s been years since I first wrote it! But I still read them, and thought I’d make an exception in your case – assuming you come back to see if anyone replies!
It was interesting to read your experience. I can imagine it must have been a surprise if it was the first time. I think one case like this isn’t a sign of mental health decline. It can happen to anyone, including me still to this day.
Anyway, I hope you are well and have gotten through this difficult last year in your facility.
All the best
Ethan
Pamela, I’m an old man living alone. I frequently fall asleep while sitting in a chair. Rarely when I first awaken, I’ll see the image of a person. It’s no one I recognize. The image only lasts a fraction of a second and disappears. Today I nodded off 3 times & got three images of different people. As far as I know, they were not part of a dream. I would like to know the meaning of all this.
I’m 15 right now. My hallucinations are not common but I know they aren’t real. When I was around about 8- 10 I had 3 visual hallucinations and they were all based on my fears. The first one was when I was in bed trying to sleep and I looked at my hand and there was a baby tarantula (black, orange, and furry) on my hand. Surprisingly I was pretty chill cuz I knew it wasn’t real (cuz I couldn’t feel it) so I just looked away and looked again and it was gone. The second one was after I watched the Muppets Christmas Carol (I forgot what it’s called but it’s something like this) and I was always terrified of the two ghosts with chains (still am lol). I was sleeping with my arm across my eyes because I had a habit of subconsciously opening my eyes when I’m trying to sleep so it was hard for me to sleep sometimes (sometimes I would sleep with a pillow on my face, pls don’t do this lol). Anyway, I was trying to sleep like this but suddenly I felt my blanket being aggressively tugged (probably a tactile hallucination where I felt something that I didn’t actually feel) and I looked to see what it was and I saw a big, fat white ghost with chains hovering at the side of my bed. For ages I was convinced that it was a real ghost but now I’m sure that it was just a silly hallucination because there is NO WAY that ghosts actually look THAT stupid lmao. Anyway, the third one was a bit later when I was around 10 y/o when it was the night and I was supposed to be trying to sleep but I was afraid of the dark so every now and then I would look around the room to make sure I was safe. However, on this night, I saw a tall shadow-like human staring at me from the side of my bed. It didn’t have any facial features but I could just feel it staring at me. Also, I know it wasnt a real shadow because it was IN a shadow, it was just darker. It looked so real I tried talking to it but it still wouldn’t say anything. After a while, I called my dad and as soon as he opened the door and light came in, it disappeared. I told him what I saw and he just said “ghosts aren’t real” and went back to bed. As soon as he closed the door again, it appeared again but at the end of my bed. I pinched myself multiple times to make sure i was awake and i was. After a while I gave up and just slept under my blanket. Since then I havent had any visual hallucinations but I just wish that my parents would have at least comforted me when I saw these things. I was just a child and I had hallucinations that linked to my fears and I had no one to comfort me so it’s always been hard to talk about these things to people who haden’t experienced hallucinations themselves because they probably just wouldn’t believe that I saw or felt these things.
