YSK: there's a type of common hallucination (often scary) that happens shortly after waking up. You can move and talk while seeing it and it can last between a few seconds up to a minute
It's called hypnopompic hallucination.
Unlike with sleep paralysis, you can move and talk while still seeing it and it will last a few seconds up to a minute which can seem like an eternity.
It usually fades as soon as you turn on the light, but for some very few people it does not and persists even after turning on the light.
Here's an example of someone who often experiences these and has started recording themselves: https://youtu.be/bEMGZNvETMQ
Why YSK: because it's very scary and unsettling when it happens and since you can move you don't believe it's sleep paralysis and can't explain it. This might explain many of the "monster or spirit at the foot of my bed" sightings that we often hear mentioned in horror podcasts.
I’ve had this happen.
I was dreaming there were all of these people in my living room. It was some kind apocalyptic scene that brought them there.
I was standing in my living room, suddenly found myself in my bed in a sleep paralysis like state. I was confused, colors were swirling on the ceiling.
I heard the voices in the living room and I made my way in there. I had that physical feeling that comes with sleep paralysis.
The people were all around the room staring. I screamed “Leaaaave!!!” A woman who looked a lot like my mom said to me, “There’s nothing left out there. There’s nowhere to go.”
It was like I was instantly punched back to reality with this extreme feeling of fear and anxiety.
It took me about 20 minutes to get ahold of myself and awhile longer to even come close to believing I wasn’t completely insane.
I used to deal with sleep paralysis pretty often when under a lot of stress and I could tell it came from a similar place. It was a wild and terrifying experience.
At one time I had sleep paralysis so often that I learned to ride the wave kind of like a psychedelic drug. Not perfectly, but I had some success.
This is a brilliant little waking nightmare.
I lived in my parents' basement for a little over a year after college. During that time I had weekly (give or take) dreams that people were coming downstairs to watch me sleep. Often accompanied by sleep paralysis where I wanted them to leave so bad but couldn't do anything. Terrifying stuff. That was 7 years ago and it hasn't happened since I moved out.
Makes you wonder about mold or carbon monoxide from basement appliances.
It’s funny you mention mold. Though I was dealing with complete chaos when I experienced regular sleep paralysis, it’s worth mentioning that the place had a lot of black mold.
Oh no not this again
Oh dude, yeah. The documented symptoms of mold exposure are mainly respiratory, but if you were already under a bunch of stress and your body is getting further stressed by toxic air... Could explain it.
When I was going through my divorce I was in almost constant sleep paralysis at night.
I got my daughter a hamster that turned out to be pregnant. It gave birth and they ate each other.
The first major sleep paralysis I had during that time, I was laying on my bed watching Star Trek (comfort food, TOS). Suddenly the cage appeared on my stomach. The hamsters started crawling out and eating the tips of my fingers off. All I could do was tap my left pinky and try to scream and pray she’d hear me and shock me awake.
The next time my ex (sleeping beside me) was sitting at the foot of our bed, her hair a mess, sticking up all over the place, scars all over her face, he eyes glowing. She was rocking back and forth rapidly, hissing at me. There were shadows moving around on the walls. I could see her there asleep beside me, again, I could only move my pinky and try to scream. I was literally smothered in fear each time it happened.
I come from a very religious family and I’d heard stories about demons shaking the bed and things like that. I’m an atheist. I always look for a logical and reasonable perspective.
When I got control of it a little bit, I was in bed listening to Sigur Ros, (). I had just caught her cheating again and she was trying to convince me I was crazy. I was laying there begging the universe to make her see reason, to save my family.
Suddenly the music became very metallic, it was clear that sleep paralysis was beginning, I began sinking through the mattress.
I said to myself, “You know what this is. Don’t fight it, just ride it out. You’ll wake up completely when you wake up.”
It was a lot like an acid trip, only with an element of horror. I just kept telling myself, “It’s all in your head. It will pass.”
