Does this happen to anyone else in the night?

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I don't have much trouble with sleeping, but a lot of nights I've been doing weird things, like quickly waking up and feeling around for something that's not there, or thinking I seen a spider on my bed so I jump out and turn the light on to see where it has gone, even though I didn't see anything there at all (how could I anyway, if it's dark?) A few nights ago I remember half waking up and imagining a vicious animal coming into my room so I jumped out of bed and made a sort of panicking shout, then grabbed the covers and went to open my bedroom door. Then I woke up properly then, and felt all confused, then realised there was no animal in my room, so, feeling stupid, I got back into bed and fell straight asleep again.

Luckily I remember doing these things, so I don't do them unconsciously in my sleep, but it's still something I can't control. It's worrying, because nobody seems to know what it is, and I can't find anything about it on google because I don't quite know how to word it as short as I can in the search bar. But it must be something, because I can't be the only person in the world who does strange things like this in my sleep. I'm worried because I have a nice man who fancies me, and if I slept in his bed and started doing things like this randomly in the night, it's going to freak him out. I never used to do things like this as a child - it's been happening for about a year now, and I do it on random nights, about once or twice in a night. I'm not sure if it's just from vivid dreams due to my anxiety disorder, or what it is. I'm not the type to associate everything I do with Autism, so I am wondering what else this might be. Does anyone else do this sort of thing in the night? Do you know what could cause this?

Last edited by Joe90 on 05 Sep 2011, 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sometimes when I am just barely asleep (I am semi-conscious, but not exactly awake), I have dreams like this--ones that involve my room and are not delusions of reality (ie. they ARE dreams), but they seem SO realistic until I startle myself awake since they involve my room. Have you been having trouble sleeping lately? I go through spurts of these types of dreams every so often. I will get them frequently, and then they go away for awhile. I hate them.

Unfortunately, cannot answer your question about where they might come from. I would be curious to know as well because I don't think I have anything out of the ordinary (aside from autism...which I don't think causes weird dreams...)

I don't know, but when I read that I wondered if this is hypnagogic or hypnopompic states. I can't say if that's what you are experiencing, since I have no idea, but you can search it.

I found out about it because there are times where I wake up but not fully awake and things have happened. There was a painting poster/print near my bed and I wouldn't recognize it and I would keep looking at because it was so weird.

There's been a few times when woke up in the middle of the night and didn't know where I was until I actually was truly awake.

There was another time I saw a machine that came out of a poster, I kept looking at it, and then when it saw me it folded up into the wall.

It hasn't happened in a while.

I know for sure I am not psychotic (I've been told).

Last edited by Jediscraps on 05 Sep 2011, 3:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

There's also been times while falling asleep that I hear symphonies in my head.

I have the spider dream (is it a dream?) with great regularity. Just like you I spring up to switch on the light.

First I thought you have dreams that a child would have. My second thought was that your conscience might bother you subconsciously. Some kind of anxiety that stems from conflicts or unresolved problems. Maybe some compensation in the form of good deeds and making efforts to resolve them could help you.

My dreams are not always of the same appearance. I can have lucid, realistic dreams, dull dreams made of unrelated impressions, and anything in between.

This summer I had a dream, I sprang up from the bed (it was at a hostel), uttered a low shout and muttered something. I must have freaked out my roommate...

Creepy...

What you're describing sounds like hypnagogic hallucinations. They happen sometimes when your brain is not asleep but not fully awake.

I remember one night that I was in bed, and it felt like I was asleep and then I half woke up. I was laying on my back, and I was absolutely positive that there was someone standing in the corner of my bedroom, by the dresser to the right of my bed. For a few seconds I couldn't move, but when I could I grabbed my pillows, threw them at the corner, screamed and rolled off the left side of my bed. I didn't have full muscle control at that point, but when I got control I ran to the bedroom door and turned on the light switch. There was nothing in the corner except for my pillows.

Your experiences aren't unusual at all.

I've heard things before, when I wasn't quite awake. One morning, I distinctly heard a tapping sound that alarmed me so much that I sat up abruptly. Right then it stopped. Also, last night I was awoken by what sounded like a light bulb exploding.

I dont think its anything to worry about I always thought this was just a type of sleep walking. People often say that men most commonly walk whilst asleep over to a cupboard and pee in it imagining it is a toilet.
I have sleep walked ever since I was young though it happens less frequently now. I have realised it only happens now when Im really tired and or stressed then I have had some similar thoughts to you like a spider or fly on my bed or wall next to my bed which Im trying to avoid or catch or hit and then I must slowly wake up because I realise its night and theres nothing on the wall adn I lay back down and go to sleep.
Its never really worried me every since I had the really funny one where I though I'd been asked to looking after a hamster and it escaped and ran around on my bed then onto the wall then it turned into a sock and burrowed under the wall paper and I tried for ages to get it out. Eventually I realised that it would probably be ok and I would sort it out in the morning and I just lay down and fell back to sleep.
I dont think it is anything to worry about but maybe less stress and more sleep will help you.
The following thread might also help though I havent read through it all
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Sleep-Diso ... 466?page=1

I have these too. I've dreamt my entire bedroom was filled to capacity with flying sandflies and I have reluctantly put the light on to discover nothing at all. I have lain in bed pertrified with the thought there was a snake by my feet and I have jumped up put on the light and even searched the room because I had to convince myself it was a dream.

I also remember once getting out of bed to put a light on [which I did] but still dreaming that the window and door to my bedroom had been bricked up. That took me a few minutes to realise the window and door that I was looking at were not bricked up at all.
I blame my medication - may cause hallucinations.

Old Hag syndrome?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Also it just seems like false awakenings to me. You dream you are in your bed and see / hear weird things.

That does sound like anxiety. I've experienced something somewhat similar before I received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. I started having weird symptoms of it, and my husband travels...so on the nights he was away, I'd suddenly wake up and feel around for my phone (which I kept nearbye during that time). My little girl was a baby then, so I was always afraid something would happen to me and no one would know about it...and then my baby would die of dehydration before my husband made it back home.

I don't suppose it's a phone you're reaching for when you wake up?

As far as imagining a vicious animal climbing into bed, I've never had that....but it still sounds like an anxiety attack almost.

No, it's not. I have hypnagogic dreams quite a lot and thinking you're seeing things in your room doesn't feel the same. For one, they feel like real life (the hypnagogic dreams). Sometimes before I wake I am fighting to stay alive. There is actually a tactile sensation to it.

With me it's got nothing to do with just waking up as I usually experience it just after I get in bed. I sleep with my lamp on now.

It could be stress or anxiety related.
I have temporal lobe epilepsy so these visions might be related to it and I also have the auditory hallucinations which increases my paranoia, even if I can't understand a damn thing I'm hearing.
I can even get these visions at random times in the day.

I think it is tied to fears. The visions I see do take the form of something I find fearful.

I used to see spiders everywhere. I had to do something called the emotional freedom technique to get over it. Now I just see giant flat bugs on the ceiling (epilepsy). They ain't so scary.

I have a lot of dreams like that. I've had dreams of being in my bed but in completely different surroundings. There was one time where I was in a 19th Century bedroom, and another time that I had western stuff on my bedroom walls.

Night Terrors

I used to have these vivid dreams of my stuffed dog barking so loud they woke me up. ^^