Anyway, fast forward to 13-15 y/o. At this time, I had moved my bedroom into the attic so I had these noisy wooden steps going up into my room. They don’t make any noise unless somebody is walking on them but the first year I was in that bedroom I would usually hear footsteps going up my stairs in the middle of the night even though there was no one so for a while I had night lights to help me sleep. The second year, the footsteps would be in my bedroom. I remember this specific time when I had sleep paralasys but I was sleeping on my stomach. I was really convinced that somebody was walking around in my room, I could almost hear their breathing. I tried looking but I couldn’t move. I think I was just convincing myself that as long that I don’t move or breath too loudly then it won’t notice me and I’ll be same. After a while, I finally looked and there was nothing there. I was too scared to try sleeping again after that so I went into my parent’s room and woke up my dad and told him what happened while I was crying and my dad just told me that there’s no one up there and that I probably just had a nightmare. Anyway fast forward to the past year. Luckily, I don’t hallucinate as much as most of the people in the comments so only 3 things have happened so far in the past year. The first one was a voice in my head saying my name as I was falling asleep. I was pretty shook because I had never heard a voice in my head before. I knew it was in my head because it just felt like it was my head even though it sounded just as real as a real voice, I don’t really know how to explain it. Also, that was my first auditory hallucination. Anyway, the next one was a bit more recent (maybe like 1 or 2 months ago). I was having a nightmare and I saw a bucket of spiders about to get poured of me. As soon as I saw it I woke up but I couldn’t move or open my eyes (I knew that I was just having a nightmare and that I just woke up because I couldn’t see anything anymore). I was lying on my stomach again so as soon as I woke up I could literally FEEL the spiders being poured onto my back. I could feel all their long, skinny (not that skinny, kinda the size of a tarantula but with no fur) legs crawling on my back as more were being poured onto me. I remember cursing to myself in my head while I was waiting for it stop lol. That was my second tactile hallucination and probs my worst one lmao. Anyway, onto the next. This one just happened this morning and it honestly wasn’t that bad. As soon as I woke up, I heard a machine noise as if something was being turned on. It was pretty early when no one was awake cuz I randomly wake up really early sometimes. At first I was confused, thinking I suddenly turned into a robot or cyborg or smth but after a few mins I decided that it was definitely a hallucination and nothing more. This is all that’s happened and after reading some of the comments here, I’ve realised I much worse it could be and I’m thankful that mine is just occasional and nothing too scary. P.S. I forgot to mention that sometimes I feel light tugs and taps on my blanket (by my legs) in the night but for ages I just thought those were just normal and didn’t realise that they could have been hallucinations lol. I never really thought much of it. It used to happen everynight but it’s less usual now. Also, last night I felt someone’s arm against mine while I was trying to sleep. I didn’t much of it because it was just comforting lol but it went away after I opened my eyes. P.P.S. I really hope my hallucinations don’t get more common as I get older lmao.
I too have all of the things mentioned but never anything frightening. They are usually people, i.e. my family, another thing is I feel like I’m floating keep in touch to see if we have other similar things. I only have trouble sleeping 💤 when I have something stressful on my mind. Pamela.
Twice in my 32 years on this earth, I’ve woken up in the night looked at my hands and they were glowing a dull green, under the skin, like a glow in the dark green, I could see spots/dots in this green.
I had to get out of bed and check out my hands
I have these when I take a nap in the afternoon and then when I sleep late or when I go to bed exhausted. This started happening immediately after I started taking blood pressure medication and migraine medication. I see a figure of a man in a hoodie standing on the right side of the bed, just standing there and looking down on me. It is quite scary and I have screamed out a few times and if feels as if my heart will jump out of my chest. It is quite upsetting and you start getting nervous when the sun goes down and night approaches. I hate this, because you feel trapped and not in control.
I have been having these night images at night. I will be asleep and then something wakes me up. Lately, it has been round dark blobs about the size of a softball
On the ceiling. They move towards me and may change to red or orange and the closer they get I can get see their spider-like legs working. seems like they suddenly realize I can see them and turn to blurry outlines that I can still see, but are harder to follow. They will change direction and hide behind furniture or curtains. One night I had sat up in bed and followed the progress of this thing across the ceiling. It stopped above me, turned blurry, and quickly headed toward the curtains to hide. I was sidewise to the curtain and looking across the room. Suddenly out of the corner of my right eye, I see this black blob crawling down the curtain behind the head of my bed at a fast pace. This is happening even if I leave a night light or the lamp by my bed on.
They are never in the same place except somewhere on the ceiling. I have told myself these are nothing but hallucinations or I am dreaming. Hard to keep telling myself this when I wake up and the first thing I am asking myself is am I really awake. Yes, I am I have laid and watched these weird things. My dog will not even sleep in the room anymore.
The first time I had one of these night terrors was when I was 27 and pregnant. I would wake up during the night to find this black human shape either at the foot of the bed or right at my side. If it was at the foot of the bed, it would glide up to the side of the bed. I would lay there and stare at it. Somehow, my thoughts kept telling me that as long as I never reached out and tried to touch it I was safe. It kept showing up till I had the baby.
My husband was to name the boy babies and I would name the girls. He named the baby Curtis.
Not being particularly fond of the name ( and it was not a family name), I asked my husband what made him come up with that name. He said he did not know, it had just come to him. Sometime later, I asked his
Mother if someone had died in the house we lived in. She said yes. The old man’s name was Curtis.
