Not usually something I would ever post about but...

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Lying in bed, next to DH he's sound asleep, put my phone down and got comfy about to try and fall asleep, close my eyes and I feel a hand on my shoulder. A firm touch, it didn't hurt but Definately felt like a hand! Sat up quick thinking one of the DC had sneaked in, but nope, all the kids are asleep- I checked!! Wtf!! Second thing in the last month that's happened to me and I've never really believed or not believed in this- I'm indifferent! Any rational explanations?? Before I move out! 😂

I have things like this quite a lot. I have the dog one too where I actually think she's on the bed and feel her on my leg but nothing there.

A lucid dream, notesbag. You don't realise you've just shifted consciousness into sleep.

Last night as I was falling asleep I heard a child shout "mummy" I went and checked on my DS and he was fast asleep, like a deep sleep not in a 'talk in his sleep' and he doesn't talk in his sleep.

Freaked me the feck out! My DH found it funny, I couldn't sleep for about 20 minutes.

Do you have very large spiders in your loft?

Could it just be a nerve reflex? A bit like when you get that whole body shake randomly, when "someone walks over your grave" as my mum says.

*Last night as I was falling asleep I heard a child shout "mummy" I went and checked on my DS and he was fast asleep, like a deep sleep not in a 'talk in his sleep' and he doesn't talk in his sleep

You weren't falling asleep, you had fallen, briefly. The sound came from inside your brain, not outside.

I would usually agree but he had his back to me and I was on my side facing him so couldn't have possibly been him

Of course it could. It was his elbow or arm or whatever, you just thought it was a hand when it wasn't.

So you're lying in bed with another human being next to you, and you feel something touch you. Which is more likely, that it was a ghost or a poltergeist, or the actual human being right next to you?

Hearing a voice or a doorbell or a knock just before falling asleep is very common. Google hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations. I've had the doorbell one and heard a family member call out when they didn't, why would a ghost ring your doorbell! Other really common ones are spiders (as a common fear), seeing figures (not moving though) and the 'Old Hag' syndrome where you feel like someone is on top of you (this is related to being paralysed in sleep and then shifting between a sleep/wake state).

If it happens when you are in bed, then it's pretty much going to be one of these. They tend not to happen in the day unless you are napping/kind of drift off a bit. Having said that obviously people hear voices for other reasons as well, voice-hearing is much more common than people think, and isn't just a sign of madness and if sleep related, probably because you are tired or stressed.

Not sure about the being poked/pressure on the bed but again it seems common, and mostly at night, apart from the one person who gets it in the daytime. I think it's just your mind playing tricks on you though and they can be remarkably realistic.

You felt a sensation on your shoulder.

Any time you feel anything, it's just your brain interpreting signals from the rest of your body. Sometimes it misinterprets those signals - bodies and brains aren't perfect.

I think you had a muscle spasm (possibly from holding your phone or leaning on the bed) and, because human brains naturally look for patterns and meaning in everything, your brain interpreted it as feeling similar to the sensation you get when someone grabs your shoulder.

It doesn't mean someone grabbed your shoulder - you're just feeling muscles and nerves doing their thing and your brain's trying to make logical sense of them. On this occasion, it got it slightly wrong!

@Fufumuji

This is so silly. You can't immediately think of an explantation so you leap to...what exactly? Ghosts? Invisible monsters? What?

It's so childish ( except children generally have more sense).

And the OP (just like all the others) is apparently 'indifferent'

Makes a change from being 'the most sceptical person in the world' I suppose.

I was walking across a bit of flat lawn...huge...and something smacked my calf. Nothing there...no plants or animals. I put it down to a muscle spasm. Maybe that's what you had?

First spooky memory is in bed one night and hearing my late grandpa say 'hey kidda' as he walked across my room. Kidda was his name for me.
Seeing my great uncle in Rome as we drove past in a coach. 4 out of 5 members of my family also saw him. The trip was paid for with money he left me in his will.
Poked in the back by what felt like a knitting needle when I was sewing on my late grandmas sewing machine. She was a tailoress and taught me everything she knew.
Poked in the back when I was going down stairs
Felt someone brush past my lower legs in the showers after a swim at the Marriot in Swindon. I thought it was one of my children (my eyes were shut) but discovered later it couldn't have been because they were already dressed and with my DH. Then had someone poke me in the back when I was eating breakfast next morning. I actually had to ask DH if someone was behind me. The second night, once my DH was asleep I put the light on and slept with it on. I had the distinct feeling I was being watched.

