Humans, unlike, say, our furry friends, struggle to see in the dark. We also have pretty active and imaginative brains. This combination ensures that when we hear something we can’t see, particularly during a vulnerable moment (like when you’re in your pajamas), our brains immediately jump to wild and terrifying conclusions.
We’ve gathered stories from people who were dramatically awoken by something scary in the night. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the spookiest ones and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments down below.
#1
When I was 18 I was in a house fire. Since then I've been terrified of fire. This story takes place roughly a year later when I was 19 and had just moved into my own apartment. As an incomplete quadriplegic, this was a huge deal. It was around 2 am and I'm asleep. I suddenly wake up to my dog howling and the fire alarm blaring.
I am terrified. I'm also only wearing underwear. I throw on a shirt, get into my chair as quickly as possible, and head to the exit. I'm in the 8th floor with no way down. I'd taken so long getting in to my chair there's no one around. I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I feel a tap and see my two male neighbors standing over me. They ask if they can help and I stammer yes. Without hesitation one picks me up out of my chair and the other grabs my dogs collar (I forgot her least in my panic). They carried me down 8 flights of steps and held me outside in the ~50-60 degree cold until they somehow found a chair for me. They also got a blanket from somewhere to cover me up with. They consoled me calmed my dog. After we were allowed back in one went upstairs and brought my chair back down. They walked me to my door and told me to come to them if I ever needed anything. They moved shortly after but that experience is one that will always stick with me.
Image credits: xsquee
#2
I lived w/ my oldest sister & her two daughters. Her youngest (3 years old) was a sleepwalker. She was tiny, white-blonde & liked to wear a white nightgown that was too big for her.
Yeah, wake up to the sound of thumb-sucking right next to my head, roll over & see the world's shortest ghost.
Image credits: anon
#3
A kid banging on our door at 3 AM who had just escaped from their drunk parent beating them. That scream...
#4
We have a window AC unit basically right above our bed. One night, ice must have gotten built up inside, and it fell onto the fan that blows the air out. I remember hearing a loud bang and then being sprayed in the face by liquid. My first thought was that someone broke in and shot my wife and I got covered in blood. [Freaking] terrifying.
Edit: The liquid was cold, and that should have been an instant giveaway that it wasn’t blood, but I was in such a panic and confused from just being woken up that the temperature didn’t register right away.
Image credits: RyFromTheChi
#5
“OPEN UP! POLICE! WE HAVE A SEARCH WARRANT!”
It was about 6am, accompanied by banging that was loud as [hell]. Turns out it was for the apartment beneath my bedroom window but I sat straight up and my first thought was, “Oh no, they got me!” despite being one of the least shady people alive.
Image credits: elguapo51
#6
Housemate coming home drunk after midnight from a Halloween party dressed as Jason from Friday 13th, walked into my room by mistake in his full Voorhees costume and just stood in the middle of the room looking around trying to work out where he was.
Woke me up as my door opened and I was frozen terrified for a good 30 seconds. Bought a lock for my door the following week.
Image credits: newo_ikkin_
#7
Woke up to the feeling of something on my face, tried to brush it off and in my half asleep state thought it was attacking me. Cue absolute freak out because something is crawling all over me and i cant get it off, just for me to find out it was my own hand that had gone numb while i was asleep.
Image credits: anon
#8
Eight year old son at the foot of my bed, vomiting blood.
He was ok. It was a rare complication following having his tonsils out (and he actually managed to do it twice, which never happens). I'm a firefighter and have seen some [stuff]... but goodness gracious I don't think my eyes have ever gone so wide. It took a couple of serious deep breaths to collect myself to give him a hug, dial an ambulance and start treatment.
Image credits: TONEandBARS
#9
My family owns a house on the mountains of Jordan with the neighbors being only family. Anyways the first time I ever visited (2-3 years ago) I left the door open for the breeze that there is. Anyways, I woke up to a wolf next to me. The wolf fell asleep within a couple feet of me. It turns out my uncle had domesticated the wolf and no one bothered to tell me that it sleeps next to my house.
