I wake up and see things...

winter_combat_knight

Ok, at night i wake up and see things in my room. I see people walking around my room, sitting on my shelves or standing at my bed. It has got to the point where this is happening every night. I wake up and get out of bed and run around the room until i realise 'its happened again'. An example which happened the other night was i woke up and saw a man crawling along the top of my desk. Another time i woke up and saw insects crawling around the room. Usually i react the same way, i will get out of bed as fast as i can and move around the room until i realise ive woken up 'stupid'. Has anyone else expeirienced something like this? Im concerned that i might get out of bed and hurt myself or worse.

Fizban140

I did once when I was about nine years old, and was sick in bed for a couple days. That probably doesn't help, unless of course you are sick.

hellobuddy

Part of what you are describing isnt that uncommon, thats the seeing things in your room part, especially scary stuff, however in my experience and from what ive heard from others and read, its mostly connected with being paralyzed, so you being able to get up and look around is quite different from my experiences.

"A person may wake up and find himself unable to move or speak as if he is frozen. He also may hear footsteps, see a ghost-like creature, or feel someone sitting on his chest. Throughout the history, people considered this phenomenon as work done by evil spirits. However, the modern science can explain the terrifying event as a Sleep Paralysis."

some readin on sleep paralysis:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1740

This has happened to me several times in my life and is probably the most scary thing ever in the world ever. Whats happening to you might be a variation on this?

or, you are just sleep walking and dreaming.

Wezoin

I can't really offer much help, but have you completely eliminated the possibility that this might just be a recurrent dream? (dreaming of waking up with people or w/e all over your room)

The reason I ask is because if it turns out to just be a really realistic dream, then you have less to worry about in terms of getting hurt. Next time it happens try to move something and when you wake up see if it is still moved.

Also, when you "hurry around the room" are you controlling this or are you incapable of stopping yourself from doing this? If you can't control it and it just happens it is a good indicator that it is actually a dream (apparently the majority of people can't lucid dream)

MurphysParadox

It may be useful to set up a lamp in easy reach to turn on whenever you wake up like this. Just try to remember to do this at first - hopefully the light will change the environment enough to snap you out of it.

Grundlestiltskin

Something like this happens to me a couple times a year. I'll wake up and see things, things crawling all over, things crawling on me, the wall doing really weird things; one night I saw my ceiling collapsing and put my hands through a ceiling fan to hold it up. More often than not I realize what's going on, go splash some cold water on my face, and then try to go back to sleep.

My friend's gf was a psych major and looked into it for me once, said it was some sleep disorder where your subconscious mind doesn't recede when you wake up every so often. Not sure what any of that means.

That said, if it happens that often you might talk to somebody about it.

Cyvros

This probably isn't the same, but it reminds me of how, when I was younger, I would often experience night terrors - my perception of reality was quite incredibly warped (one of the few humourous occasions being the time I woke my mother up at 4am asking her if she wanted cereal for breakfast). I'd be half-awake and paralysed, and I'd see things that absolutely terrified me (but probably wouldn't terrify anyone else). When I finally woke up, I would sometimes wake up screaming (not a good thing) or crying (also not a good thing).

Anyway, this was often caused by a combination of a full bladder (I kid you not) and my body over-heating (especially my feet - I avoid this by never wearing socks to bed). Sometimes the only way I could get woken up fully was by going to the toilet and then washing my face. Thankfully, most of this happened when I was much younger, so I at least had my mother to help.

Now that I've finished telling my life story, I'd suggest (without knowing your full circumstances) avoiding the merest possibility of over-heating and ensuring your bladder will not disturb you until morning. Of course, given the fact that this is happening nightly for you, my advice may be of absolutely no use whatsoever.

tardcore

This happened to me when I was younger. I remember waking up and seeing something scary. I then ran downstairs to my mom and I remember doing this in slow motion. I tried screaming at her but I couldn't make a sound for some reason. It was creepy.

Feral

Well, if this happens only when you're asleep, and never when you're wide awake, it's probably a sleep disorder along the lines of night terrors or hypnogogic hallucinations.

