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.
This is all spiritual. How is it possible for everyone to have the same hallucinations? This makes me question whether these are actually “hallucinations.” I’ve been seeing things—animals, weird writings & shapes, dark figures, and huge spiders—in the dark upon waking since I was a child. I’m 41 now. I used to be scared; now I just blink and say “Thank You, Jesus,” and they go away. It’s not a coincidence or hallucination that it’s always something creepy or frightening in the dark. Science always tries to take God out of situations. Now that I’m older, I believe it’s a scare tactic of the devil or bad spirits. Devil worshippers are known to actively pray from 3 am – 5 am, so a lot of evil activity goes on at these hours. As believers in Christ, this is an ideal time for us to also pray to counter those prayers. I’ve had sleep paralysis three times—the first time, I saw a dark cloud swoosh into my bedroom. I couldn’t move or speak. But in my mind, I kept saying ‘Jesus’ until finally, I was able to blurt out His name, and the dark cloud swooshed right back out of my room, and I was able to get up. I walked around my house praying. Each time after, the paralysis lasted a shorter time because I knew what to do immediately—call on the name of Jesus. I have several friends who’ve experienced this as well, and they all said that as soon as they called for Jesus, they were no longer paralyzed or held down. “God has not given us a spirit of fear.” These things feed off fear. Watch and see; these things we see in the dark happen less and less when the fear is removed.
Hi
I have been experiencing images either on my comforter, mirror and walls. I have woken up to people talking and it sounding like they are in the next room but, there isn’t.
The images will be of a face and maybe a fist, there will be images of phones, glasses, kids dogs and cats. I have seen images of people (that I have known) on my wall in the middle of the night.
They will move and speak but I can’t hear them. Idk if someone is actually messing with me or if I am hallucinating.
Can someone cast images or cast writing and images from another house? It’s truly scaring me and it only happens at my house, no where else I have gone.
Hello, I see images upon waking up in middle of the night or in the morning. Started about 6 months ago. I would see a big black spider moving fast on the ceiling or in the bed with me which was scary. Now I’m seeing more things. Yesterday I woke up and saw 5327 all over the ceiling. This morning I woke up seeing cartoon animals talking and the color pink. It’s getting more bizarre each day it seems lately.
Feel free to reach out
For the last few years, I have experienced hypnopompic hallucinations ranging from spiders—both extremely large ones and tiny baby ones—to singular spiders that sent me running out of the bedroom, brushing millions of tiny ones off my body. I have also seen iron bars sliding out of the ceiling towards my partner and me as we lay in bed, appearing as if they were about to impale us. I’ve seen human figures, such as a little boy in 1920s clothing standing on my nightstand. Just last night, I saw a shadow figure standing next to my husband while he slept. I’ve witnessed these phenomena so many times that I’m now accustomed to them. I’m fully aware when they’re happening, and I often observe them in detail as they occur, until I either fall asleep again or they gradually fade away. I can move freely when I see these things; in the beginning, I often freaked out, sometimes even climbing halfway up my bedroom wall to escape. As mentioned earlier, I’ve also physically run out of the bedroom to avoid these apparitions. Sometimes I wonder: are these experiences purely a medical phenomenon? Or perhaps, in those moments, my mind is open and unguarded enough to perceive things that my fully conscious mind is less receptive to seeing…
I was eventually diagnosed with Narcolepsy.
When I was little I would see crazy colors and lights in blurred, unrecognizable shapes; a bit like if the northern lights were at a rock concert. So bright and vibrant, constantly moving and changing, sometimes at a spastic speed.
They weren’t threatening but they did make me very anxious and want to hide. I learned to hide deep under the pillows, it seemed like they would “swoop” past but not into my safe cocoon.
Sometimes sounds would make it worse, such as the buzzing of a fan, it would amplify the intensity.
They have mostly faded over time, but now my poor four-year-old son has been crying in his sleep. All the sudden it made me look up this article to see if others experience similar but different things. My son seems petrified and has mentioned a man in the dark.