Unfortunately, I have had several experiences over the years. Do not want them! No, I am not Schizophrenic, bipolar, suffer from lots of depression, etc. Just want to know what the heck is going on.
I have also been visited by people who I find out the next day have died.
Can you give me any answers?
Anything I can do to get rid of these experiences?
I have been having these episodes since I was a small child I am now 61 and still have them. I see lights hovering around the room and ceiling and often wake to see a face staring at me. The worse ones are the black shapes that press down on me, that’s terrifying it takes your breath away and I can’t move until I’m able to scream. So good to read this article as it has taken me till now to talk about it as I thought I was a bit insane, good to know I’m not alone with these hallucinations.
Of course…in the western fear we experience nowadays in the English-speaking world, the ‘worst ones’ will always be black shapes…but seriously; my ones are ‘owls’ (or indeed any kind of bird – and NOT black) flying ever so s-l-o-w-l-y across the ceiling. The first one was around 2007 when I was in my mid-thirties…ten years after I was knocked over by a wee lassie eager to get home quickly so she could start her Friday night with friends. As a result I spent four months in a coma – and ended up epileptic…with my nighttime gigs happening 10 years later. Was it my condition – or the medication? Perhaps both…but the first time was terrifying.
I jumped out of bed at around 11.40pm, and made a cup of tea and after watching a bit of television for half an hour, returned and comfortably slept until the alarm awoke me at 7.45am.
It was (after a great many such experiences) I made some sort of effort to stop it…went to visit a relative who now lives in Hong Kong, and bought two sleep masks for the 14 hr. red-eye flight. On return home, I bought another dozen after realising it didn’t happen – but realised abroad (or far from my cold, wet and dull part of the world) it didn’t happen as much…I spent a month in Mexico and – damn – it was too hot for any kind of eye-covering…but never suffered any ‘RISE AND SHINE!!’ shapes on the roof.
I wouldn’t say I’ve ‘never looked back’, as it will still happen…and it’s not only ‘birds’ – but ‘mist’, and whirls of ‘smoke’ (which would be even more frightening if messages from my nostrils told the same story).
I just turned 58 and for the last couple of years, I have been seeing people just standing by the bed when I wake up in the middle of the night. Only 1 person at a time. They are very detailed. One was a little girl. We looked into each other’s eyes, I was calm for some reason and she seemed kind. I could see her outfit and face and hair clearly. I watched until she gradually faded away. On the other hand I’ve seen figures looming over me so I have screamed in terror. I also saw my cat on the bed, I saw her markings and her eyes clearly. I spoke to her and went to stroke her but she disintegrated before my eyes. There’s loads more as the frequency has picked up in the last few months so it’s about 3 or 4 times a week I see people now. I have just seen the doctor who is getting me an MRI head scan to rule out anything physical
about 6 months ago I woke up with this old woman standing by my bed when I screamed she backed in the wall and I have never seen her again. I have no problem going to sleep but I wake up several times during the night and was seeing snakes, lizards, birds, all kinds of creatures but that has stopped and now I am seeing this floating black spot on the ceiling. I know I am awake cause I lay there and watch it. After reading everyone’s comments I realize it could be so much worse. I know now I am not alone. It is hard to talk to people about this that have not experienced this.
I’m in my 60s now but in my teens and 20s I had a few very odd things happen usually as I was falling asleep. When I would be drifting off I would see large white, slightly fuzzy geometric shapes whizzing by me. Lol I use to describe them as big car dice flying by ( older folk will get that )This happened almost every night. I had extremely vivid dreams about dying. Always to do with my chest being crushed or pierced. I also had vivid dreams about flying. Usually with a fear of not getting back down. Lastly and this only happened once, just as I was drifting off an older grey-haired woman was standing at the foot of my bed. I sat bolt upright in bed and she remained there briefly then faded away. I really don’t talk about it much. It seems easier to do it here.
I am so grateful that I found this website I thought I was losing my mind when I fall asleep and I wake up I see people standing over me looking at me or a bunch of people leaving my room waving but I only see them when I wake up I am 72 years old this has Been happening for about 4 years thank you.