If it happens when you're wide awake, it might be a deeper psychiatric disorder.

But it sounds like the former. I don't know if there is any therapy or medication available for it; there might be. I've heard of benzodiazepenes (like Klonopin) prescribed to be taken at bedtime to control night terrors and nighttime PTSD nightmares. It couldn't hurt to talk to a doctor.

As for me, I get sleep paralysis (the phenomenon Hellobuddy describes above) on occasion... very rare occasions, but on occasion nonetheless. I feel wide awake, but I can't move, and I'm in my room but there will be somebody standing over my bed, a malevolent presence, just standing silently or sometimes talking quietly. And I'll be scared as all fuck until my body 'reactivates' and I can move again. Once I can move or talk the whole nightmare will dissipate.

b0bd0d

wait, I had this shit happen last night. Science can explain it, huh?

Wonder_Hippie

b0bd0d wrote: »

wait, I had this shit happen last night. Science can explain it, huh?

Science explains everything, and Feral has distilled the science here.

The fun part about sleep is that your reasoning faculties just plain shut down. This is why normally inoccuous things like shadows dancing across a wall become threatening and you don't even think twice when that lamp becomes an evil little gremlin.

mts

that happens to me all the time. i never really thought much about it. i actually think i am just sensitive to light and sounds when asleep

Dalboz

I've had really terrifying dreams sometimes, but they've been dreams, none of this waking stuff. If I saw what you were describing, I would probably need to be committed. And buy a new bed, because there's no way they'd be able scrub the shit out of it effectively.

But I digest. It does indeed sound like a variation of sleep paralysis. The difference being that, while with normal sleep paralysis your body is essentially paralyzed while you are sleeping so you don't hurt yourself but when you wake up your body hasn't yet regained it's facilities, that your dreams are bleeding into your conscious mind. You're still dreaming, but while awake. Some part of your brain is still "asleep" while the rest is awake, creating the perception that things are going on in your room.

I've had the opposite problem sometimes, usually if I'd had some kind of a stressful day or if I have a lot on my mind. I'll start to fall asleep or be in a light dream, and suddenly kick my leg or throw my arm out (almost in a combative manner) and wake myself up. I knocked a glass of water in my alarm clock one time and shorted it out doing this. It's because of this that I would suggest you talk to a doctor about it, if there's any medication or techniques you can do to combat your problem. I don't know that keeping a lamp by your bed is really a good idea. Honestly, with the situation your describing, I can imagine you somehow hurting yourself, or at least breaking a nice lamp.

Redspo0n

I've had this happen to me a number of times. Oddly enough... er.. Mine aren't people, but rather the traditional little Greys or vaguely human shapes - generally standing in the opposite corner of the room - but after it freaked me out a couple times, I force myself to get out of bed and check it out in detail.

If there really was someone/thing there, I was gonna kick it's ass for waking me up at 4am! This generally results in me looking away to throw off my blanket, only to find whatever it was, gone.

In otherwords, I've actually finished waking up.

Doesn't bother me anymore becuase I 'know' what it is, even if not technically.

Funny story though - I scared the heck out of a friend of mine how had spent the night and I yelled out one of the aliens/shadows/thingys to "Piss off! I'm trying to sleep!" He jumped up out of bed and looked to see what I was yelling about about told me the next morning that I had sat up in bed, Yelled, and then fell back asleep with a little "plop".

I didn't remember any of it until he told me. *shrug*

mts

for some reason i usually see squirrels. its bizarre. apparently i do this a lot since my wife gets a huge kick out of it now

one of my more recent ones is pretty funny. i think it went something like my alarm clock was going off or so i thought. i don't think it was an alarm clock in my "dream" but i ripped it off my dresser and put it on my bookcase/shelfy thingy and went back to bed. my alarm goes off for real and i go to hit snooze, but no clock, i am all wtf and eventually track it down. halfway across the room.

