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Original poster

Do you ever wake up and see a figure standing over you?

126 replies

Shipley · 08/04/2019 21:24

Ive had this for years and always presumed its just a sleep/waking crossover but my friend said its weird!
I lived in my old house for 13 years and this house for 2 and it's happened in both houses. I don't remember it happening as a kid or before I left home. Sometimes I've thought it was my daughter stood about to fall out of her cot and now she's older and sleeps in my bed sometimes I think she's stood up and about to fall. A few nights ago I woke and 'saw a tall male figure stood over me, I gasped and shouted(perhaps only in a dream) my son's name thinking it was him as he is tall.

I never remember the dreams leading up to these moments and as soon as my eyes focus I see nothing and can go back to sleep.

If I thought it was a ghost I may burn my house down!

No other strange goings on and I think it happened before my Grandma passed in 2012 who is the only close relative I have lost as an adult.

So is it just me or is it a known phenomena? Or is it a spirt world sign?!

I'm inclined to think an angel wouldn't frighten me from my sleep!

OP posts:
Lellochip · 08/04/2019 22:14

Only had something similar once, and it wasn't a figure standing over me but something under the bed pulling my covers. I could feel them getting tighter and tighter but couldn't move. Then came to, and realised I had a divan so no room for monsters under there! Grin

Never had any dream that realistic though, glad it was a one off

BlackeyedGruesome · 08/04/2019 22:15

often, usually is dd or ds though, can still be as scary as anything.

I have been waking up and thinking I have been in my mums house recently.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 08/04/2019 22:16

I get this and variations of it, usually combined with sleep paralysis fortunately not had it for a little while. When I was a kid I was convinced it was the devil coming to take my soul.
It is really terrifying.

MitziK · 08/04/2019 22:17

Sleep paralysis. Your mind has woken up before your body.

It's horrible.

TwiceAsNice22 · 08/04/2019 22:17

I have this happen, but it’s never a person. It’s usually huge flying moths I see flying at my face or I have seen a huge (size of my head) spider on the wall. It always seems so realistic, I always figured It was a vivid dream. I googled likehypnopompic hallucinations that a op mentioned and it definitely sounds like that. It happens every few months, and is quite freaky.

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 08/04/2019 22:20

I did the other night, I woke up and DH was leaning over me telling me he loved me, and kissed me. It frightened me initially then after I felt very calm. I've heard it is really common when you have been bereaved - my nan also had this after my grandad died, so wasn't surprised that I had seen DH. However, if you aren't recently bereaved, and it's not a recognisable figure, it is harder to explain other than sleep paralysis. I am not woo in the slightest but am choosing to believe that my experience was real, despite also thinking I'm finally.losing my marbles!

Nevo · 08/04/2019 22:21

I've had this a couple times. It's always as I'm waking up, I see it but as I focus it disappears. I always feel calm with a dash of wow. I know it's my mind playing tricks on me. Rather it didn't happen though!

Dontknowwhatyoumean · 08/04/2019 22:21

I think I’m going to sleep with the light on tonight ... Blush

MonaChopsis · 08/04/2019 22:23

Yes. It was my DD. I screamed, she screamed back then started crying, all in all it was a distinctly unpleasant way to wake up of a morning.

Member984815 · 08/04/2019 22:25

Yes 3 times lately , twice stood on my husband's side of the bed while he's been sleeping and once sitting on my husband's side when he was away . I think it's a side effect of medication I'm taking because it never happened before

PentreBachCymraeg · 08/04/2019 22:25

Also happened to me along with astral travel (not at the same time).

Justonemorepancake · 08/04/2019 22:26

I've had sleep paralysis once. I head DH climb the stairs then felt him standing next to the bed, went to move and was stuck fast. Took me about 8 seconds to wriggle a finger then the rest of me quickly woke up. I was home alone. Thankfully i was already aware of sleep paralysis, so while horrid I wasn't freaked out. I avoid falling asleep on my back now.

Fcukthisshit · 08/04/2019 22:27

It happened to me once - about 15 years ago. The face was contorted and looked like it was screaming at me, but no sound. I’m 100% sure there was a logical explanation - sleep paralysis or something like that but it literally scared the life out of me. I never slept with the light off in that room again as I was so scared it would happen again.

Tulipvase · 08/04/2019 22:27

I often wake screaming, thinking that something is there. Or I wake and I don’t know where I am, or less frequently, I wake and don’t know who is in bed with me...... it is always my husband though lol.