Hi, I realize this is an old thread, but I just had the most terrifying experience. I woke up to use the bathroom and didn’t bother turning on the light since it’s never too dark. As I sat, I watched a massive tarantula walk across the floor and disappear under the door. I immediately stood up and reached for the light pull, trying to keep as much distance as possible since it’s right by the door. When the light came on, the spider had vanished. I searched everywhere but found no trace of it. I live in the UK, where we don’t have native spiders of that size. I’m well aware of this, but the fear in that moment was very real.
In the past, I’ve experienced geometric patterns, floating/falling sensations as a child, and a few unusual apparitions. However, in those instances, I’ve always known they weren’t real and I was typically still in bed, trying to wake up fully. I take strong antidepressants and have fibromyalgia, which disrupts my sleep, but I’ve never experienced such a vivid hallucination before. Thank you for making me feel like I’m not alone or losing my sanity.
So, all my life, I’ve experienced some form of sleep phenomenon, from a young age to my now 41 years. They have tapered off quite a bit over the years, but recently, I’ve encountered a new experience. In the last two years or so, I’ve started seeing geometric shapes going down the walls when I wake up in the middle of the night; never when I’m going to sleep. I always see them in the hallway, not in the bedroom, until the last time. The entire room was as if someone had a projector and was projecting shapes on the walls that were moving. It reminds me of the matrix symbols in the way they move, but the shapes remind me of when you fold a piece of paper, cut it with scissors, and then unfold it; you end up with a pattern on the paper. That’s what I see, except they’re all black. I’ve mostly just been mesmerized by them with no fear at all. I can’t entirely decide if I’m fully lucid or not, but it feels as though I mostly am. I searched for a while to find an article on what I’ve been experiencing, and here it finally is.
I’ve suffered from depression for over 30 years and was finally diagnosed with (still untreated) BPD four years ago due to childhood trauma. I’m 57, and since my early 30s, I’ve experienced hallucinations both when falling asleep and waking up. For the last five years, it’s been happening 90% of the time and can occur several times a night. Every hallucination involves at least one person in my room who I believe is there to kill me. I often jump out of bed in a fight or flight mode and have to check my flat for intruders each time. I even sleep with a large knife under my pillow. Additionally, I sleep with night lights, a lamp on, and motion sensors, as waking up in the dark intensifies my experiences.
I’ve reported this to at least three psychiatrists and four doctors, but it hasn’t been taken seriously, despite my lacking a proper night’s sleep for several years now. From research, I understand that my BPD, coupled with several traumatic events since adolescence, can be causes. I take measures to try to avoid these events, including engaging in light reading before bed if the fear of hallucinating is on my mind, but still, it happens, often an hour after trying to sleep and repeatedly thereafter.
I can now only accept it’s a part of my troubled life as I can’t even get help with my mental health condition, which has prevented me from working for almost four years now (I have been working since I was 17 until my illness became and continues to be too overwhelming). Such is life. :(
I’ve never forgotten a time when I must have been about 5 or 6, and it was Bonfire Night. I went to bed, and suddenly, there was this tall, slim man dressed in black, but without a hat. His voice was so scary, and I just couldn’t move. I tried to call out to my mum, but my voice was very weak; she didn’t hear me, but I could hear her. I’ve never forgotten this episode, and for years after, I always associated Guy Fawkes with that weird image.
I will be sleeping, wake up—I sleep facing the window—and see either bright grid lines or bright circles. I rub my eyes, and they are still there. I go back to sleep and wake up a few more times throughout the night, and it’s still there until I’m up for the day. I feel like I’m losing my mind!
I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s comments. I’m 57, and even in my early teens, I would have a recurring hypnopompic hallucination about a large black spider — just one. It usually descends from the ceiling, appearing large, somewhat fuzzy, and almost a caricature of a spider. As soon as I see it, it ascends on an invisible string to the ceiling and disappears. However, this week a new big black spider showed up, which seemed very mechanical with a domed body shape and angular legs, resembling a drone. It felt foreboding. The next day, where I saw the spider on the bed, there was a small red ball with spikes on my husband’s pillow. I’ve seen it before, but its placement made me wonder: could it be a warning about Covid being brought home by my husband? I find it bizarre that hundreds of people are now online discussing their sightings of giant black spiders. Five years ago, I couldn’t find any such discussions online, even though I searched. Mass hallucinations of big black spiders? It’s suspicious to me and leads me to believe they might be real entities in another dimension close to ours, but we typically don’t perceive them. Some Native American tribes hold the belief that spiders are messengers and healers, foretelling a change in our current reality.
