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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

Girlking · 08/04/2019 23:26

When you’ve seen a ghost you know you’ve seen a ghost ..

SchnitzelVonCrum · 08/04/2019 23:30

Sleep paralysis, utterly awful.

BertrandRussell · 08/04/2019 23:35

hypnagogic hallucinations Read this and feel better.

Ginkythefangedhellpigofdoom · 08/04/2019 23:47

Iv not read the thread yet so it's probably been mentioned.

Yes I do but I have complex ptsd and that amongst other scary things is a symptom of that for me but for a "normal" person it can also be quite common. There are a few things that can cause it and similar.

Sleep paralysis
Night terrors
Various my conditions
Sleep hallucinations.

For the most part there is normally nothing to worry about and it's not dangerous but you can talk it over with your gp or be referred to a sleep clinic if it's causing you distress or creating anxiety and stress.

OnceUponATime000 · 08/04/2019 23:48

I have these and they get more frequent when I'm mildly stressed or anxious. They started when I lost a parent. They were petrifying when they started but now I know what they are they are much less so. They began as pink spiders everywhere crawling over me and over the walls and progressed to what I call little UFOs flying around the room ( weird formations of lights flying around).

Nowadays I wake to see shadows everywhere (people/creatures) my room moved around ( doorways in wrong places), my hands swollen and turning into claws. My poor husband has to put up with me waking him to get him to see what I can see it freaking out that he's not my husband but a stranger in the room. The other night I was poking his face to check it was real!

The worst was waking to a shadowed figure leaning over me ( think Harry potter dementor).

These are nothing but hallucinations. They are frightening if you don't know that but manageable when you read up on hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations.

TartanTexan · 09/04/2019 00:24

Happens to me a lot. Once an incredibly old man stared aggressively at my partner. He assumed he was an intruder & jumped up to defend us...so we both saw him, clearly. How do you explain that? I knew it wasn’t a burglar etc as this happens to me a lot.

cabingirl · 09/04/2019 00:55

Yes - night terrors - I've had it occasionally - also once daggars dropping down from the ceiling. Was across the room to the light switch in 0,5 seconds. Such a weird feeling.

GPatz · 09/04/2019 02:42

@TwittleBee Oh that's spooky. My one incident of this when I was a teenager was a man dressed in army clothes.

Texel · 09/04/2019 04:35

Yes I used to have it very frequently during a stressful time in my life, like Bahhhhhumbug I'd be trying to scream but couldn't or it would be the quietest scream in the world, the faceless man would either be leaning over me, coming into my room, or hugging me, the sensation felt so real for the last one! And I'd be freaking out and couldn't even move a finger. Sleep paralysis is awful!

SnowyAlpsandPeaks · 09/04/2019 05:00

I suffer with sleep paralysis, and find it normal manifestes itself when I am very stressed for a period of time, have extreme worry, or when they increase my amitriptline which I’m prescribed for nerve pain. Scary as hell!

The whole having a figure stood over me and trying to scream or hit dp awake and I can’t move anything. The worst was having it when staying in a hotel one night for work, which I did almost weekly so nothing new there, but coming around and not having dp to wrap my arms around and calm down, was super scary. I stayed awake all night with the lights on, and had to deliver a 7 hour training session to 60 people the following day- I was dying!

EmeraldShamrock · 09/04/2019 09:02

It seems to be when you stressed, your mind is overwhelming. My dreams are crazy most nights, but never as scary as thinking you are awake and paralysed.

Lefields · 09/04/2019 10:17

This thread absolutely terrified me last night. I honestly was too scared to go to sleep 🙈

EmeraldShamrock · 09/04/2019 10:57

As a child, I believed your spirit roamed at night after I woke to see my young sister sitting on the end of the bed reading, we shared a bed, I asked her why she was awake, when I looked down she was fast asleep beside me. freaky.

I now work night shifts, I never see ghosts and spirits floating about after dark. Is any of it paranormal or the mind tricking you.

BadPennyNoBiscuit · 09/04/2019 11:00

But once you know its a waking nightmare, theres a simple explanation.

CapeDaisy5 · 09/04/2019 11:02

I woke up to a figure standing beside my bed and then walking towards me before vanishing. I wasn't paralysed though - I tried to speak to if "Lou?" (Name of bedmate), but then it vanished. I was freaked out.

Hearhere · 09/04/2019 11:05

I know it can be scary but I found it very interesting and I wish it would happen to me more, it links in with lucid dreaming

JaneJeffer · 09/04/2019 11:19

The day after DF funeral I woke up and there was a man (not my Dad) standing at the foot of my bed. I wasn't scared of him and just went back to sleep. It felt like he had been watching over me.

LHMB · 09/04/2019 11:22

I used to get what I think is sleep paralysis quite a lot, haven't had it for a while. It only seemed to happen if I was alone in the house too, and only during the day if I'd been really tired and fallen asleep. I could hear people talking and moving around me in the house and bedroom, even my son, but he was at school at the time. Sometimes saw an old witch, like a hag looming over me, would try to move or scream but was completely paralyzed, and no sound would come out. I would be desperately trying to wake up, it was terrifying. My friend and DP said it was evil demonic spirits trying to posses me. I think it's sleep paralysis

Hearhere · 09/04/2019 11:40

Your friend and your partner said it was evil demonic spirits😕
with friends like that who needs enemies eh
Tell them you told the evil demonic spirits to get to fuck and now they're going to possess your friend and your partner instead because you're obviously too tough a nut to crack 😜

TiredTodayZzzz · 09/04/2019 11:42

Thrown around the room 😱😱😱

Yes . Luckily (?) I have suffered from sleep paralysis for so long that I'm well aware that's what it is while it's happening but it's still not a nice feeling! I'd rather that though than see a figure . I have heard, felt and smelt (smelled?) during sleep paralysis but I could not cope with seeing!!!

LHMB · 09/04/2019 11:43

Hearhere lol I know, they do have some really weird beliefs that makes them sound nuts

Bahhhhhumbug · 09/04/2019 13:28

lefields yes the not being able to all for help when you really think your life is in danger is awful. Dh didn't help last night after me reading this and getting into bed he kindly mentioned that the touch lamp had come on in the spare bedroom on its own when he walked past on the landing. I was dying for a wee all night but wouldn't dare go

BloodyDisgrace · 09/04/2019 13:54

Not entirely the same, but it happened to me once, after my 21st Birthday. That fact is important because Grandma convinced me to drink some cheap fizzy wine. I woke up at night, looked up and saw a human head looking down to me from the top of the picture on the wall above my bed. I didn's see the face, it was a black headlike shape which was moving as if looking left to right, observing me, if I was ok.

Strangely enough I wasn't scared, didn't scream (and I'm not the bravest of people) just thought: "Fuck. I knew this wine was crap, it even gives me hallucinations!" Turned over and fell back asleep.

But I wouldn't want to experience what you are describing. I wasn't particularly happy to hear a cat walking on the wooden floor at night in the next bedroom when both our cats were next to me...

DorisDances · 09/04/2019 14:09

Yes, I have had this a few times - absolutely terrifying and your heart leaps put of your chest as feels so real. DH reckons it happens when I am only just asleep and a noise or him moving disturbs me.

CabbageHippy · 09/04/2019 14:15

yes - usually DH with my morning coffee though

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