It’s called hypnopompic hallucination.
Unlike with sleep paralysis, you can move and talk while still seeing it and it will last a few seconds up to a minute which can seem like an eternity.
It usually fades as soon as you turn on the light, but for some very few people it does not and persists even after turning on the light.
Here’s an example of someone who often experiences these and has started recording themselves: https://youtu.be/bEMGZNvETMQ
Why YSK: because it’s very scary and unsettling when it happens and since you can move you don’t believe it’s sleep paralysis and can’t explain it. This might explain many of the “monster or spirit at the foot of my bed” sightings that we often hear mentioned in horror podcasts.
I’ve had this happen.
I was dreaming there were all of these people in my living room. It was some kind apocalyptic scene that brought them there.
I was standing in my living room, suddenly found myself in my bed in a sleep paralysis like state. I was confused, colors were swirling on the ceiling.
I heard the voices in the living room and I made my way in there. I had that physical feeling that comes with sleep paralysis.
The people were all around the room staring. I screamed “Leaaaave!!!” A woman who looked a lot like my mom said to me, “There’s nothing left out there. There’s nowhere to go.”
It was like I was instantly punched back to reality with this extreme feeling of fear and anxiety.
It took me about 20 minutes to get ahold of myself and awhile longer to even come close to believing I wasn’t completely insane.
I used to deal with sleep paralysis pretty often when under a lot of stress and I could tell it came from a similar place. It was a wild and terrifying experience.
At one time I had sleep paralysis so often that I learned to ride the wave kind of like a psychedelic drug. Not perfectly, but I had some success.
I lived in my parents’ basement for a little over a year after college. During that time I had weekly (give or take) dreams that people were coming downstairs to watch me sleep. Often accompanied by sleep paralysis where I wanted them to leave so bad but couldn’t do anything. Terrifying stuff. That was 7 years ago and it hasn’t happened since I moved out.
Makes you wonder about mold or carbon monoxide from basement appliances.
It’s funny you mention mold. Though I was dealing with complete chaos when I experienced regular sleep paralysis, it’s worth mentioning that the place had a lot of black mold.
Oh no not this again
Oh dude, yeah. The documented symptoms of mold exposure are mainly respiratory, but if you were already under a bunch of stress and your body is getting further stressed by toxic air… Could explain it.
When I was going through my divorce I was in almost constant sleep paralysis at night.
I got my daughter a hamster that turned out to be pregnant. It gave birth and they ate each other.
The first major sleep paralysis I had during that time, I was laying on my bed watching Star Trek (comfort food, TOS). Suddenly the cage appeared on my stomach. The hamsters started crawling out and eating the tips of my fingers off. All I could do was tap my left pinky and try to scream and pray she’d hear me and shock me awake.
The next time my ex (sleeping beside me) was sitting at the foot of our bed, her hair a mess, sticking up all over the place, scars all over her face, he eyes glowing. She was rocking back and forth rapidly, hissing at me. There were shadows moving around on the walls. I could see her there asleep beside me, again, I could only move my pinky and try to scream. I was literally smothered in fear each time it happened.
I come from a very religious family and I’d heard stories about demons shaking the bed and things like that. I’m an atheist. I always look for a logical and reasonable perspective.
When I got control of it a little bit, I was in bed listening to Sigur Ros, (). I had just caught her cheating again and she was trying to convince me I was crazy. I was laying there begging the universe to make her see reason, to save my family.
Suddenly the music became very metallic, it was clear that sleep paralysis was beginning, I began sinking through the mattress.
I said to myself, “You know what this is. Don’t fight it, just ride it out. You’ll wake up completely when you wake up.”
It was a lot like an acid trip, only with an element of horror. I just kept telling myself, “It’s all in your head. It will pass.”
If it were to happen tonight it would take me by surprise and horrify me. It’s crazy that I went through a time where it was frequent enough that I could do that.
I wouldn’t wish divorce on my worst enemy.