I don’t feel like I’m sleeping when these incidents occur, so it must be when I first doze off. Usually, I open my eyes to see a figure at the foot of the bed, which I recognize as a male. Last night, for the first time, it was a young boy, pre-teens to early teens, and I screamed, waking my husband. This was different, as he was bathed in light. When it’s happening, it’s nothing short of pure terror.
Last night, and about two months ago, I felt the wind from what was either a dog shaking its head vigorously or a small bird/bat. At the same time, I felt a light weight in the middle of my back, like a small animal pushing gently into my lower back. Same experience both times, separated by about two months. I was not scared, more interested than anything else.
I feel like I’m going crazy! I have partial complex seizures, bipolar, anxiety, and insomnia. Two nights ago, I woke up for no apparent reason and saw a weasel or a ferret run across my bed. I bolted out of bed screaming. Last night, I had been asleep for one hour and again woke up abruptly and saw the same weasel or ferret lying on my bed, looking at me. I have no idea if this is real or not. Things that point to ‘Not real’: no droppings anywhere, no food has been gotten into, no bite/scratch marks on me, and being unable to find it anywhere within the house. Things that point to ‘Real’: the sheer terror I feel when I wake up to a critter in my bed and the feeling of OMG this is really happening. Y’all, HOW do I KNOW FOR SURE if it’s real or not?? I am terrified to sleep!!
12 AM midnight, suddenly woke up, saw a cat opposite on the floor. I’m afraid and ran to turn on the light and saw where the cat is, but nothing. I’m afraid it’s significant, any wrongdoing, wrong or good, to me or others.
I have experienced chronic sleep hallucinations most of my life. They started at around 10 years old and 30 years on, I still have no clue what causes them. They typically include visions of things on the ceiling, such as wires hanging down, or lights in the wall, or even the walls moving as though they are going to collapse. I also occasionally see dark shapes in the room that look like the silhouette of a person.
I tend to have significant periods of hallucinations, where I wake multiple times throughout the night (much to my wife’s annoyance) in complete distress, pumped with adrenaline, ready for fight or flight. It’s absolutely terrifying to be honest. Then I can go for a few days where I don’t recall any hallucinations, although my wife assures me that I’m still chatting away in my sleep.
As a consequence of all this, my sleep is massively disrupted and I feel like a walking, talking zombie at times. I’ve been to see a GP on countless occasions, but no support is offered. It’s very disappointing. There was one time when the doctor prescribed some form of beta blocker, however, this caused pretty severe palpitations and dizziness, so that ended that.
It’s very interesting to read about the experience of other people and, in a strange way, helpful to know that I’ve not lost my mind!
I just came across this page. I am currently taking a depression medication and have had nothing but nightmares throughout my time taking this medication. I have very vivid dreams, but this week has been a little different. Coming close to the time of waking up, I clearly hear my name being called. I have woken up responding, and just the other night, after having a nightmare, I woke up and, before I could get my vision adjusted, in the corner of the wall, I could see a huge spider just waving around, trying to disappear in between the corner of the wall. This article helped me understand what was happening.
I’ve had these experiences for years. It started with me seeing spiders crawling up the side of my bed. I knew exactly what was happening and got out of bed, turned the light on, and pointed, shouting “spiders.” I’ve also seen a dog jumping up at my door and a squirrel running across the curtains. However, I work nights, so I can’t get a decent amount of sleep, and having a toddler as well, I often take naps.
The last two times I have napped, I have felt like someone was moving me just as my alarm was about to go off. The first time, it felt like I was being stood up through the bed, with my legs and feet being pushed into the bed. Today, I felt like I was being slowly moved and lowered onto the floor. I half expected to wake up and be on the floor!! The weird thing is that both times, my tinnitus has gotten really loud when these experiences have happened.