If it were to happen tonight it would take me by surprise and horrify me. It’s crazy that I went through a time where it was frequent enough that I could do that.
I wouldn’t wish divorce on my worst enemy.
I only ever had sleep paralysis consistently (almost every time I slept) on an old couch in my mom's living room. That's also the same spot I saw the most bizarre shit on DMT (hypercube-type crystals I could run my hands through but they stayed in the same spot while I walked around and observed them).
This happened to me consistently for about 9 years.
The instances were terrifying if I was stressed out. I'd see people in my room screaming at me, people just floating silently watching me sleep, spiders on the wall and ceiling, snakes falling on me, to name a few. One day I looked at my camera roll and found a picture of the empty corner of my room from 2AM, it freaked me out, but then I remembered I was tring to capture a shot of the spider webs full of snakes I thought I saw. Sometimes I'd be across the room from my bed in a full panic, turning on the light switch. It was wild.
If I was not stressed, it would be innocuous things, like a chair that wasn't supposed to be in the room, or pipes in my ceiling. One time there were gnomes showing me the tiny, glittery door to their world! Weird shit, but not scary.
Then I started antidepressants and they all stopped. Turns out night terrors, or waking terrors as I called them, can be a sign of depression. Who knew? I just thought my brain was a bitch, but she just needed happy pills.
Aren't human brains fun? So kind of our brains to show us everything terrifying that it can cook up and place into our lived reality just to fuck with us.
It's ridiculous! The terrors were so regular that they became interesting and funny stories I'd share with my friends. Very much thought of "my brain" as a spearate being from me because it sure wasn't on my side. Rude.
I know my brain is like at least 70% memes, but nooo, it's gotta be the horrors in sleep paralysis. Always gotta be the horrors with those damned things. How much funnier would it be to wake up to like a confused Travolta or a doge in your living room.
This sounds horrifying. Glad to hear you're in a better place now.
Thank you! It was really awful for a long time, but it got to a point, years in, where I understood what was happening and that made it easier. I could be jolted awake, seeing something coming at me, panicking as I scrambled to turn on the light, and then watch it slowly fade away. Then I would laugh at myself and tell my brain to fuck off and fall back asleep. Being able to sleep after made it much more tolerable. Would have been even better if I didn't wait nearly a decade to think it was important enough to share with my doctor.
It’s interesting to think that people who have seen “demons” or been visited by ghosts may have experienced something like this. In times before modern science, there was probably no other explanation.
This is almost definitely the case with ghost and alien abduction stories.
Well, that and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Don't forget about the rarer, but super cool weird physical phenomena like ball lightning and swamp gas!
Important to include those explanations that aren't just psychological/hallicinatory phenomena, I feel.
I knew of someone who had this but refused to acknowledge it and instead assumed that god was talking to them.
Thus how religion was born.
And now some people don't count as people
I’m willing to bet religion comes from charlatans like we see today.
The goal of every living thing is to survive, thrive, and reproduce.
Who does any of those things better than a cult leader?
Maybe some religions came naturally, or at least ideas for charlatans to exploit.
I was either experiencing this or something similar to it. I was waking in the night and seeing things in the dark that I was sure was there. Really terrible things. A person standing in the corner of my room, something crawling on the ceiling.
I did some reading on the subject and decided to try a sleep mask for a few days. The whole time I wore it I never experienced the visions again. So after that test I decided to get blackout curtains because it was the light bleeding in from a streetlamp that was contributing to the hallucinations.
I'm relieved to know that covering your eyes prevents you from seeing things.
But seriously though, I'm glad you got it figured out because that sounds horrifying.
Haha yeah I guess when you tldr it that's what it boils down too. Though when you're seeing things that don't exist, if covering your eyes didn't work... I guess it's time for a hospital trip.
Also, thanks I'm glad I figure it out too.