Hypnopompic hallucinations have just started happening to me at almost 60. At first, I was alarmed but I’m starting to realize I am hallucinating. I’m very nearsighted but in the hallucinations, I can see perfectly clear images. It still takes me a minute to realize the spiders in my bed aren’t real but I can much more easily convince myself it was a hallucination rather than a real arachnoid.
I am 67 years old Atheist woman (not believe in anything but science) within the last few months, some nights I experience this wired incident that I feel something not heavy, like a very lightweight cat or dog, is jumping in my bed close to my feet but since I am not yet deeply sleep I look and see nothing!! I do not hear any voices or not see any object, it is just like something very light as my little dog’s weight jumps on the bed. what could that be??!!!!!
I have been having a similar experience with thinking my small dog has gotten into bed with me when she is actually locked in her crate. It feels like she’s crawling around through the blankets. When I sit up and start to try to find her I start to realize it isn’t real and I’m in some sort of inbetween/hallucination state. Then I just fall back asleep.
I see giant spiders crawling on the walls. When I say giant I mean there is no way a real spider could ever be that big. They are like monster spiders. I also see red orbs floating around and sometimes it feels like someone is slowly pulling the covers off of me. Last night for the first time I saw a flower fly past on the ceiling.
I too have just started seeing giant spiders when I wake up! It’s terrifying!
I have also have seen giant spiders walking up my wall, the higher up the wall they go the bigger they go, but not seen them for a while now, but last night I woke in the middle of the night to find a man standing there on my partner’s side of the bed looking over me, I sat up to look at him, could see his face clearly, he had golden hair with a golden beard, it felt so real, then he faded away.
Hi everyone
I’ve been having these nighttime visions since I was a teenager. I can remember waking in the middle of the night and seeing a giant spider on my bed or a dark figure walking into my room. As an adult, I was once woken by a loud bang, and when I opened my eyes, what looked like a static electricity ball without the glass was floating towards my face. I’ve never been as frightened and ran out of my bedroom. At Christmas this year I woke to see a short woman with long dark hair beside my bed. She was looking right at me, smiling, and then she gradually floated away. Over the last year I often see floating objects with moving tentacles – sometimes bright red, or pink. These things tend to happen when I’ve been working at a computer screen late at night. Only once did I experience audio hallucinations – I heard the sound of the same note being played three times on a piano.
Very strange! :)
I have been having increased hallucinations since I retired and have been on more medications. These visions are very clear and they fade away as I awaken. I feel that my eyes are open and these realistic images slowly disappear. Sometimes they wake me up by flying down at me. I feel the energy but they do not hurt me. I am not scared but as I get more of these hallucinations I started to think about the good and bad energy they can produce. A couple of times I was holding my husband back in bed and I punched him to get the figures to go away. Did a great job waking him up and scaring the crap out of him. I am working on calming techniques to make them go away. If this does not I will probably have to seek help from a professional. It made me feel better to know this weird hallucinating is more common than I thought.
Hi Angelika,
I can really relate to your story!! I have been having weird hallucinations for a while now. I will usually wake up and see random objects falling on top of me or coming towards me, so scary I often flinch or jump. I remember one night my husband coming towards me and trying to punch me. It was so real that I punched him in the face 😕😕 I apologised and said I was having a nightmare. Too embarrassed to tell anyone about it 😢😢 I recently googled the subject and it said often people with certain mental health problems can experience this problem. I do have bi-polar and put it down to that or the meds that I am taking. So relieved to know I am not the only one out there who experiences this. Hope you are keeping well 🙏🙏
My experience was doubly terrifying because it was a hypnopompic hallucination with sleep paralysis. I was sleeping on my side facing my bedroom door which was ajar. When this man wearing a ski mask with wide crazy eyes and a terrifying butcher knife advanced over to my bedside.
In my half-asleep state I remember realizing that he was intent on murdering me. I tried opening my eyes, waking up, but nothing. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out. I was paralyzed and felt helpless. It was the most terrified I have been my entire life. I couldn’t sleep again in my bed for a few months.
