Hallucinations at night

[Katie272]

Ok, a bit of a weird one. When I was pregnant with my son on several occasions I'd fall asleep at night and I'd suddenly wake up because I'd seen something. Usually I'd wake up and scream or something and it was because I'd seen a spider. And the once I thought a fox was sitting on me 😂

But it's carried on even now my sons 9 months old and every so often me and my partner will be asleep at night and suddenly ill jump out the bed shouting that I've seen a spider. On several occasions I've actually made him check the bed because it seemed so real. The next day when I wake up I remember that I've done it but other than the one time it's always a spider.

Also I'll add a few years back when I was probably about seventeen I went through a stage of feeling tired at night but when I'd go to bed I'd lie there and I'd literally watch it get light, before I knew it it would be time to get up and I'd barely slept. This passed eventually then I went through a stage of in the night like my body jolting and head going back, It was always so scary but I couldn't control it. Then the one night I remember getting up to go to the toilet and being really confused. My mom found me on the bathroom floor having a seizure and called an ambulance. I don't remember having the seizure or waking up from it all I remember is seeing the paramedics and not even knowing they were there for me. I was tested for epilepsy and nothing came of it. And that was the last time any of the sleep problems or seizures in the night happened, probably about 2 years ago now.

I see spiders when I'm exhausted apparently it's not uncommon. Kind of like a lucid dream.

@Sleepthieved

I see spiders when I'm exhausted apparently it's not uncommon. Kind of like a lucid dream.

It's so strange, I don't think I ever used to do it before I was pregnant from what I can remember. But now I'll literally jump up screaming about it and wake my partner up too 😂

I have narcolepsy and this is all very familiar to me

Think you need a sleep clinic. Sounds horrible. Like a dream but you think you’re awake

I do this, normally ants or beetles. I’m pretty sure I’m asleep when it starts, I jump out of bed screaming, still asleep. Then wake myself up with the shouting and am disoriented but still convinced there’s ants in the bed. Sometimes I don’t wake up and dh tells me all about it the next day!

@SwanShaped

Think you need a sleep clinic. Sounds horrible. Like a dream but you think you’re awake

See straight after I've got up and checked the bed and my partners assured me there actually is no spider I'll just go back to sleep. It's only just now I've sat here remembering I did it last night and curious to why it always seems to be spiders, strange 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

I get this - usually when I’m exhausted or have a lot on my mind. I’ve had it for years and refer to it as night terrors (I’m sure it will be argued that it isn’t though). Mine usually manifests during REM and once I’ve had one it’s over for the night.
It is horrible but I’ve found it less frequent as I get older.

I’ve seen huge (like dog sized) spiders crawling over my bed, across the ceiling etc. I’m so used to it now I don’t start panicking about it, but it did take a while. I can’t remember the word for it, something like hypnagogic (probably spelt wrong sorry!) which I think describes what it is.

I’ve opened my eyes and seen a scary face right in front of my face and once thought someone was hanging in the corner of my room. (They was scary!)

It doesn’t happen so much now but I do a lot of sitting up, looking round my bedroom confused to where I am, the other night I thought I had to look for clues so was up and about scanning the floor. No idea why certain people sleep walk/see things more than others - I’d love to go to a sleep clinic!

I had the spider thing once. I was sure that it was on the ceiling, right over my head. It was a horrible big bastard.

A really weird one happened years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night, convinced that there was a baby in a cradle next to my bed. I had to get out of bed and switch the light on to check that there wasn't anything there.

A lot of people have the spider hallucinations, like lots of people have the same dream about secret rooms in a house.
It’s interesting, I would like to learn more about it.

Hypnogogic hallucinations.

I do this, and have done all my life. When I was little I would often 'see' somebody standing next to my bed - my mother would say it was a grandparent who had passed on watching over me, which didn't help much! Over the years it's changed a bit, sometimes it's big moths, sometimes a horrible scary old woman; once I saw a pony coming out of the wardrobe 😂. It's worse if I'm sleeping on my back, if i'm overtired or have eaten just before bed. I mentioned it to my GP years ago and she gave me some info on night terrors, which I now know it is. If I make sure I don't do any of the 'triggers' it hardly ever happens.

I see spiders too. On my pillow, or on the wall beside my bed. I'm pretty chill about it now because it's been happening for so long, I know there's nothing actually there. Having said that, a few weeks ago I was so chill, that an actual spider did run on my face. I screamed, grabbed it and threw it at my husband 🤣

Interesting! I had no idea spiders were so common to hallucinate!

I’ve had this since I was a teen. Used to just be either obscenely large spiders or millions of them. Since my early thirties I’ve also seen large shadowy men that are coming at me from the sides. I used to scream and quite often find myself waking up while physically running away (I’d find myself slamming the bathroom door behind me or at the bottom of the stairs), although that’s rare now. It’s always at that point where I must have only recently dropped off.

My subconscious self has a deal with the shadow men, if I ‘see’ them before they get to me then they can’t kill me and have to leave. Usually I wake up as I’m yelling ‘no’ or ‘fuck you’. My heart will be racing but I’m relatively calm with it now. Occasionally I’ll wake up screaming or sobbing because I was too late and see them just as the reach out to me. It’s a truly horrible experience because then my last dream-thought is my poor children, I’ll never see them again. That is very rare but if it does happen it takes me ages to calm down again.

Oddly my kids have never once woken up regardless of how loud I’ve been. The spiders don’t upset me at all any more.

I get this, just as I'm about to fall asleep (but I'm still awake) sometimes spiders, but a lot of the time it's auditory. Loud knocking, a baby crying, a man screaming in my ear. That one made me jump the most. Music. As if someone's turned the radio on full blast in my head. It's really bizarre

I actually went to a sleep clinic a week ago for possible sleep apnea, but I mentioned this too, so whatever it is, hopefully I find some answers! I also read up about hypnagogic hallucinations and it fits exactly what I experience

My partner gets this when he's really tired or stressed. He will leap out of bed convinced there's a snake in the bed or on the floor and he'll turn all the lights on. I've found it helpful to kind of step into his reality and help him check for the snake and help him realise it's not in the room. He's usually quite shaken up by them. He had them a lot when he was early 20's and there's only been a handful of episodes in recent years.

I myself used to have hallucinations at night where there would be people in my bedroom and I'd be sat talking to them and I'd struggle to workout what was real and what wasn't. They were awful those dreams and I'd get so worried my mum would get annoyed there were people over so late!

Yep, I get this. Mine is a hallucination of thousands of spiders all over me. I will literally throw myself out of the bed. It takes me ages to calm down after too. One time I shot out of bed so suddenly that my blood pressure just have plummeted, and I fainted. I hit the floor face first and it took ages for my husband to wake me up.
It has probably happened 6 times to me in total.

They are called hypogognic hallucinations, I have them as part of having parasonnia. Weirdly mine are also spiders. Seems to be a very common one.

Mine started in pregnancy too, spiders... OH chest hair was thousands of spiders and they joined together in a ball and floated up to the ceiling.
Had one "person" dream where DD was standing in my doorway saying Mummy and I beckoned her to come in. She was actually sound asleep in her bed. I can completely understand why some people think they see ghosts, the brain is a fascinating organ.