Please don’t laugh at me, I’m freaked out.

[Connie222]

So I posted a thread two nights ago where I woke up to see a white figure standing by my bed. It was an white sort of see though figure, looked like a shortish, stubby old man in a suit. I screamed, jumped out of bed, screamed for Dh who was downstairs. Some posters on the thread said hypnopompic hallucinations which made sense. I’m pregnant, stressed and tired.

Woke up this morning to a very tired Dh who hadn’t slept. Ask him what’s wrong and he’s skirting round it, nips off to do Dd breakfast. He comes back and I ask him to tell me what’s up.

Last night he woke twice (2am and 3am) to bright white flashes and a smell of cigar/cigarette smoke so strong in the room that he had to go down stairs and check. But the smell was only in the room. And then he noticed a small burn mark on the carpet (we only moved in to this rented house 5 weeks ago, new carpets, Dh had thoroughly, obsessively checked every inch of the place so we don’t get stiffed on deposits again for things that were here before - he insists carpet was perfect).

None of us smoke, no family smoke. I’ve been hiked up in this room with HG since we moved in.

Dh works away two nights a week, he’s going tomorrow and I’m feeling a bit wobbly.

Please don’t take the piss! I know rationally that ghosts don’t exist. I just feel a bit weird.

(P.s is Birdie friend still around? Would like his/it’s opinion).

Honestly, he doesn’t think he could have missed that tiny mark when looking at the carpet??

That’s a melted bit of carpet. A production error that DH has missed (however hard he checked the carpets, easy to miss a spot). The smells/hallucinations could still be carbon monoxide. Alarms can fail and gas safety checks can sometimes miss something. Get someone out to check it.

Much more likely to be human error on both counts than a ghost!!!

The burn mark must have been there before you moved in, otherwise the smell of scorched carpet would be strong. Maybe something was on top of it when DH was checking? Ghosts don't scorch carpets, human beings do.

I think you're suffering from hypnagogic hallucinations, as pp have said, and as you and DH watch films about the paranormal, he's 'caught' the hysteria from you, if that makes sense.

@SmileyClare holiday inn - so close!

Thank you all - I do feel a bit better now. I was just bloody terrified the other night but I know there are rational explanations and Dh just had what I was screeching about on his mind.

I’m not down playing the carbon monoxide by the way - but it was all throughly checked and I had the carbon monoxide test at the hospital on Friday last week - reading was 1 so not worried.

Our landlord is very good as well - he’s a business landlord, owns a lot of properties and is very hot on safety checks etc.

And yes, Dh must have missed the mark, it must have been here when we moved in. There’s nothing in the room that could’ve caused it by sunlight. He just but two and two together and came up with 5 when he was overtired and freaked out.

Semi detached, 1930’s house, so possible smells from neighbours.

Will get DD to have a sleepover with me while Dh is away this week. Although I’m not sure how much use a 5 year old will be.

Ahh Holiday Inn. I wouldn't be too jealous, they're quite basic

Hope this thread has made you feel a bit calmer?
You said all your clothes in the room are in open storage at the moment so maybe that would explain seeing a figure in your room?

I once woke up terrified when I saw a dark clothed male intruder in the bedroom. It turned out dh had hung his suit up over the wardrobe door the night before

No laughing here, it sounds like you got a real fright. I'd definitely get your electrics checked just to be safe - not to be alarmist, but I've had a fire start when I was in bed asleep due to faulty wiring, and you really don't want to be in that situation.

Have you seen the electrical safety certificate for the house? There could be a problem with a wire beneath the floor there. (e.g. I once had an underfloor wire that a nail had gone into).

Definitely be extra, super careful about CO.

Smelling smoke at night is common. I've had it in two houses (seeming to come from the floor) and seen it discussed here. I'd always thought it must be some residue of former residents that was always there but only noticed at night, in the absence of other stimuli. Others pointed out that was probably neighbours smoking at night, either in the adjoining house or outside.

if you said that all to a pagan person they would advise you to do a cleanse with white sage (ur white sage stick or incense)
3am is also know as witching hour where all the supernatural activities taking place.

We get smoke coming in from the neighbours and we are also in a 1930s semi, it does come through from next door.

@lottiegarbanzo the landlord went though it all with Dh when we moved in. There is a copy of all checks kept in the house too. He had everything checked again after the last tenants left and he had the place completely re wired when he bought 3 years ago. The only thing we were waiting on was the yearly gas safety check. It’s been a real surprise having only rented from shit landlords who didn’t care about anything before to actually have a professional one! I can always text him again to get him to put my mind at rest.

