What the fuck just happened?

[AhhhhhSpider]

I went to sleep an hour ago and just found myself standing by the light switch, light on. I was certain I saw a spider suspended from the ceiling and then I think I bolted to the light.

No sign of said spider and I can't remember being awake to notice, just suddenly recognising the spider and being by the light.

My toddler is asleep here too and luckily didn't wake.

Wtf? Did I see the spider or dream it or hallucinate it or what? Scared to go back to sleep. It seems a bit dark to have noticed one and also I was lying on my side (I know from the dribble) but I feel the adrenaline!

I’ve had this, it’s a weird falling off to sleep thing. Go back to bed it isn’t real.

Probably a very vivid dream? Hope you get back to sleep easily!

More than likely Just a dream

Hypnopompic hallucination? I get them all the time and I usually see a spider that isn't there. Wherever I open my eyes there'll be a spider or a squiggly shape that looks like one.

I've had those weird falling sensations etc before when falling asleep but never suddenly jumped out of bed. It felt almost like a reflex I think

You probably dreamt it, try to go back to sleep before you work yourself up too much.

Dream! Mine when hormonal aww vivid as you like. I wake scrabbling around in the dark for the light, escaping some unknown quantity, drenched in sweat and breathless, and my poor husband had to remind me I’m dreaming.
When my babies were small I did this a lot. I think I was on high alert (and high hormones too I guess).
Don’t worry, it’s a dream. Go back to sleep. Sleep tight.

I have a recurring dream where I get up, go through my usual routine but then an anomaly pops up - like my dad is downstairs or my dog is there (died 10 years ago). I realise I'm dreaming and know I'm back in bed. Then it happens again. And again. When I do finally properly wake up I'm not sure for a little while.

I’ve had that exact same hallucination, the only one I’ve ever had as far as I know. Strange.

I think it is one of those hypnagogic hallucinations. My sleep has been really disturbed for a couple of nights as toddler unwell (actually she's never slept through the night but I don't normally get woken up quite as much as this)

Honestly, I've had plenty of nightmares and weird falling asleep images and sensations but this felt so real and it was almost like sleepwalking how I got to be by the light, it was confusing

Welcome to the sleep walkers club😊.

And please don't worry. I have been a sleep walkers for over fifty years. It's never done me any harm.

My family know by now, and just guide me gently back to bed when I go walk about.

Just, always, wear pjs, is My tip

I get this when I’m very tired or stressed OP. I see things always when I’m just falling over or have just fallen. It used to be just animals- cats, rats, spiders. Always black. Then I started seeing people too - still all black like a sillouhette.(SP?) used to paralyse me with fear- then I managed to be able to move and scream- get to the light. Now my brain seems to know it’s not real and just wakes me up so I can see properly. Last night I could see a twig with berries sitting on the pillow beside me

Embarassingly, it happened to me once when staying in a hotel. I could see the curtain moving and a hand reaching through it towards me. I did the most horrifying high pitched scream I’ve ever heard and woke my children, terrified them. It took age to settle them back to sleep.

I have had this, I have a fear if spiders so not sure if that was part of the reason. Spider dangled above my face I maneuvered myself out the the bottom of the bed under the covers then ran downstairs and had a panic. Dh came to check on me, checked bedroom no spider. Also it was pitch black so if there had been a spider I wouldn't have seen it.

Anyway it was a one off and no sleepwalking. It was just a really vivid dream that gave me a fright and felt real even when awake until logic kicked in.

It was most likely a dream, I get these when I'm stressed out! I always scream at the top of my voice and scare everyone in the house as they think I'm being murdered

I got them alot worse when I was a teenager and have injured myself on a few occasions and even had a black eye from tripping over and headbutting a cupboard whilst running away from an imaginary spider!

I have always been a sleepwalker though, it used to freak my parents out when I was a child, and I once woke up covered in yoghurt I think I must have been hungry in my sleep and ended up tipping it over myself, my mum thought I was crazy lol!

I have these now and then too, usually if I’m upset or anxious about something. I wake myself up jumping out of bed because of a spider dropping on me or running near me, or I wake up whilst out of bed looking for it. It feels really real at the time, but I have a good look round and tell myself it was just a dream go back to bed! I really hate spiders I might add!

Oh I get that if I'm really tired or stressed. I remember in the hospital after DD was born, standing by the sink and "saw" something run past my feet. It was obviously nothing but brains are stupid sometimes.

I wonder what i’ll be imagining on my pillow tonight?

I’ve done similar! And it’s usually during naps so maybe it’s a light sleep thing? Like a dream. It you’re not fully asleep? I dunno 😂

I also once took a naughty pill and hallucinated borrower people living in the walls at my friends house. Since then whenever I was at hers stone cold sober I’d be too scared to get up for a wee in the night 😂 but I’m sure you hadn’t taken any hallucinogenics so probably not that but I hope it made you feel a teeny bit better about your situation

These type of hallucinations are just about your brain projecting stuff in the between sleep and awake state, so they pretty much happen when you are either falling to sleep or awakening, in the first hour you go to sleep, and if you are stressed or tired. All of these are true for you, it sounds like that is what it was, it does feel weird though!

This week I woke up knowing I was in early labor - had been dreaming it very vividly, peed, got back to bed and resumed the dream. I did check if I had any real pain, but nothing. It was so real.

never mind the fact I've had a radical hysterectomy and am in my dotage

Night Night. Sleep well.

It was dark before you turned the light on. Too dark to have seen a spider. So you can't have actually seen a spider. So it was a dream/nightmare/weird sleep thing.

I get these hallucinations fairly regularly.

It's always the same big black, house spider. It's either on my pillow, coming down from the ceiling or running across the wall beside my bed, away from me.

It's interesting to hear so many of us have it.

I wake up across the room with the light on and telling my DH to get the spider. He's very used to it now, so just reminds me I'm dreaming. I then lie there with my heart racing, waiting to fall back to sleep!

I did used to sleep walk as a child, but I didn't start having the spider dreams until adulthood.

It's horrible.

I've had this. I asked a member of my university Psychology department and they said it's really common, especially as you're falling asleep/ waking up.