Damn, both of those things are like the scariest things I can imagine. I think watching the Blair Witch Project and The Ring as a kid really made some lasting impact…
Yeah it was crazy scarry. I also had a lot of stress in my life at the time and I didn't realize how much stress and burnout had built up within me. I'm sure that helped contribute to my sleeping situation more so than scarry movies. The sad truth is the boring day to day of real life is more horrific than any horror film.
I remember when I woke up early in the morning for school, and played with a portable console while waiting for my mother to cook breakfast. A few minutes later, I realised I never had a console in the first place, and it vanished into thin air.
Holy shit How did it feel to be so content and one second later realize you didn't ever own what you accepted as reality?
More confused than disappointed tbh. I've always wondered how I could make that happen again. Don't worry, some years after that I learned how to emulate games to my phone.
Do you guys ever have that thing where you are almost asleep then feel like you're falling? That scares me everytime.
These are called hypnic jerks.
They were just asking a question there's no need to call them that.
The technical term I learned in psych is ‘hypnagogic sensations’
I also watched House MD.
Yes! Bloody scary. I wake up with my heart hammering.
Almost never now, but when I was younger, constantly. I wonder if that's something that goes away with age?
I've had sleep paralysis exactly once, but since I knew what it was I found it an extremely interesting experience and studied it while I could.
I can't imagine the terror of not knowing what's going on.
I've had it a few times. Most times have been pleasant. I saw my deceased grandparents and it made me feel happy. Sleep paralysis isn't always scary. And one time I induced it while I was going into surgery. That was the worst thing I've ever experienced
I absolutely need to know more about that last part.
Sorry for the late reply. I was in high school when this happened. I had to get my stomach scoped. While they were getting ready to put me to sleep they asked if I wanted to do laughing gas. I said sure. I had never tried it and it sounded fun. While they were doing this I thought to myself that I wanted to try to force myself to stay awake and see if I could do it. Or at least make a mental note of everything that happened to me and observe it. The laughing gas started to kick in and I started to laugh uncontrollably. One of the nurses hadn't seen it used before and couldn't help but laugh at my non stop laughing. I don't remember an IV so I think the anastesia was administered with the laughing gas. Time started to get strange, everything slowed way down. A tingling sensation was spreading across my body. This tingle turned into sharp jabbing pains as if I was being stabbed by thousands of tiny needles. At the same time sounds around me started sounding echoing and distant. I was starting to panic so I decided I should let the doc know. That's when I realized I couldn't move. I could barely move my eyes. I also realized I was still laughing. I couldn't speak either. I tried to scream but the only voice that actually screamed was the one iny head. I was terrified and everyone else in the operating room seemed to be happy. The pain from the tingling was getting worse and my ears were ringing so loud I couldn't here anything. I felt like I was stuck in a black room with 2 windows to the outside world (my eyes). It felt like an eternity I was stuck like that. In reality it was probably less than 10 minutes cause the procedure hadn't started yet. I tried to force myself to fall asleep but couldn't. I started to wish I could just die cause that would be better than the hell I was in. Then blackness for a split second.
The next thing I knew I was in a different hospital room crying and super nauseous.
Our brains love to play tricks on us lol
You ever wake up with no clue where you are? I wonder how our brain gets so confused just by sleeping
That's something I hate about travel, especially to places I go frequently, like my parents. The whole time I'm there and a few days afterwards when I wake up there's this intense confusion where my brain reminds itself where I am why I'm there how long I'll be there. It could just be dreamy and fun, but for me almost makes me nauseous.
or so confused you forgot how to read a clock and just stared at it trying to figure out what the symbols on it meant.
I thought I woke up once to a sound of a dinner party going on in another part of my house, with glasses clinking, people talking and some sort of music in the background. There's no one at home except my SO and my cats lol.