I only ever had sleep paralysis consistently (almost every time I slept) on an old couch in my mom’s living room. That’s also the same spot I saw the most bizarre shit on DMT (hypercube-type crystals I could run my hands through but they stayed in the same spot while I walked around and observed them).
This is a brilliant little waking nightmare.
Our brains love to play tricks on us lol
You ever wake up with no clue where you are? I wonder how our brain gets so confused just by sleeping
or so confused you forgot how to read a clock and just stared at it trying to figure out what the symbols on it meant.
That’s something I hate about travel, especially to places I go frequently, like my parents. The whole time I’m there and a few days afterwards when I wake up there’s this intense confusion where my brain reminds itself where I am why I’m there how long I’ll be there. It could just be dreamy and fun, but for me almost makes me nauseous.
Oh man, this has been me sooo many times. There have been some memorable/ embarrassing quotes from me
Yes! I’m talking and making perfect sense, then it slowly dawns on me that what I’m talking about was actually what I was just dreaming and not reality. Even though I know what happened, it leaves me confused as all hell.
What’s a fun one???
A few ones off the top of my head.
-told my girlfriend, now wife, that it was 40 gold to join me… as she was trying to wake me up -told my family, “I’m a desert kitty, hear me meow meow”
I’ve had this for as long as I can remember. Normally it’s with something like. It’s or snakes, but occasionally I’ll see a figure in the doorway, or think there something standing or floating by my bed.
It’s rather annoying, especially for my wife since I usually have to turn on the light fire my brain decides it’s ok.
Huh I wonder if this is what happened to me a few weeks ago. I “woke up” I was sitting in my bed and there was this large squirming mass in my closet. It’s hard to describe but think millions of worms. It was moving towards me. I moved to the other side of my bed and could see things moving on the floor. These worms were also coming through the (concrete) walls. I then shot awake screaming while waking up. Turned on the lights and saw nothing. It is the strangest and scariest thing I’ve ever had happen while sleeping
Holy shit! This has happened to me before! I woke up from a nightmare and the creature was I my room with me.
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Oh awesome, I already deal with sleep paralysis on a semi-regular basis, now you’re telling me there’s yet another thing to worry about? 😭
i thought i was the only one
I thought I woke up once to a sound of a dinner party going on in another part of my house, with glasses clinking, people talking and some sort of music in the background. There’s no one at home except my SO and my cats lol.
Your cats have some explaining to do.
It’s interesting to think that people who have seen “demons” or been visited by ghosts may have experienced something like this. In times before modern science, there was probably no other explanation.
This is almost definitely the case with ghost and alien abduction stories.
Well, that and carbon monoxide poisoning.
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Like some others in the thread, I get this occasionally. For me, without fail, it’s seeing hundreds of spiders crawling over the walls, ceiling, and/or bed - I’ve sometimes violently tried to throw the covers off myself to get them away!
Really unsettling, and it happens so infrequently that I’m never prepared for it at all.
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I can’t remember ever experiencing something like this…? Is it possible to forget about it, like a dream? Barely ever remember dreams. Or maybe some people don’t experience these hallcinations?
I had a friend who told me he had a whole conversation with his girlfriend about the bikers in the bedroom while he was going to the bathroom right after waking up.
Do you guys ever have that thing where you are almost asleep then feel like you’re falling? That scares me everytime.
Yes! Bloody scary. I wake up with my heart hammering.
These are called hypnic jerks.
I also watched House MD.
The technical term I learned in psych is ‘hypnagogic sensations’
They were just asking a question there’s no need to call them that.
Almost never now, but when I was younger, constantly. I wonder if that’s something that goes away with age?
I remember when I woke up early in the morning for school, and played with a portable console while waiting for my mother to cook breakfast. A few minutes later, I realised I never had a console in the first place, and it vanished into thin air.
Holy shit How did it feel to be so content and one second later realize you didn’t ever own what you accepted as reality?
More confused than disappointed tbh. I’ve always wondered how I could make that happen again. Don’t worry, some years after that I learned how to emulate games to my phone.
