Does anyone else regularly have night hallucinations?

[SmellsLikeMiddleAgeSpirit]

I do. Mine are always in bed. I'm often woken up by a loud barking dog, or voices. The voices are usually sneery. I also hear footsteps crunching in the gravel outside.
Last night someone squeezed my shoulder. I hadn't had a "tactile" hallucinationfor decades!

When I was ill and DH away recently, there was a "bad" male in my bedroom. He was there all night, creeping around then crouching down. I could feel his hatred. It was terrifying and exhausting.

I think this happens with stress. It's got going just in the last couple of years (I'm 55) and I hadn't had anything like it since I was 19 and had an "incubus" experience in my student flat.

Interested to hear if anyone else gets the night time embuggerances... so I feel less like I'm losing my mind!

It sounds quite similar to when I used to half wake up in the middle of dreams and the dream would kind of mix with reality. I did it a lot with Ex-H (which might say something about him) but haven’t had an example for years. As far as I was concerned I was awake and I could see the room and people and interact with them, but things from my dreams would superimpose on reality.

The real classics were: the mouse on the bedside table - Ex-H came to bed later than me and when he came into the room I was out of bed; I was sure I was awake, and remembered it as though I was awake, it really didn’t feel like a dream, but I was chasing a mouse on the bedside table. The cat frequently brought mice in do Ex-H assumed it was real until I explained it was a computer mouse that had run across the table and was now hiding behind the bed. But I saw it! It was completely real to me. We spent ages looking for it until he told me to go back to sleep.

Pink slime was another. Again, he’d come to bed after me and I turned the light on when he came in and could see the pink slime that was in my dream, but could also see ex-H clearly as well and couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see the pink slime coming into the house from the join between the wall and the ceiling.

There’s quite a few more! I never found out what caused them but since having children I’m so tired that I just sleep rather than do anything of that kind of thing.

Not quite the same as your experience, but I can see how it could be a similar cause as I could see, hear, feel, smell the things that had been transported straight out of dreams into the bedroom and genuinely appeared awake (to myself and to ex-H)

Yeah I weirdly just got woken up by one, rolled over to check my phone and something yanked it out of my hand and threw it across the room... Then I actually woke up fully and realised my phone was still right there on the table.

You'll get people coming on sarcastically going "it's called dreaming" but it's not the same thing, it's much more "real" than a dream and actually really interferes with your sleep. I hear things like singing or talking in my room, feel "presences" like there's someone there, and occasionally get physical ones like my phone being pulled out of my hand tonight. It's like the dream part of your brain switches on before you've actually fallen asleep, or stays on after you've woken up.

I suffered horrifically with night terrors and sleep paralysis as a child and young teen, and I think these weird "waking dreams" are a remnant of that. Mine get worse when I'm ill or stressed.

I also sleep talk at length apparently, and occasionally sleep walk!

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I find it all fascinating. Although it's dreamt up by us, it's strange how there are sometimes universal themes.

Luckily, I haven't sleepwalked yet!

And sorry @ditzzy but your computer mouse made me laugh!

Don’t worry it made me laugh the next morning too!

The one that used to make ex-H laugh the most though was the pelicans. We’d been discussing before bed whether some birds we’d seen in Scotland were buzzards or golden eagles, and I woke him up in the night to show him that the same birds were now there in our garden that was definitely not in an area that would have any interesting birds; and I showed him how silly we’d been because you could tell now we could see them close up, and how orange they were that they were pelicans…. He then accused me of “seeing” flamingos and asked if they were actually pink and I got really cross with him because they were clearly bright orange, and you could tell by the way they were flying that they were pelicans. I don’t even think you can get orange pelicans.

I did sleep walk and sleep talk as a child too. My youngest DD does it, so I probably need to have a word with her when she’s old enough about enjoying the experience rather than being worried about it.

Yes I used to have hypnagogic hallucinations and still do although less often. Fatigue played a large part in it. I had a sleep disorder and was given medication to improve the fatigue and create deeper sleep for a few years which helped a bit. It improved hugely after an operation which dealt with what had unknowingly made me sick and so tired over a long period. The sleep disorder went away too. I saw spiders, people, smelt food cooking and heard people speaking and alarms or phones going off. I also had sleep paralysis. I could also control my dreams which apparently was part of being lucid and never really in deep sleep. The latter was great fun and I miss that!

I hallucinate I'm at work lol.

I work 3 nights a week.

This is part of a syndrome known as sleep paralysis. You experience disturbing and often terrifying hallucinations during the night while in bed.
See a doctor who can recommend you to a sleep clinic.

www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/sleep-demon

Thanks @XChrome . I don't really need a sleep clinic as my hallucinations are not too bad; just a bit annoying on occasion and other times amusing. It has only been twice in my life that I've had a visitation from a "demon" but I was ill and or stressed both times. If things continue to escalate I'll speak to GP.

I just find the phenomenon interesting and wanted to know others' experiences.

Loving the pelicans @ditzzy

Wish I could control my dreams @Relaxd that does sound fun!

Sleep paralysis and the noises are another Sleep disorder called exploding head syndrome. I have suffered from both.
I don't believe in the paranormal but these experiences leave me reciting the Lords prayer.

@Christmasbird Whenever there's a woo thread so many of the experiences take place at night and/or in bed. I think many people mistake sleep paralysis, hallucinations etc. for paranormal phenomena. It's unsurprising as they feel very real and can be very terrifying.

Luckily, I'm the most sceptical person alive!

Hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations are quite common, as is sleep paralysis, and youre right, theyre usually related to stress. I get sleep paralysis too, mostly when I'm alone in bed, ie my OH has got up before me, funnily enough I haven't had an experience since I've been pregnant. They are awful and yours sound terrifying!

One way I manged was by calmly reminding myself that they're not real, I'm safe, nothing can hurt me etc, that might be worth a go. Or maybe talking therapies may be useful to help manage stress, which may stop them happening altogether!

Good luck!