To be scared on the house on my own...(Lighthearted to cheer myself up)

[bettydaviseyes1]

Why is it when DH is out for the night I go from relishing a night (the TV) to myself but then end up... keeping all the lights on (well known fact that serial killers dont come to houses lit up like a Christmas tree)... listening for noises (I even do the quick spin round to where the noise is as if I'm going to catch someone... would shit oneself if I did)... checking the doors a hundred times (once more for luck!)....

Where does all the noise go?! I can literally hear my stomach digest the brownie I just comfort ate!

And the dog is in on it too ffs... hes all barking at nothing and staring into space (what the fuck does he see?!).. my new build is definitely haunted isnt it?!

Anyone else this mental???

That's how I used to be, I used to pull the quilt over my head and refuse to move and force myself back to sleep.

I'm lucky that my dog is 1. Massive and a "dangerous breed" so you'd not really be inclined to try to break in 2. An astounding sniffer and would know if someone was in the house, she once went mad trying to get into a room that someone had put their suitcase in, she could smell their stuff in there.

My theory is that they wont be expecting me to be expecting them and prepared with a knife so I'll have the element of surprise

Totally know what you mean with the toothbrush. The tv volume goes down through the night so I can hear someone sneaking around

Could have wrote this myself. I recommend getting everything u need into one room and staying there hoping for the best. I am find til about 9.30. Though have got the "heebie jeebies" as I call them from as early as 4pm. When dh/any adult home dont hear a thing.

Does anyone else get a flinchy/prickly feeling all over at every sound?

I've just realised that the bedroom windows are open and super hearing pupper must be hearing noises from outside not inside! Yay!

Left the window in the bathroom open and the lights on and theres a million flies, honestly like something out of a horror story :( I'm waiting for blood to come out the taps now...

I'm like this and my DP doesn't even work nights. I wake him up all the time because of noises I thought I heard! My neighbours are so loud that any noise they make I assume is in my own house (which is all through the entire night I genuinely believe they move their furniture around in their entire house at the early hours everyday!) and it's an old house so we have super thick walls so I dunno what they do that's so loud! I'm always convinced I've heard the porch door being opened aswell or the patio doors and I get so freaked out that I sit up in bed (because that makes me hear better ) and listen out for ages for the intruders! My DP thinks I'm batshit and sleeps through everything! He accidently put the latch on the front door once when I was coming home from a girls night and I was trying to break the door down because I couldn't wake him and even doing a run, jump, arm barge into the door didn't wake him up for about 10 minutes..

I feel your pain honestly OP

A couple of weeks ago for the first time in possibly 7 years I was in the house overnight alone without DC (who were at exdh) and dp was away with work. I was excited as it looked like 4 whole nights.

Then dark fell and bloody hell I apparently became 12 again. Ddog is bloody useless because she is deaf as a post and frankly would sell me to intruders if she thought they would cuddle her.(and steadfastly refused to be bribed to sleep upstairs with me despite doing it every night while DP was there )

Honest to God, I am a bolshy confidant 41 year old who even lived alone on a creepy house in the Welsh valleys for 4 years (although that was 15 years ago) but I slept with a hammer under DP pillow just in case (dm fault I remember her sleeping with a golf club under the bed when df was away ...apparently I inherited the batshit crazy)

I'm ashamed to say when do rang the next day to tell me his set had been cancelled I played it cool and claimed I was missing my alone time and was secretly cheering

@clueless987 same with our neighbours. Our first house was detached so if I heard a noise then it was inside our house. This is semi, it genuinely sounds like they're walking about upstairs in our house, DH was even shocked when he first heard it, (about 2 years after we'd moved in and i was used to it by then). Also sounds like our boiler kicking in when they use hot water.
I think some pipes or floorboards are connected, only explanation.

@bettydaviseyes1 I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, that severe dread feeling.

I just remembered, at Alton towers they do scare mazes at halloween, I really wanted to do it and practically begged DH, got tickets went to the entrance and as you go in you're held in a room while they explain the pre story, they say "dont hold hands, you will be separated from your group" I knocked on the door to be let out!

My DH is currently away for golf. This will be the second night on my own.
Last night took care of itself, courtesy of a bottle of prosecco.
Tonight I am putting off bedtime by listening to Youtube songs.

Something just went 'bonk' in the kitchen.
It was just the wine bottle falling out of the recycling - not Michael Myers!

I survived the night... didnt even wake once until morning!

Have you thought about getting a good burglar alarm system? We live in a big house where you can’t hear any activity around the back if you are at the front.
DH got a job involving his being away four nights a week and I would be alone. The alarm system put paid to my paranoia about intruders as it is monitored, we live in a town, and the police come embarrassingly quickly as I discovered after a couple of false alarms. However if you are are in rural area, the response time would be much slower. Worth considering though.

@TrickyD we have an alarm system that forsnt work and cameras that do. Night vision is creepy as $#%^ though so I avoid looking at them!!

bettydavieseyes, we don’t have a camera and I fear I would be obsessively watching it if we did. And scaring myself silly!
Our most notable false alarms were when DH tapped in his bank code, whose first two digits were the real ones reversed, thus triggering a duress code. Police were swarming over the garden, needed us to identify ourselves and were incredibly polite about it. Similar scenario a few years later when new kitten climbed onto the panic button by our bed.

@dietnopelovechocolatetoomuch

Just don't watch the film invisible man.

m.imdb.com/title/tt1051906/

I just did and half way through remembered that I hate being home alone and this freaked me out even more! Both my
Dogs bark at everything and nothing, luckily my husband doesn't go away for the night very often.

Just the trailer for this film scared me!

I'm glad I'm not alone. My mind goes into overdrive when dh is away. Thankfully, not that often anymore, but I take forever to get to sleep and then wake up shattered :(

When I'm going to be alone all night, I cover every single window before it's completely dark outside, keep my phone with me at all times, and avoid any entertainment that's even remotely creepy. Watching something funny but familiar is best. And as much as possible, stick with routines, which are comforting.

The trick with (my) dogs is to have some background noise (tv, music) to stop them overreacting to normal, small sounds. And never let them know you're nervous! Dogs are very tuned-in to the emotions of their people, and if you seem jumpy, they'll assume there's something wrong and startle you by barking at every little thing. A vicious circle!

OP I feel for you though I'm the opposite - often leave outside doors, windows etc open but one of my adult DCs is like you and even with a companion has to check cupboards, every room and under beds. I do wonder what films they watched as a child on eg sleepovers that I knew nothing about.

I'm the opposite. I put any strange noises down to a cat (4 of them so there is always one up to something somewhere)

Ever since my DH and I have been together he went away for a weekend each month with his hobby (LARP in case anyone cares!) so I just got used to it. He doesn't go as often anymore but the fact all his events have been cancelled is a shame for him currently and also for me as my weekends of starfishing in bed are postponed!

400 years old? Deff haunted! Do you know the history?
No, but I'd love to find out! Luckily I don't believe in ghosts, but I still feel a bit strange when I'm home alone at night. I usually go and turn on all the outside lights!
There is another old house not very far from here where the local history society (we're friends with one of the members) found out was the scene of a murder where a farmer killed his wife and children. They didn't want to divulge it to the village because the current owner of the house would understandably see it in a different light.