I watched the video about Travis Scott’s “AstroWorld” concert where 8 or 10 ppl died, and then the next night, while I was trying to go to sleep, I saw a spinning vortex and woke back up suddenly. I try it again, and this time I hear a man’s voice with a Spanish accent say the word “symbolic.” Now, if you’ve not seen the Travis Scott concert of hell, it was completely demonic. And I don’t have sleep hallucinations on a regular basis. Completely freaked me out.
I was asleep and opened my eyes to go to the bathroom and saw a silhouette go in my husbands body. I was fully awake.
Yes, I’m experiencing these occurrences every night, but there’s an additional factor: my dog. He’s a full-grown Pitbull who sleeps next to me, and he too is witnessing things crawling under the sheets and shadows on the ceiling. When this happens, he reacts in two distinct ways. He growls while simultaneously shaking, displaying signs of fear.
The dog makes that a lot scarier. Good luck to you both.
This morning, at 4:44 AM, I woke up because my hip was hurting from the way I fell asleep. When I rolled over, I could see something shimmering and fluttering, almost like a butterfly, but with a sense that it was something else. It seemed as if the low lighting in my room was causing it to fragment and become invisible, yet I could still see it. It was walking into my room when I opened my eyes, startling me awake, and then it moved back out. About a minute later, it attempted to come in again, but this time it “fluttered” all the way from the doorway straight to my face. I kept my eyes open, but only as slivers, so it would think I was still asleep. As it moved away this time, the shape transformed from a fluttering butterfly with fragmented light around it to the entirety of a TALL body, moving almost like a squid. It quickly retreated through the doorway, poked its head back in, and that’s when I turned on the light. This experience lasted for at least 5 minutes, if not more. Throughout, I kept telling myself, “I’m wide awake. How is this happening?” I ended up sleeping with my light on for the rest of the night.
While I can comprehend the science behind this phenomenon from articles, when it happens to you personally and you’re absolutely certain you’re wide awake, it feels incredibly real. I couldn’t discern whether it was a ghost, spirit, or even an alien with an invisible suit in my room, LOL. Regardless, all of them are unwelcome visitors.
Twice, I’ve been woken up in the night. The first time, I saw a man and woman who looked Victorian. The second time was more recent. It was a tall, scary-looking man dressed in a dark green long coat and hat with gold trims and buttons. He also looked Victorian, like someone who would stand outside a cinema or hotel.
I swear they were real. I was very scared and frozen, bolt upright in bed.
Sounds like the hat man!! Very creepy. Has anyone else in your family seen this “hat man” as it’s supposed to be familial.
I heard a slinky noise while everyone was sleeping at 2 am. What does this mean?
Hey Daniel, my name is Scott, and I’ve seen what you’re going through. I can relate in so many ways, and I just sent a message to this place about experiencing the same thing. Interestingly, my dog, a Pitbull who sleeps with me, also sees, feels, and hears all these things that are happening. I don’t quite grasp why this is occurring, but I want you to know that I’ll keep you in my prayers if that’s okay. Feel free to reach out to me anytime.
Thank you, everyone, for posting your experiences! It has been so helpful to read through them and find parallels to my own.
I have experienced similar things to the ones many of you describe – mostly hypnopompic hallucinations. I get them almost every night, and it has been happening for 20 years or more (I’m 43 now). Usually, it occurs around 2-3 am, about 2 hours after falling asleep. I partially wake up and am convinced that there is someone or something in my room – often a person, standing or sitting, sometimes an adult and sometimes a child. Last night, it was a woman in an 18th-century big dress, and I stared at her for a long time. Later, after I had fallen asleep again, it turned into a man leaning backward. I spoke to him after staring at him for a while and asked if he was alright, before realizing it was just two boxes with some clothes on top.
When I see these figures, I am usually in a state of fear and confusion about why they’re there. Sometimes I try to stay as still as possible so they don’t notice me. Once, I was so convinced that someone had broken into my room that I got out of bed, walked to the end of the room, and asked them to leave. It usually reaches a point where I panic and switch on the light or the flashlight on my phone, and the figure turns out to be something in my room – a chair, a coat hanging on the door, a shadow. Once the light is on, I can see this, and the hallucination vanishes.