Kenninator

I used to get night terrors. I'd wake up terrified of somthing vague in my head, but not exactly knowing what I was afraid of. I'd walk around the house, cry, scream, maybe go into the bathroom and vomit. The only thing these experiences had in common was that I knew I had to do SOMETHING. I didn't really know what, but I was on a very important task. One time I woke up my mom asking for "The thing with the 25 pieces."

I have no idea what that means, but my mom, knowing what was going on, told me "Yeah, it's over there."

I then picked up a bucket of stuff and went to my room, satisfied.

It happens rarely, but sometimes I still wake up thinking "OH SHIT, I had to do something didn't I?!" I'm then able to snap myself out of it and then go to sleep.

GameHat

Damn, that shit would drive me insane.

I used to "see" things when I was younger - when I was probably 5 or 6 years old it wasn't too uncommon for me to see "gremlins" at night.

Funny thing was, even when I was that young I'd always know - though they still scared the shit out of me - that they were just caused by being partially asleep.

Dunno, once I turned 7 or so it just stopped.

mully

My suggestion? Go to a doctor. They can direct you to something a little more specific.

I know what you're going through. The same thing happened to me when I was young. People watching me, in my room. People sitting on my bed. I'd see cats all through my room. Eyes through my blinds. People floating over my head, crawling on the ceiling.

As I grew older, it turned into a lot of very sudden wake-ups -- a lot of reoccurring dreams where I'd be trapped under ice, and wake up gasping for air. A lot of falling dreams, hitting the ground and waking up crying. Had a lot of reoccurring dreams of being stabbed in the chest, too - always identical, always horrifying and I'd feel like I hadn't slept at all.

After that phase, came my unable-to-wake-up phase. In the mornings, even in hearing my alarm, I'd be unable to wake up - I'd be fully aware in my dream, and be screaming at myself to wake up, but I'd be unable to move nor open my eyes.

This ended eventually and now I'm not having dreaming problems - except that they are always exceptionally vivid and memorable. But. But. I had a seizure for the first time, as I slept, 2 months ago. I've also started having ocular migraines.

Are these things linked? I don't know, I'm no doctor. But it has certainly been a progression for me so when other people start bringing these things up, I worry about them.

So, contact a doctor, and let us know how it goes - and if you need to talk to someone, I'm here. Just be completely honest with them. They won't think you're crazy - the human brain is a strange thing.

Good luck man, I know it's horrifying.

Kyanilis

It is things like this that make me glad I don't have dreams. When I was way younger I 'woke up' to sleep paralysis exactly once, that was scary enough. It just felt like my body refused to function yet I could see. I would of probably wet myself if someone was standing in there. I couldn't even imagine waking up to any of those events, like just the idea scares me. People are recommending a doctor visit so I'm going to side with them, particularly if you think it is bad enough that you could hurt yourself or others.

Bliss 101

I used to experience this as a kid. One recurring event was waking up to see some kind of a large animal with massive, yellow eyes, either beside my bed or staring in from outside the window. The episodes stopped happening after a few months and I've never had them since, but I did become terrified of the dark (I still am, to some extent). Apparently I used to take knives from the kitchen and keep them beside my bed so I could defend myself at night (and I was like five years old).

Anyway, to the point: my mom took me to see a doctor when this was going on, and while I can't remember any details anymore, I'm pretty sure he told my mom that if this kind of thing goes on for a long time or gets increasingly severe, it can be indicative of something more serious going on with the brain, although in my case the problem disappeared so they never took me to further tests. So I'll second (third?) the suggestion that you should talk to a doctor just to be safe.

BahamutZERO

I had no idea this kind of thing was so common. Some of this sounds like it's straight out of a horror movie, ghouls crawling on ceilings and such. I don't recall ever experiencing anything like what you guys have described, I have always slept deeply and woken up normally. Only rarely do I remember any dreams. I think I was a little scared of the dark when I was little, but having a night-light solved that problem, and it hasn't bothered me for years and years and years.

I'm not sure whether I'm envious of the interesting sleep events some of you have, or happy that my sleep is uneventful and regular.

The brain and consciousness are goddamn fascinating.