Your cats have some explaining to do.
finally people are talking about hypnopompic hallucinations, never seen too many mentions of it before despite it happening to me a couple of times
I used to have sleep paralysis almost daily for a while while working a particularly stressful job. I would see and hear people who weren't there. Usually it was benign and I knew it was happening, so I just tried to keep myself calm. Only a few times have I had what I think is the hypnopompic hallucination, but until now didn't now the word for it. I was always aware when it was sleep paralysis since I was literally paralyzed. This other instance I most definitely woke up in the middle of the night. A small amount of light bled through our black out curtains and I was hallucinating a horrid, giant scorpion monster on our ceiling/walls. I knew it couldn't be real but it still scared the shit out of me. I just tried to keep calm and close my eyes like the sleep paralysis episodes and it went away after a little bit.
Holy shit! This has happened to me before! I woke up from a nightmare and the creature was I my room with me.
I think I had this happen, though not in a scary way.
I used to live with my father in the country in the summers and one summer day I was woken up by him saying, “Get up and get dressed, we’re going into town.” It was probably 7:30 or something, but I did as I was told, threw on some clothes, and went and sat waiting for him. I figured while I got dressed he had wandered back into his room for whatever reason.
Later, my stepmother gets up and is surprised that I’m in my shoes and clothes so early in the morning. “What are you doing dressed?” “Dad woke me up and said we’re going into town.” “He’s in bed asleep…”
It was the first time I remember experiencing a hallucination.
Oh man, this has been me sooo many times. There have been some memorable/ embarrassing quotes from me
Yes! I'm talking and making perfect sense, then it slowly dawns on me that what I'm talking about was actually what I was just dreaming and not reality. Even though I know what happened, it leaves me confused as all hell.
What's a fun one???
A few ones off the top of my head.
-told my girlfriend, now wife, that it was 40 gold to join me.. as she was trying to wake me up -told my family, “I’m a desert kitty, hear me meow meow”
Y'all have it rough. When this happens to me, it's pretty much always:
Same, though I'm more convinced and usually get up to turn the light on, and after a few moments realize it's just a waking hallucination. Luckily I live in a country with no dangerous spiders and just one venomous snake species :D So that logic helps calm the mind down.
Like some others in the thread, I get this occasionally. For me, without fail, it's seeing hundreds of spiders crawling over the walls, ceiling, and/or bed - I've sometimes violently tried to throw the covers off myself to get them away!
Really unsettling, and it happens so infrequently that I'm never prepared for it at all.
I’ve had this for as long as I can remember. Normally it’s with something like. It’s or snakes, but occasionally I’ll see a figure in the doorway, or think there something standing or floating by my bed.
It’s rather annoying, especially for my wife since I usually have to turn on the light fire my brain decides it’s ok.
Oh awesome, I already deal with sleep paralysis on a semi-regular basis, now you’re telling me there’s yet another thing to worry about? 😭
Huh I wonder if this is what happened to me a few weeks ago. I "woke up" I was sitting in my bed and there was this large squirming mass in my closet. It's hard to describe but think millions of worms. It was moving towards me. I moved to the other side of my bed and could see things moving on the floor. These worms were also coming through the (concrete) walls. I then shot awake screaming while waking up. Turned on the lights and saw nothing. It is the strangest and scariest thing I've ever had happen while sleeping
I can't remember ever experiencing something like this..? Is it possible to forget about it, like a dream? Barely ever remember dreams. Or maybe some people don't experience these hallcinations?
Oh that's what that is 😅 I have that a bunch - was hard to describe as it's not sleep paralysis. It's often.... confusing... and occasionally disturbing but I'm a bit used to it at this point. It is so weird how it persists until the lights come on
I sat bolt upright in the middle of the night one time talking to the wall, kinda grumpily, and my partner was really disturbed.... trying to explain to her that the customs officer wanted something didn't really help that much.
Seeing bed bugs all over my whole body and everywhere in a grungy motel was pretty disturbing. And a hooded man in the corner, staring, during the middle of the night in a new persons' bed.
Found myself in a rabbit hole reading up about this. Thank you for posting.
I had a friend who told me he had a whole conversation with his girlfriend about the bikers in the bedroom while he was going to the bathroom right after waking up.