I’ve also seen spiders, weird hanging lights above me, shapes, and dark blobs, similar to what many of you describe.
I believe it’s likely stress-related, and I also wonder if it’s something that happens in my body to wake me up while I’m still in a dream state – my body becomes awake before my mind does, and I’m still half-asleep mentally. This might be a stress thing, with my stress response kicking in as I’m falling into a deep sleep because my nervous system is still on alert. The hallucinations are definitely stronger during periods of higher stress or change, especially when I’m sleeping in unfamiliar places.
I’ve looked into the psychology of dreams a little, and the dream of someone breaking into your bedroom or an unwanted presence in your living space can apparently be related to not having healthy, strong boundaries. It could also suggest that you’re trying to repress and deny something in your unconscious, and it wants to be seen. I found both of these interpretations very interesting, but I also think it might just be physiological. If my body wakes up in a state of panic and confusion, I will interpret shapes that I can’t see properly as something dangerous.
When I consider that everything I see is already a product of my mind/brain (i.e., my eyes receive light signals and my brain turns them into recognizable objects, people, faces, places), I feel less worried about it. It means that, in reality, I’m “hallucinating” all the time. The imagination is a powerful and fascinating thing, and I believe that most of the time, it’s trying to protect us rather than threaten us.
Having said that, I would much rather be able to sleep soundly throughout the night. However, I’m a very sensitive and imaginative person, so perhaps it’s part of the gift of those traits. Apparently, some people are born with genes that make them sleep more lightly than others, and in our early days living in the wild, those people would be the ones to wake up first and warn everyone else of approaching dangers. So perhaps those of us who have these experiences are the natural protectors of others.
Best wishes to all of you and I hope you are able to sleep with more ease soon. Danny x
I am 71 and have experienced the hallucinations for many years. I took LSD three times only in the ’70s and smoked some weed (but not very much because I hated the way it made me feel paranoid). After reading this article, I’m feeling better that it might not be from past drug use (hopefully).
Anyway, when I have these hallucinations, I see swirling colors, faces, words that look like they are typed on something and floating by, lots of flashes of geometric shapes, etc. This doesn’t happen to me very often (sometimes not for months), but when it does, it’s when I wake up in the middle of the night. I feel the sleep paralysis, but I am able to move. I have always been able to look at a light or keep my eyes looking up, and the images will go away. Last night, it didn’t work, so I was unable to go back to sleep for about 15 minutes because I see the images when my eyes are closed as well as open. I was a little stressed before going to bed last night, so I’m hoping that is what brought it on.
I am happy I found this website, but I’d like to know if anyone sees the images when they close their eyes like I do. Thanks for all the posts.
This is most like what happened to me when I was little. All of the flashing lights and colors when I am trying to go to sleep, even when my eyes were closed. You’re not alone, and I don’t think it was from the drugs. I never did any.
I am reading about hallucinations that can happen at night. Mine are far worse than what is described in the above article. I was “grabbed” on my foot about 3 weeks ago, and it left a bruise. Last night, I was walking down the hall to my bedroom and saw two figures in my hall: one a lady and the other a man. I spoke audibly, pointed my finger, and said, “Go!” The man lifted me up and pulled me into what felt like a restraint. My husband cannot “see” them, and he is no help to me. I was so disoriented that I could not figure out how to get into my bedroom.
It has reached a point that is almost unbearable. It is very dark and sinister, and I don’t know what to do. I feel helpless. I feel like I need some of those people who vet homes that may be haunted. I am at the end of myself, and I feel hopeless. Anyone else deal with this type of thing?
My husband experienced similarly to you and his problems stopped when he left that house. Not sure how I feel about spirits, but his ex-wife’s father passed away in that house and he didn’t seem to like my husband much (not trying to make light of it, it terrified him). Reading some of these comments makes me wonder though, since there seem to be two types of experiences: physical and sinister vs strange but not necessarily overtly threatening.
I had a lot of hypnagogic hallucinations when I was young, about 15-28 years old. I had both vocal, visual, and a sense of “feeling” what I experienced. I was afraid of explaining what I experienced to anyone, worried that they would think that I was mad or something.
