Olefactory hallucinations with covid?

[Wilkolampshade]

OK, so have covid atm. 5/6 days since positive test. Feeling much better now. BUT :
Last night wake up terrified and in the act of actually gulping at the air as I could smell sharp acrid smoke incredibly strongly, like a bonfire but close. When I open bedroom door there's SUCH a strong smell I'm convinced the house is on fire (have had a major house fire next door twice, so know the smell) Run frantically around house and out into garden to check but definitely nothing happening anywhere. Just a silent, dark house and quiet, empty gardens. No smoke. No old bonfires. No chimney smoke in the street. No daughter leaning out of the window having a crafty fag. No open fires in our house. No exotic scented candles forgotten in a corner.
After a bit go back up to bewildered DH who can smell nothing and eventually off to sleep as smell abruptly diminishes then seems to disappear altogether.
What on earth? Has anyone else had this?
I had heard this could happen, but it was so incredibly strong - it absolutely felt physically present... hard to explain!
Rather dreading going to sleep tonight tbh

Hopeful bump? Am I just going mad then?

No this is a recorded symptom.
Some people smell vinegar, others like my husband smell sewage!

@GrimDamnFanjo thanks Grim, it was extraordinary! Hoping for a less smokey night... Hope your poor DP OK now? How long did it last for him?

Hi, I'm sorry to read this that must have been really scary. It is a recorded symptom, and in my experience it can linger a bit. I had Covid in early - mid October. I started off smelling acetone, and then my sense smell sort of dampened to barely existent, and then the past couple of weeks I have been smelling cigarette smoke constantly, both inside and outside. So much so I have to go to bed early sometimes just to escape it because it makes me feel sick. Neither me or dh are smokers.

Fingers crossed for both of us it will go away, but I count myself lucky that I didn't come off worse.

@Arsewangry - well that's a funny thing, my DD 2 was complaining about next door smoking out of the window adjoining hers when she was back from uni a few weeks ago.... which was odd as A/ they don't smoke, and B/ that's their nursery window. Oh dear. Other than that she was just monumentally tired and run down - we thought...
Yes you're right of course re' not getting it worse. It's almost a privilege to have such a relatively minor symptom when so many people have had to go through such awful awful stuff. Fingers crossed indeed. Xx

I still get this now, a year after having covid.

I’m week 3 in and keep getting off whiff of cigarette smoke but only seconds at a time it’s bizarre.

[quote Wilkolampshade]@GrimDamnFanjo thanks Grim, it was extraordinary! Hoping for a less smokey night... Hope your poor DP OK now? How long did it last for him?[/quote]
He's about 3 weeks in. It's coming and going now.
We both had negative PCRs...

I had Covid in March 2020 and still experience this now.

Had covid in Nov last year and despite having a crap sense of smell my entire life, I can now smell vinegar at 20 paces! I can smell vinegar from the village chippie when it's busy when the wind is in the right direction, and it's 5 min walk away!!! I wonder if there was a fire somewhere nearby but not in sight?!

I get these quite often and put it down to perimenopause.

I've been smelling smoke for months on and off. I had covid in July and lost smell and taste which eventually came back along with the smoke smell. I've just realised though I don't think I've smelled it for about 2 weeks now so hopefully that'll be the end of it. It was so annoying, we don't smoke so smelling cigarette smoke wasn't particularly great and when I could smell bonfire smoke I kept checking the hob hadn't been left on and the house was on fire!

I’ve had this for a year or two. I haven’t had Covid as far as I know but put it down to sinus issues around perimenopause.
I have a runny nose / dry sore throat very often, it’s like any allergies have flared up since peri. Most annoying as I waste so many LFT’s as I’m always worried it may Covid

I could smell smoke for about 2 weeks or so, particularly at night . now my sense of smell has returned, the smoke stench has disappeared.

Thanks all, no smoke in the night!!!! And I actually slept the whole way through - haven't done that for years!

@GrimDamnFanjo

No this is a recorded symptom. Some people smell vinegar, others like my husband smell sewage!

I smelled burning plastic. Very strange.

My husband had exactly the same, strong burning smell inside the house and an overwhelming smell of vomit outside. They only lasted a few days, fortunately.

I didn't get it with covid even though I've had the hallucinations all my life, linked to migraines. We had really different covid symptoms even though I could only have caught it from him, I wonder if it's because we had different vaccines.

I wonder if there's anything we can do to help it pass. I must confess it's getting me down a bit!

Yes, I spent hours checking all my electrics, walking round and round the house trying to find the fire. No fire. Shut the windows, opened them again, couldn't work out what to do. Put in some plug in air fresheners I couldn't smell, only burning, took them out in case they were burning. Awful. Then after that the only two smells I could smell was a metallic smell (which could actually be anything from rubbish bags to a dirty nappy to a new perfume to onions and garlic cooking, anything strong and pungent), and phantom smoke smells. Otherwise couldn't smell anything at all

Yes I have had this! I lost smell and taste since covid in Nov, but I get the hallucinations when feeling tired/dropping off to sleep. I smelt oranges really strongly once, whilst falling asleep despite being rooms away from the fruit bowl. I wonder if it's the brain trying to 'remember' smells. Often have to ask husband if something is burning and it never is. Feel so relieved, thought it was just me!

oh no! There's me feeling all smug I'm basically over this and it looks like I'll have dysfunctional smell for a while! Don't know why it would upset me, seems silly, but it does.

My ds had very mild Covid, just a bit tired and sniffly for a couple of days. His sense of smell is unaffected but he is also getting olfactory hallucinations. Except for him they are extremely pleasant - always delicious food smells.

Your brain is being alerted to danger, but you cannot trust it. Now you have the worry that you might dismiss a real danger. Of course it's upsetting.

Mine was (and still us at times) onion and vinegar.

@Dilbertian yes, you're right of course.