Two elderly people stood at the side of the bed watching my DH. This has happened on a few occasions.
Had drinking glasses on the kitchen worktop explode when we weren't in the room. This has happened a few times and my family witnessed it too.
I hear loud sighs all the time.

That gave me shivers reading it! Especially as something happened to me.

I very much believe that spirits and beings exist, hence why this whole thing scares me.

When I was teen, in the exact same way as you, something slapped me across the face as soon as I put the lights off and lay down in bed. Lights on, nothing there.

A few weeks later, I was sitting on the middle of my bed with my hair in a ponytail and my hair was pulled back.

Then another few weeks, woke up to something hitting me on my back (although I am half convinced this was the sleep paralysis thing so not too worried about this one).

Other things happened and for ages my parents told me I was imagining it, I was sleeping, etc etc, until a few years ago I asked my mum about it and she admitted similar things happened to my parents and my brother too, but they didn’t tell me so they don’t scare me.

It’s a really scary thing to go through. Hope you’re ok!

Im often woke by ‘someone’ calling my name

I read something about this once, its physical dreaming (I cant remember the phrase, sorry!). So you are not in the full REM dream phase but your brain is still working enough so you can feel or see things.

Its the theory behind ghostly presences etc. I had them a lot at one point and looked into it and it suggests that if you see or feel someone you love and miss its the opposite of a stress dream but coming from the same place. So you are stressed or frightened and need comfort. The article also suggested that it can happen when your emotions are heightened during waking, so thats why teenagers appear to be more susceptible to seeing or feeling "ghosts" for example.

Its just a theory like all dream theories but it makes more sense to me than anything that is more woo.

You think you were wide awake but you probably weren’t, part of your Brain was likely asleep or drifting. Sometimes I think I’m wide awake but then I get that sensation of falling. The brain is crazy.

I sometimes feel like when the dog jumps up onto the bed, only when I look I realise our dog passed away 4 years ago and our new puppy sleeps in a cage!🙈

Did you check under the bed?

I'm a medium, and I've had more 'experiences' than I can tell you.

One night in hospital after giving birth, I clearly felt someone sit down on the edge of my bed. I know who it was too.

One day I was chatting to a colleague about someone who had passed, and a vase of flowers on the filing cabinet literally lifted up, moved over the ege of the cabinet and fell on the floor.

There is nothing to be afraid of, really. Just acknowledge it and move on.

All right. Here we go. It is probably something quite simple, however, if it happens again, sit up and say out loud, "Look, you don't have to leave, but you cannot touch me while I'm trying to sleep!" Say it with conviction. If nothing else, you won't feel quite so helpless about it all.

OP Could it of been your hair?

My hair is long and sometimes falls out of the ponytail when tied up. Ive jumped a few times thinking someone has stroked my back but then realised its just my hair

@Lweji
Why do I need to have a chat with my gp?

@Fufumuji
If you think I'm childish/silly what was the need for you to comment?
Also no it Definately couldn't have been my DH, he was laying with his back to me on his side, I was on my side, facing him so unless he has spaghetti arms and is double jointed it couldn't possibly have been him!

For those of you who have actually posted with some sense thank you very much, I managed to get to sleep finally with no more situations 😂, I'm going to put it down to a nerve or my brain playing tricks on me because I was about to fall asleep. Got a scare at the time though

It is interesting that thoughts turn to the supernatural in such situations when we know that our minds can conjure up all sorts of experiences that are not true.

Auditory and visual hallucinations are common in many mental illnesses so it is clear that minds can make things that look and sound very real but are not.

That is not to say people who experience such things are mentally ill just that your mind is quite capable of making up physical symptoms. Think about health anxiety, it causes all sorts of aches and pains that are not real.

I agree. It's not usually the first thing that would pop into my head, however at midnight in the dark, when I'm tired and can't at that moment think of any other reasonable explanation, it certainly made my mind wander.

Are you on any new medication op? I had this as a side effect of glaucoma medication.

@CatbearAmo

No I'm on no medication at all..