I’m traveling a lot for work right now and I’ve definitely had some issues with insomnia, especially last week and I am still catching up on my sleep. The funny thing is, I don’t feel tired, but I can tell I need to rest. It’s funny, I feel slower, my cognitive functions feel drained, but I just don’t feel like sleeping is the answer. However, I’m going to sleep anyway because I just need to be kind to me. For the last couple of nights, I’ve been waking up and seeing spiders on the ceiling, but they hide in the curtains. I totally relate to someone’s earlier post about seeing a big spider on the ceiling, a few years ago, I had jumped over my spouse in bed and I hit just below my eyebrow on the corner of a non-sharp tall dresser – trying to run from the spider. I had been going through a job change at the time, this happened the night before a big interview- ugh. It left a horrible gash over my eye, I had a black eye. :-( Thank god that doesn’t happen very often. I’m trying right now to be more in tune with my body and that helps. I notice that I’m restless at night, so just trying to unwind is hard. I don’t drink or do drugs. Alcohol messes with my sleep even more, do I just stopped drinking altogether. My digestive system though, If I’m backed up, my sleep suffers, so I find I have to take probiotics in the day and a magnesium a few nights a week. ( I also do keto diet, so high protein. I think also my neck is a factor. I end up going to the chiropractor for just pain in my atlas/ axis. Anyone else notice more than just these waking nightmares?
I’ve had bad dream all my life, I see spiders, scary faces, I have seen a person standing beside me or on the walls, if there things hanging on a wall I see faces on them, I see things moving across the walls, once I saw a scary ghost-like face on my wall and I ran from my bed to the living room and I then woke up. I get them right after I fall asleep, I’ve tried a night light which sometimes stops it but they soon come back, tonight I will try an eye mask, I’m sometimes scared to go to sleep I pray that I don’t have one each night this has been with me in every home I live in.
I suffer from sleep paralysis and have for years plus hypnagogic hallucinations although I have only just come across what they are by searching why my repetitive dream feels so real and why I can hear sounds.
It starts by hearing a door handle being tried, I go downstairs and into the kitchen, the first time I was very confused as it was the old kitchen before we enlarged it and added a large conservatory. I can hear the back door being tried and I ho to see who is there, it is the same old green door, brass handle with two clear windows, one which is cracked. Outside I can see a youngish girl who is trying to open the locked door, I have no idea who she is, but it terrifies me. Then I am suddenly back in bed and awake. This same hallucination happens at least once a month, I know what is going to happen, but I still go to the door.
Between asleep and awake I dreamt I saw a massive spider on the ceiling and I jumped out of bed in a panic, fell and hurt my arm pretty bad. Poor cat got scared cos she was sleepy right next to me. As i was still half awake half asleep I remember saying to my partner “there’s a massive spider up there” and he said “there’s nothing there” and helped me up off the floor. Then I suddenly realized it was a dream and came back to reality lol
I’ll see spiders and sometimes circular objects floating in the air while I’m trying to go to sleep and I’ll jump up and turn on the lights but nothing is there.
I have had a sleep disorder beginning at about 8 or 9 years old. I would have vivid dreams of ghosts or ghouls hovering over me, standing next to me, or seeping through the window! (Also flattened above me on the ceiling & occasionally swooping in at me!) I would usually awaken screaming & hollering.
I would also sleepwalk and once woke up next door pounding on their door to let me in…..after this, my parents put footstools near my path so that they would trip me and stall my journey!
Over the years (I am now 69) I continue with dreams! There are still people standing by my bed staring at me or hovering in the room. Recently, within the past two years, I seem to have more hypnogogic hallucinations minutes or seconds after closing my eyes at bedtime! I usually wake up hollering…..did you see them or it??
Two weeks ago, I chased IT down the hall !! Thank God it didn’t chase me back!!!! The hypnogogic hallucinations seem to be increasing, not decreasing.
PS…….they seem to have intensified recently after I started taking a Statin (Atorvistatin). Some people listed hallucinations as a side effect……but the Doctor said that he had never heard of this!!!
PPS…….when our kids were younger and they had friends over for a sleepover, the friends would say…..”Who is that hollering?”…….the kids would say…..”Oh, that’s just Daddy!!!”
