Hearing voices

[ihavetonamechangeforthis99]

NC
Anyone else experienced hearing voices in their head ? I hear these at night when I am going to sleep. I don't think I dreamt any of it but I am also on my way to sleep and not 100% awake. I've heard several different people speaking, it's like I am listening in on someone else's conversation. I don't recognise the voices and what was said was vey random/trivial. Apart form the one time I heard a clear voice saying to me 'You aren't going to live much longer' . What the hell was that about. It has really scared me. Am I going mad ?

Totally normal to hear voices as you go to sleep — read about hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. You're not going mad, it's just your brain doing normal weird brain shit 👍

Don’t worry! It’s over stimulation do you suffer with anxiety? It’s completely normal! I have it when I’ve listened to family members all day and just as I’m drifting off their voices trail in conversation. It’s like your brains relaxing into dream state. Don’t be freaked out it’s quite common

Mine are like a muffled conversation I can't quite make out. I've trained myself not to try to hear what they're saying, because the concentration wakes me back up 🤣 My psychiatrist is not remotely concerned by all this, because it's apparently a perfectly usual thing for falling-asleep brains to do and is unrelated to any mental illness I might slightly happen to have.

I get that. The voices progressed to telling me to go kill myself. I now take quetiapine and the voices no longer talk to me

My body does all kinds of weird things while I’m falling asleep and when I’m particularly anxious this is one of them. Mostly it’s muffled and I can’t hear specifics but it’s a bit scary actually, I also wake up sometimes thinking I’ve heard a loud noise and I haven’t. Stress does funny things!

Yeah if you keep getting voices telling you to kill yourself that's probably a good point at which to seek a medical opinion, this is true. Definitely not something to write off as normal.

On the face of it, though, from what OP's said she's experiencing something much more common at the moment. One scary thing was said, maybe because she was already feeling scared by having voices in her head and the voice fitted itself to that theme?

Yes I would add if you hear these voices at any other time or they are telling you to do things like kill yourself it’s a good idea to get to the GP.

The important thing is to distinguish between normal weird things happening when you are falling asleep and a psychotic illness that requires treatment. Only a doctor can really make that distinction for you.

www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/hypnagogic-hallucinations This looks like a reasonable article on hypnagogic hallucinations, with some interesting stats and a section on the difference between hypnagogic hallucinations and hallucinations you might get from mental illness. If you don't feel that what you're experiencing fits with that, and you're worried by what you're hearing, then you could go to the doctor, but even then there are lots of things it could be, most of which can be lived with or managed. But I really think it sounds like ordinary hypnagogic hallucinations. (Am not medical, just lots of experience of hypnagogic hallucinations and also of being a mental case as well.)

OP I hope that I can give you some words of comfort

In 2019 I started hearing voices as I fell asleep and as I woke up. Mostly jumbled up talking, I couldn’t understand what they were saying most times but some I could hear clear as day. I also started to have visual hallucinations as I woke. Mostly random, but some scary.

Clearly I was shaken, I thought I was going crazy. I started to fear schizophrenia.

I went to my GP who sent me to see a phyciatrist

Basically these hallucinations I were having were due to stress, anxiety and because I then started to worry about these hallucinations I was then working myself up more, stressing more and it was making them worse.

I was told: Not all cases, but most of the time those with phycosis or schizophrenia will not recognise that these hallucinations aren’t real.

The fact you are aware these are not real is a big indicator that these are most likely caused by something else going on in your life

My physiatrist told me that grief, loss, redundancy, break ups, basically anything going on in your life or a change of hormones could be the cause.

Mine was caused by loud neighbours arguing and keeping me awake at night and stressing me out

Agree with the above
Check out the links
These sleep related hallucinations are more common than you think

I wouldn’t worry unless you are hearing or seeing things during the day

This happens to me sometimes too. Last night I had just about got to sleep when I heard a dog bark right in my ear. Woke me right up!

I agree with PP, I don't think it's something to worry about.

@Stylishkidintheriot
just to add that the pp would have had psychiatric assessments and follow up regarding these symptoms before/during being prescribed antipsychotics/quetiapine.

I hope everything’s ok pp

I experience this a lot, but I only recently focused on it and realised it's something that's happened since I can remember.

I hear loud noises, sometimes very aggressive voices and very odd conversations. I can hear the conversations clearly, but the topics are not at all related to my life It doesn't bother me. I find it amusing.

I was coming on hear to write about the self same thing! I am always being woken up by a dog barking. I do have a dog and he sleeps in my room but it's not him... he'll be asleep and snoring at the time. Very annoying.

The other thing I get a lot is hearing one of either of my adult daughters calling for me, seemingly in distress (they're both in another country). I always have call the next day to make sure they're OK!

I do have a bit of anxiety and tinnitus, too.

I have this! And always only when falling asleep. I hear family members having conversations, just normal trivial conversations as I'm falling asleep - I don't feel scared or anything, to me it just feels like my brain is repeating the types of conversations I would be listening to each day. I think it's completely normal.

I have this too - it started when my mum died. I’d been thinking of posting about it here.

Usually it’s someone saying my name, but sometimes conversations or weird noises.

It got worse in lockdown and was very bad when I had too much to drink about a week ago! I have airbnb guests and sometimes think it’s them calling.

The strangest was when a woman’s voice said, “good morning, Frannyhy.”

I have this when I’m falling asleep and sometimes when waking up. Usually it’s just people talking but sometimes it can be something quite startling like the sound of a doorbell or a ringing phone. I usually experience random, bizarre imagery with it too. I interpret it as the hazy area between being awake and asleep. It’s worse when I’m stressed.

@Stylishkidintheriot I'm guessing you had a proper assessment and diagnosis first, though? It sounds like your symptoms were more severe than ordinary hypnogogic hallucinations, from what you've said. That must have been a really horrible experience for you, so I'm glad your medication has helped.

@ihavetonamechangeforthis99 I have fairly bad hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, both auditory and visual. My most common auditory ones are sudden volleys of knocks or thumps (like on a door or a wall), someone screaming or shouting, the sound of muffled conversation as if from another room, a sort of electrical buzz, a kind of cracking/splitting sound like a wall cracking open, a sort of metallic rattling like a door or window handle being tried, and people calling my name. I also have visual ones, sometimes of spy cameras in the room or spiders on my bed (which is the worst) but more often things like a figure standing in the corner of the room, something crouched on top of my wardrobe or at the end of my bed. It is a lot more common than you might think, but if the voices you hear are bothering or scaring you, or you find they're always saying very disturbing or harmful things, or telling you what to do, then don't be afraid to see your doctor about it.

Being woken up by a loud noise is rather alarmingly called exploding head syndrome but it isn’t usually anything to worry about.

Not voices but I am occasionally woken up by a phantom doorbell noise.

Oh interesting, thank you!

@ParanoidGynodroid I'm glad it's not just me!

A, yes, I'd forgotten that one. I have that as well. I also regularly get brain surges.