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Things that go bump in the night
Jaded
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hopefully I can get this across without sounding crazy.
How the hell does one sleep when they hear voices, sounds and shadows moving through the house at night?
I’m not talking the sounds of neighbours dogs or the stoners next door having an argument… I am talking whispering, nearly decipherable voices… shadows that look like people, or reasonable replications.
Crazy… I know you’re all thinking it… hell I wonder myself sometimes… so much that I actually have an MRI coming up because I was worried about my mental health and went looking for medical help.
Paranoid? Definitely… maybe I need to lay off the scary movies, but damn it I love them…
Thoughts? Am I beating a dead horse? Am I doomed to nights of sleeplessness because I’m a loony?
And if it doesn’t come across, so far I am taking this fairly lightly… I just don’t want it to become mentally and physically debilitating.
Also, as has been stated in the past, alts are for pussies.
How the hell does one sleep when they hear voices, sounds and shadows moving through the house at night?
I’m not talking the sounds of neighbours dogs or the stoners next door having an argument… I am talking whispering, nearly decipherable voices… shadows that look like people, or reasonable replications.
Crazy… I know you’re all thinking it… hell I wonder myself sometimes… so much that I actually have an MRI coming up because I was worried about my mental health and went looking for medical help.
Paranoid? Definitely… maybe I need to lay off the scary movies, but damn it I love them…
Thoughts? Am I beating a dead horse? Am I doomed to nights of sleeplessness because I’m a loony?
And if it doesn’t come across, so far I am taking this fairly lightly… I just don’t want it to become mentally and physically debilitating.
Also, as has been stated in the past, alts are for pussies.
I can't think of anything clever.
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I imagine something like Tylenol PM wouldn't be an option if you're not willing to try earplugs for the reason you stated, but it works exceptionally well and isn't habit-forming (though it would also be only a temporary fix).
I know... not to helpful on my part. I've tried those solutions though.
White noise will generally be better than intermittent other noises, I'd recommend trying it for a few nights and trying to get acclimated to it.
Secondly, I also see things at night. They would be what people traditionally call night terrors, but I don't freak out like a lot of others do. Basically, my mind is still in it's dream state even though my eyes are open and I'm mostly awake. So sometimes I'll see spiders crawling around. Or a giant bug. Or a person. I stay calm, wave my arm through it and it dissapears.
I guess that's my only advice. One should always remain cool and collected even if it's real and aliens really are abducting you.
also, enjoy your hallucinations. Most people have to pay for em.
What sort of films are we talking about, here? This was the part of your post that seemed to jump out the most at me; your mind might be expecting to see things at night, if you've got a massive horror fixation. If this is causing you a lack of sleep, then the problem will almost certainly get worse - people get much more suggestible if they're fatigued.
See what your doctor tells you post-MRI, but try sleeping pills and laying off the horror for the moment.
Its why I listen to music when I paint.
I love things like Mothman Prophecies, The Strangers, Quarentine... you know, creepy movies.
I am not a fan of hack and slash flicks... aside from the cheese factor of watching the old Nightmare on Elm Streets.
I can't use any sleep aids, sadly... I don't feel safe and sadly an alarm isn't in the budget right now.
As for the shadows, just shut your eyes tight. Or wear a blindfold.
You might also think up some sort of ritual to banish the creepy-crawlies. When I wake up with a nightmare, I decide it is because I was using the 'bad side' of the pillow, and I turn it over to the 'good side' and sleep like a rock for the rest of the night. I have done this since I was like six years old. The logical daylight part of me knows it is superstitious nonsense, but when it is 4 am and I am half asleep and terrified I'll just go back to my nightmare, believing that the pillow has a good side and a bad side makes perfect comforting sense.
I have nothing interesting to contribute, nor any helpful advice, but I thought this was pretty cool.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Yes I do something similar.
Its a carry-over from when I was a child, but whenever I have a bad dream or am thinking about little kid vampires wanting to attack, I like to think that my blanket is impenetrable to evil (and my head is just off-limits).
Tylenol PM won't work every night as you sort of build up a resistance to it. For me it'll work two nights in a row, but third night nothing. Also rapid release is better than other types unless you take them like two hours before you plan on falling asleep.
I also recall a medical condition (unfortunately the name eludes me) that my grandmother had and my father gets occasionally. The short version is that in really complete silence, the brain gets bored, and sometimes it sort of "makes up" noises for you to hear. In my grandmother's case, it sounded like old music of the kind she used to listen to, and my Dad said it sounds kind of like a really quiet radio talk show you can't quite hear. This is more likely the case, especially if you live somewhere really quiet (i.e. the country).
Really though, there's no reason not to go see a doctor if these persist when you stop watching scary movies. At the very least he might be able to prescribe you some better sleep aides.
In all seriousness, I've fallen asleep with the television on. It works. I prefer movies, like, Tron or The Goonies, though...but I can fall asleep to any movie.
To solve the "light" issue, just pull your covers high enough so they block the direct contact to your eyes.
For the shadows, look into getting black-out curtains, which would make your room literally pitch black.
I can't help but feel that the fact that you don't feel safe when locked up, at night, in your own house, may have something to do with the stuff that's keeping you awake.
Just an observation.
http://neurology.health-cares.net/hypnagogic-hallucination.php
Or if there are actual sounds to be heard, hearing them from different rooms might reveal their [hopefully not demonic] source.
Aurora:
Not a lot of oppertunity to rearrange the bedroom due to the size of it in relation to the bed my girlfriend and I share. If we were to face the bed away from windows the headboard would block out our view. I supose it's possible, I'd just have to draw it out.
Darkewolfe:
That's exactly the way I feel at times. That something is going to grab me or tug me out of bed if everything aside from my head isn't under the blankets.
GothicLargo:
House is ~100 years old I believe, I own the home (well, rather the bank owns it til I pay them back) and we've lived there for a year.
Terrendos:
30 years old.
Slider:
Tried to fall asleep to Dog The Bounty Hunter last night, as boring as that show is, still no dice.
Admanb:
It's not so much what's outside the house, as much as what could be inside the house.
Caveman Paws:
This is a damn good idea, it'll be tough doing the basement and upstairs as they scare the hell out of me normally... it's just a bad vibe going down (or up) there.