I can totally relate to everything you have written! I vividly remember my first experience of an elderly man’s bearded head hovering next to my bed when I was approximately 5 yrs old. However, I wasn’t scared at all and had the feel that he was watching over me in a protective manner. The geometric shapes, dark figures and generally evil “masses” have definitely increased with age, I am 62, but over the last 10 years appear a lot more malevolent.
I am a 23 year old female from Sweden. For the past few months I wake up (or am about to fall asleep) and I can hear people and see people in my room. They often tell me to do stuff or tell me to get out of my apartment. They often put up stuff in my room and they look intimidating at first glance but when I look again they are gone. I know that nothing is real and often I can try to fall back to sleep, but once or twice a week I have to get up to check nothing is going on. I usually wake up to these images 2 to 3 times every night, it’s exhausting.
I already know I have anxiety and I suffer from light insomnia to which I take extra melatonin pills each night to be able to feel sleepy enough to fall asleep. I have suffered from depression that comes and goes. I have a lot of headaches during the day too.
I sometimes see a scary old woman’s face as I am drifting off to sleep. It frightens me so much I have to then sleep with the light on. I am 34 and suffer from depression, OCD, anxiety so maybe has something to do with this
18 yr old here me and my girlfriend both suffer from this and both see something akin to flesh is how I would describe it has anyone else here seen this cause I haven’t heard of it except for us 2
About once a week I hallucinate bugs, of varying types flying around my room. Normally they’re in the corners of my ceiling but I also see them on my walls and recently on my pillows. I’m a teen and I’ve always slept walked, talked, and hallucinated. Just something I deal with and bothers my friends and family when they’re around. It normally happens as I’m falling asleep.
I’m a 24 year old female. When I was a teenager, there were nights when I used to jump out of bed in a panic. It’s hard to explain but I thought there was a spider in my bed. I would search my blankets and pillows, then when I didn’t find anything, I’d realize it must’ve been a dream. I’d be standing there, beside my bed in the middle of the night, lamp on, half asleep, thinking I was crazy. And no matter how many times it happened, it always felt so real. I used to think – I’ve been through this so many times, why can’t I stop myself from feeling terrified, jumping out of bed, searching my sheets, etc? It’s like I had to go through the period of panic before I could come to my senses and realize what was happening. I could never just tell myself, “oh, it’s happening again, it’s not real”, because in that moment, I am just SCARED. I’d finish tearing my bed apart and think “why did I do this again?”. Like my brain was in a fog and I was not fully conscious, or aware, if that makes sense…I always wondered why people with sleep paralysis couldn’t just tell themselves it wasn’t real and snap out of it, but I think I get it now. Anyway. As an adult, I struggle with substance abuse, but I’m not sure if that plays a factor or not since I had the same experience as a kid. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, I sit up in bed, terrified, thinking someone is in the room. It wakes my husband, and he is a heavy sleeper. I’m always half asleep, disoriented when he asks me what’s wrong, and I tell him it was just a bad dream. I’m so glad I have a name for it now. So the other night, I woke up and saw a tall, slender figure standing by my side of the bed, facing me. I sat up and grabbed my phone, again, in full panic mode. I shined the light and there was nothing there. Lately I’ve been seeing figures, and it’s so much worse than spiders. Reading other comments, I realize mine is not as bad as some, but still it is comforting to know I’m not alone…
Thank goodness I am not alone… I finally have an explanation for this. I too wake up terrified to find someone staring at me from the side of the bed. I scream and scare my poor husband half to death. I am going to try the night light …
Same as me it has been going on for years i dont know who the person is but different ones have appeared men women children, i wake up screaming and i admit sometimes sworn at it, my hubby has been hit a few times poor thing, just do not know why this is happening.
hi there, this exact same thing happens to me and I completely understand what u mean and how u feel. I’ve felt so lost and scared about it but a psychiatrist recently explained to me that I was having hypnagogic hallucinations, and now reading these comments of other people saying they experience the same things as me, although upsetting as I don’t wish anyone to experience this, is sort of comforting knowing I’m not alone in it.
This just started for me. As I am waking up, something is on me. Like food and I can hear myself saying what the hell is that. Then wake up. This is scary to me, I am 79 yrs old and yes I have been stressed over this Trump thing. How do I stop it? I don’t like it at all.