NannyR · 08/04/2019 22:28

I get something similar - for me, it's someone sitting on the end of my bed pulling at my duvet, it's definitely sleep paralysis though, not anything supernatural. Still terrifying though!

notangelinajolie · 08/04/2019 22:29

Yes, this has happened to me a few times over the past 20+ years. In more than one house so not haunted house related. Not my side of the bed thank God. It's always the same 2 people (man & woman) standing on the other side looking at my DH. I try to wake him/scream but I can't move or make a sound. I have no idea who they are - DH is un phased by it all well he would be - he sleeps through it all and reckons they are his grandparents Shock

BlackeyedGruesome · 08/04/2019 22:32

I remember waking in the night and jumping up and shouting that someone was putting petrol through the letter box. was very confusing to find the hall perfectly fine. was when I had just moved to the flat though.

worse I often get woken up by a hideous snorting noise. it appears that i have started to snore very loudly.

Notsofast1 · 08/04/2019 22:33

Same as @floofenhoofen I have these too but can be animals as well as human figures. I can also wake to see the lights on or things climbing up the curtains and have been known to see colours. The only way for me to stop "seeing" what I'm seeing is to turn the light on which I used to find quite difficult because I was terrified but I am very used to these now. I also have been known to feel things under my covers and pillows. The brain is a very strange thing. It's usually worse when I'm really tired or stressed but since having my daughter last year touch wood I haven't had any since.

Hadenoughofitall441 · 08/04/2019 22:36

Yeah happens to me quite often, I usually mutter something along the lines of
If your planning on spending this amount of time here I may have to charge you rent. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I do believe in ghosts and don’t really bother. Strange goings on in this house since we moved here 10yeArs ago, it wouldn’t surprise me if the old miserable witch that lived here before cursed the house or killed someone? 😂😂

Ariela · 08/04/2019 22:37

I hear a loud panting snuffling noise. There's a heavy presence on the bed itself, I am pinned to the bed and cannot move.
It is our dog, she's not allowed in the bedroom till the alarm goes, she opens the door and takes a flying leap onto our bed. Guaranteed to wake us.

BlueCornishPixie · 08/04/2019 22:39

I get it where there's something like a shadow zooming at me across the ceiling.
Used to get it all the time, although thinking about it I haven't had it since I moved out of my last house, and I have never got it anywhere else.

Dp gets figures at the end of the bed. Never seen the same thing as the other though thank God.

Littlepond · 08/04/2019 22:41

Yup. I see people, children, spiders, wolves, strange shapes, mysterious objects. I often “wake up” and see things that aren’t there. I’m not actually awake at all but it can be terrifying. Often I’ve jumped up and turned the light on before I’ve actually properly woken up.

I once saw dinner-plate-sized spiders coming down from the ceiling of my bedroom. Horrendous. By the time I had actually woken up I was at the top of the stairs with all the skin taken off my knees where I had run/fallen in my sleep.

I can go for months without seeing anything but it always comes back. I’ve had these night hallucinations since I was a child.

S1naidSucks · 08/04/2019 22:42

Mine started the night after my husband’s funeral. I saw the form of a clocked ‘person’ come out of the television and look around the room, as if looking for something. It was a black shadow, but made up of worm like shapes. I lay staring at it in terror, before it went back into the television.

That was the worst thing. For months after that I would see shadow figures, every single night. They scared me, but after the third time my logic took over and I realised I was hallucinating. It was so weird, lying there watching these figures move around the room. There was a black dog one night and, as a dog lover, I found that one really comforting.

The memory of the television one still fills me with dread, just over four years later. I have an absolute terror if seeing it when I’m on my death bed, as it was completely different from the rest of the ones that followed. I remember lying there frozen in fear, hoping it wouldn’t become aware of me.

notangelinajolie · 08/04/2019 22:42

@MonaChopsis
Yes. It was my DD. I screamed, she screamed back then started crying, all in all it was a distinctly unpleasant way to wake up of a morning

My DD used to do that too. She used to stand there just staring. I asked her about it when she was older and she says she would wake up in the night and come into our room but didn't like to wake me so she would just stay awhile and go back to bed. On the occasions I did wake it was a bit woooo till my eyes managed to focus and I realised who it was.

S1naidSucks · 08/04/2019 22:43

*cloaked person.