@Smileyclare I've done that to myself by hanging my dressing gown on a hanger on the door. Stared at it, frozen rigid in bed, for ages. Even after I realised what it was I was still scared of it! Night time's a funny place.

That sounds v. good re electrics. It was when having an electrical safety test done for the first time that my 'nail in a wire' (and all sorts of other horrors) was uncovered, as they checked everything, top to bottom. (In a house I'd lived in myself for years but had to get properly checked before letting out to others of course!)

Just say in a loud voice 'go away, we don't want you here!'

Usually works for me

I’ve had the sleep paralysis thing a few times. I’d be awake but paralysed and very aware of a presence in the room. It felt threatening, but that may just be because i couldn’t move. Once i felt it take hold of my foot. Terrifying.

Huge relief when i eventually discovered this happens when you wake during the part of your sleep cycle when your body prevents movement (which is useful so that you don’t endanger yourself by blundering around blindly acting out your dreams).

I think the scary stuff — seeing figures, someone touching my foot — stem from the fear you feel at being paralysed. It only lasts a moment before your sleepy brain gets its act together and you can move normally. But it’s so frightening that it seems longer.

That’s my experience anyway. It no longer frightens me because I know what it is.

I hope you soon settle in comfortably, OP, and get the restful sleep you need.

Defo not laughing OP, and it looks like you've had some sound advice.

We have a lot of odd activity on our house (1950's), nothing we can really pinpoint. One thing that makes me feel much easier is smudging; you burn dried sage and waft it all over the house. The smell is wonderful and (whether it helps with other-worldly things or not) it makes me feel far more at ease and much calmer, gives the place a nice atmosphere. Look into buying a stick or two - £2 to £3 each and you can burn them several times, they burn like incense sticks so no big flame, and just wander around the house with it. Put it out by stubbing it on a plate (or shell, apparently), or by putting briefly under running water!

Do you have air vents in your wall? We had a house where the neighbours were heavy smokers and the smell was actually coming through the chimney air vent into a bedroom.

I definitely believe in ghosts. You need to tell them quite firmly that they are dead and you live here now. They will eventually go away.

I also woke up one night to see a white figure holding their arms out to me,i dived under the covers, and although i didn't see a face,i believe it was my mother,i just kept saying no, thinking she wanted me to go with her
Maybe it was more a comfoting thing, but i was scared,and i didn't imagine it
I have also seen a little girl run across my bed, and i wasn't asleep that time
I can even describe what she was wearing, a flowered dress ,she had blond shortish hair
OP it was probably someone letting you know they were looking after you,if you were ill

I had a lot of very vivid hallucinations during HG. Was convinced someone was trying to kill me. It's a terrible illness. Though I can't explain your husband's...

Cigarette smoke is very pungent. If the was someone smoking outside there’s a good chance it wafted in. As for all the ghostly visions I’d say it was a dream. I have hyper vivid dreams (much worse during pregnancy) and they are difficult to distinguish from real life. Last week I could have sworn my DH cans back after leaving and got into bed and held me, it seemed 100% but he was in London.

Whatever happened to birdie friend? Is he and the family still with us in this realm? Agree OP, he'd have all the answers...

I had HG and both times would suffer from sleep paralysis. There was always the feeling (while I was stuck) that there was an intruder in the house, and the intruder would always come in my bedroom. It was horrific. I've not experienced that since my last pregnancy. I feel for you! Whatever is happening, isn't nice to experience

Do you have a loft/could someone be living up there?

Way to put the fear of God into the poor woman! Might be my hypersensitivity but there is no thought gives me the heebies more than this - used to give me nightmares as a child. NB there is no way someone could live in that area of your home - eat, sleep, use the loo etc - without your hearing them!

To put your mind at rest I second the suggestion that an electrical check might be a good idea. A carbon monoxide detector is always a good idea, no matter what the circumstances.

As to the possibility that an earthly person somehow got into your room, you'd have seen them as soon as you came fully awake and if they'd tried to get out your DH would also have seen them. You can almost certainly discount that possibility (and this is the one that would scare me most; we have far more to fear from the living than the dead).

Sorry you've had such a scare. These things can seem so real and so frightening in that strange half-awake half-asleep state. Congratulations on your pregnancy!