So glad I came upon this site, for a while now I have felt what feels like a small cat walking on my bed, then it lays down by the small of my back. I’ve googled it and found story’s of demons and ghost cats, there have been some nights I was scared to go to bed, I have been hoping for a sensible explanation and now I feel a bit silly. I’ll be catching up on some sleep tonight, thank you…
I’ve got ghost cats too! It feels like a cat or sometimes 2 jumping on my bed, one walks up the bed & kneads the pillow. I have an actual cat, so this gets really confusing! I’ll reach out for my real cat & there’s nothing there, I often turn my light on to check. It doesn’t freak me out as much as it used to, it only happens after I switch my light off to sleep. Hypnagogic hallucination makes much more sense than being haunted!
why do i see bugs when i wake up in the middle of the night? they are everywhere… asking for a friend. :)
You should look up Hypnopompic hallucinations. I have the same thing as you and it happens just about every night to me for the last 4 years. It’s categorized with sleeping disorders. My psychiatrist just diagnosed me and put me on a sleeping pill that prevents me from having dreams that trigger PTSD and also the Hypnopompic hallucinations. I hope this helps😊
I’m 25 and this has always been worse when I’m pregnant. I’m now 14 weeks pregnant and am having this 2-3 times a week now. I’ll jump out of bed thinking the ceiling is collapsing, or the dresser had fallen on my two year old son in his bed (he sleeps in my room) I’ve hurled my body over him because I believed the roof was falling on us. one night I began to choke my dog because I believed it was a wolf attacking me and snapped out of it when she whimpered. I felt horrible. It’s absolutely atrocious to live with and I believe it is worse when I’m stressed.
The event with your dog can be classified as VBS (violent behaviour during sleep) and it’s more dangerous than simply hallucinations. You should definitely check with a professional. Parasomnia can potentially be dangerous to you or those around you.
Stay safe.
I see skeletons, clowns, animals & geometric shapes in a neon blue outline when I’m waking up. Happens on nights I’m stressed or having anxiety.
I can get up use the bathroom and they are still there when I walk back through my room. They don’t follow me out of the room. Sometimes it’s the middle of the night and I go back to sleep but other times I’m up and starting my day. I just find it disconcerting that I can be up and they don’t disappear immediately.
I’ve had a couple of times seen adult size demonic creatures. It’s awful.
I have been suffering from sleep paralysis for 5 years now, maybe 6. It comes and goes sometimes be couple months then boom they always come back, most I’ve had one night is 3. I always see a shadow figure. the old lady and Hatman. and some kind black cloud-like energy. I think it’s spiritual least feels like it to me I can sense they are evil and I see them plan as the day upon waking I thought I was losing it pray usually helps and if u call on god they will disappear. I think they feed off our fear.
I like to say “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command all evil to leave my presence immediately.”
I’m now 35 years old an I started to get this from 2005, I’m experiencing it everyday day in the night’s, or anytime when I fall asleep.
It’ll be like I’m in different world while sleeping. I had experienced in Train, subway and long distance buses.
Do anyone got this in any specific time..
For me it happens maximum at 3am to 4.30am and same in the afternoon 3.to 4pm.
And also anyone find hair in their food whenever or wherever you eat.
HEY!! why do you ask about the hair in food?? I have these hallucinations but a few weeks ago I found a long hair in something I was eating. Okay that’s fine. Well less than a week later I open a chip bag and find yet another strand of hair! Both times by my mouth. Both times two different color hair. I thought that was so weird! Why do you ask??
My night terrors began about 10 years ago. I have screamed out in my sleep “Who is There?” many times. I have seen people in my room…not creepy but dead people like ghosts. They are watching me sleep. The worst ones are when I feel like I am in complete darkness and can’t get out. I have knocked over lights and curtains by the bed. I have been on hands and knees looking for the door and light switch. Last night was the worst and it scared me. I turned over the night table and was pushing and pulling. Table went from upright to on its top with all the contents of two drawers on the floor. I believe I did all of this from the bed. If I was in the floor, it would have landed on my feet. I got out of bed and made my way to the light without stepping on a single item. This did shake me up.