Today, I learned about what I experienced by watching a psychiatrist analyze movie characters on YouTube. I wish I knew about it earlier because it could be really stressful going to sleep, making me skip sleeping some nights. Now that I know what it is and can remember some of the “good” parts, I kinda miss it in some weird way. I’m in my late 30s and haven’t experienced it in years now.
I wish everyone gets to know about sleep hallucinations and not make their own conclusions about why it’s happening. And probably making it worse like I was (now knowing sleep deprivation makes it occur more).
It’s nice to see comments on similar shared experiences. I often wake several hours into sleep and see a dark mass of tendrils reaching for me and an oppressive feeling of impending doom. Sometimes I can’t move, sometimes I immediately rocket out of bed. I’ve scared my husband with shrill screams and have injured (minor) myself scrambling for a door or light switches.
Well, for me, just about 20 minutes ago, I was watching YouTube on my phone while sitting at the end of my bed. My dog, who is 10 years old, was laying at my feet. Meanwhile, my mom has a dog who sometimes likes to come into my room to go pee. So, as I was sitting there watching YouTube, I suddenly saw a figure of my mom’s dog jump across my dog and go to the side of my bed. I told her to get out three times, but she didn’t respond. I decided to check if my mom’s dog was actually in the living room, and to my surprise, it was. What does this mean? I can’t believe it. It felt so real that I don’t think I was hallucinating.
I frequently wake up with what looks like a jellyfish coming towards me – long tendrils, skinny, and moving as if it’s underwater but in the air. I was scared at first, but now I enjoy seeing them. Once, I swatted a “spider” on the wall beside the bed, but my husband said there was nothing there. However, I could see it in my eyes. That was the scariest one, and it was a relief that my husband witnessed it too!
I awake from a bad dream which I have frequently and see 3-D geometric shapes or patterns floating above me. I can blink and blink and they are still there. Sometimes it is very frightening and other times I just close my eyes, find my husband’s hand under the covers and go back to sleep. I was very surprised to hear that others experience this.
Most of my bad dreams are right after I fall asleep according to my husband. He says sometimes within minutes of falling asleep I begin to murmur and/or holler. I enjoyed reading this article.
I have been experiencing sleep paralysis since my 20’s. I am now 71. It feels like there is an evil presence and I can’t move, sometimes it is pressing down on me but I have got stronger and recite The Lord’s Prayer in my head, even though it feels like I’m shouting it out. I wake up and feel relieved but very scared still.
Once I heard such horrible grunting in my ear and felt like I was being licked. When I woke I had the sensation of being licked still !!!
More recently I have felt and heard little animal like things climbing up onto my bed and making grunting noises. I’m not so scared though. They grunt right in my face and I try to make a noise to scare them away. Now I try to make some kind of contact with them. The other night I was asleep and I knew they were climbing up my bed and I tried to touch one. When I did it felt squelchy not wet like a toad but I felt as if it was letting me touch it.
I wouldn’t dare tell anyone this. I am a very intelligent person who has a stable life with lots of friends and a loving family. I don’t do drugs apart from prescription, mainly painkillers, Please don’t go down the opiate road. I only have a couple of drinks a week.
I wish I could find an answer. I see what all the professionals say but I think there’s more to it
Last night I had a terrifying hallucination upon waking up from a nightmare in the middle of the night. I saw a caveman in the area where my computer desk is and there was also a mangy mean-looking fox on a table. I kept staring at them to see if they were moving, but I think they were more like an exhibit at a museum. When I finally got the courage to get out of bed, I moved closer and the fox on the table turned out to be my computer chair which had my robe draped over it and the caveman disappeared into the back wall. I turned on the light and tried to go back to bed with the light on, but I couldn’t.
How are my cats and dog seeing or hearing the same hallucination I am, if it’s supposed to be a hallucination? Sometimes my husband comes home from work and finds me, the three cats and a dog intently looking for what is making the most obnoxious sound or flickers of light. He know this is what I’m doing and what the animals are doing. Sometimes it’s just the animals doing it because I just don’t have the strength to care anymore. I’m past the point of thinking it’s hallucinations or even a mental break on my part although sometimes it makes me feel like I’m about to break, but life is always stranger than fiction.
Seen so many. I have insomnia. Just recently experienced a floating moving spider in the air upon waking. It’s usually not close to me but distant as if on the wall, I’m used to it so it’s not as frightening. The dim light in the room helps some or just closing my eyes and ignore. If I keep my eyes open it dims and floats away. Wherever my eyes turn is where I see it move. I’ve seen other objects most of them moving. Some with color. Even a train. When I didn’t know what they were I was very scary. I had a alot when I was on anti-spasmodic anxiety medication and the feeling was scary actually hearing and sensing something coming for me in the night, sometimes not being able to move in paralysis. Needless to say, I came off the meds.
Thank you for the explanation. I had sleep hallucinations: seeing people, monkeys, cats and spiders at night. (3 months ago).
I thought it was due to the depression I suffered. I ended up in ICU. I’m much better now. I see people once in a while. But spiders all the time.
At first it was scary. Now I just ignore them. Once I switch my phone torch they disappear.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Mase Skosana
Hi, I have experienced waking and hallucinating to be startled by big black spiders crawling up the wall…it seemed that real I would jump out of bed and switch the light on and check for the spiders to find nothing. It worried me as it happened quite often but has eased and I do believe it was down to Stress. I have a night light which I think helps as I haven’t had a hallucination in a while which is such a relief.
I’ve started to see figures of a man standing over my partner when I wake in the night – quite disturbing.
When I am sleeping, I don’t know if this weird experience is real or not.
It’s almost like I’m awake but I’m clearly not because this action is unrealistic.
When I am sleeping I almost get a numb tingly feeling all throughout my body. I can breathe but it’s like a massive weight is on me and I just feel like a dead weight. Then it’s like I get lifted over my body or bed I don’t really know and I levitate. My body seriously just glides over the blankets and I get drifted on to the ground. But then I don’t know how I get back in my bed. But the weird thing is, I remember getting off the floor and going to my bed and I also remember hanging off the bed.
-super weird
I’m writing this at 5am as I’m terrified to go back to sleep. I experience more auditory hallucinations and this morning I woke up to a man’s voice and then a child’s voice speaking clearly in the room next to me. We’ve just moved into a new house, but I’ve had this in previous properties. Someone advised me to put protection crystals above my doorways (black tourmaline and selenite) and cleanse the house. I’ve done this before and it’s worked, and completely stopped these hallucinations. I need to do this in my new house.
In a previous house, during lockdown 1, I saw a man in a white protective quarantine suit and a covid mask at the end of my bed, and I could hear his breathing. I closed my eyes and opened them again, and he was still there. It was terrifying. Then 3 days later, my mum was taken to hospital with covid (she’s fine now though luckily). I honestly do believe some of these experiences can be spiritual, but it doesn’t make them any less terrifying.
I just started seeing an insect running up my wall into the air vent a few weeks ago. It only happens when I first wake up very early in the morning. It does not really look real because it’s too cloudy or misty looking, like it’s not fully in this dimension. It is always running away from me as soon as I wake up and see it. It always runs into the air vent. It looks similar to a centipede, but more like a spirit than a physical insect. I have a very close relationship with God and I do not use drugs or alcohol, not even caffeine or tobacco. After it happened today though I began to wonder what this means so I did a google search and found out it’s pretty common and harmless. Thank you for explaining it. Thank the good Lord for giving us doctors!
Thank you for this article
I experienced something awful two nights ago in my bedroom. It was around 2am and for some reason, I sat bolt upright in my bed. I saw what really did look like a small old lady with whiteish hair. She was coming towards me. I screamed and screamed. I was so scared. My heart felt like it was coming out of my chest. She looked so real. That I could have touched her. I can’t remember her going as I jumped out of bed and switched the light on. I really hope this was a hallucination. As I live on my own. I keep seeing her face. I find it scary now to go to bed. I have to leave the light on all night.
Twice now, I have woken up to a weasel on my bed. I swear, if fear didn’t stop me, I could touch it. I sleep on a twin bed. I’ve not seen anything other than a weasel, and I do not want to sleep anymore. I don’t know if it’s real or not. I don’t stick around to find out!