#10
The unmistakable sound of a pet getting ready to vomit on the floor. Terrifying.
#11
I woke up to a cockroach that had crawled into my ear. Excruciating pain, tried to flush it out with water, no luck. I had to lie there for 6 hours before mum took me to hospital while it moved around, scratched my ear drum and fluttered it's wings (that sound is terrifying when it comes from IN your ear.
My ear was bruised from how hard I was pushing in an attempt to stop it moving. They first tried to blast it out with a high pressured little hose, which hurt like [hell] and didn't work. So then they poured oil into my ear to drown it, then sucked [it] out with a little vacuum.
Image credits: undergroundpanda
#12
Husband running into the bedroom, choking.
Something about the way his footsteps were pounding in woke me up instantly. He swallowed one of those "easy swallow" tylenols, ironically enough and it caught in his throat. I asked if he was OK and he violently shook his head no.
So I went from asleep to Heimlich in about 2 seconds - a really terrible way to be woken up, especially since he said the last time it happened (he has a constricted esophagus from stomach acid scarring so he's prone to choking while eating), his ex-wife had been unable to do it and he had passed out. You expect some big heroic adrenaline wave to come sweeping over you and empower you to magically save your spouse, but I was just terrified and swearing. I also thought I did it incorrectly, because it wasn't a neat little ptooey like in the movies - He bent over, violently throwing up. (Do I still do it? DO I STOP? WHAT DO I DO) but he was coughing and could speak - told me to call 911. The 911 op reassured me that if he was coughing, he was getting air, and to encourage him to keep coughing. Then she let me off the line which in my state of hysteria, I took to mean that NO ONE WAS COMING. The paramedics and firemen showed up and filled my kitchen while I stupidly stood there in half a nightie with a blankie wrapped around me, and they took him off in an ambulance. The capsule apparently melted on the way to the ER, but I'll never forget the horrible sound it made, rattling with WRONGNESS in his throat as he would grab and pinch at his neck.
#13
During a break at college I stayed at my house with one of my roommates (she lived upstairs, I downstairs). I woke up in the middle of the night to what I thought at first was a dream of a man peering through my window. Then he began to slide open the window, which snapped me out of my dream state. I didn't know what to do, but when he started crawling through I jumped up, pushed him out and screamed/ran upstairs. It was so scary knowing all the houses next to me were empty and he could have done anything he wanted if I didn't wake up.
#14
My cat giving birth on the corner of my bed.
Image credits: anon
#15
Someone slamming on the door of the apartment across the hall screaming “your apartment is on fire.”
It sounded like it was on mine. Woke up and immediately started choking on smoke. The fire alarm then went off.
Everything ended up being okay (someone flicked a cigarette b**t off their balcony, it landed on the one a few floors beneath it and set their patio furniture on fire, hence why someone saw it before the alarm went off). It was just so disorienting and terrifying to wake up to the pounding on the door, the screaming, and the smoke.
Image credits: judgemental-snail
#16
I once woke up to see a helicopter crashing through my ceiling. I dove from my bed face first into my bedroom door to get away. It was the ceiling fan.
#17
I used to live a few minutes away from Buncefield oil storage facility, it was the fifth largest oil depot in the UK. On the morning of 11th December 2005 it exploded! The explosion threw me out of my bed, and the doors of our house burst open. I looked outside my bedroom window and the sky was engulfed by a giant fire ball! 11 year old me genuinely thought it was the end of the world...
Image credits: anon
#18
A bear outside my tent.
Image credits: gigaflar3
#19
Falling down the stairs. I was 12 and I was sleepwalking. I woke up as I was falling from the first step and proceeded to tumble down 18 stairs. All I got was a bruise.
Image credits: HandsomeSquidward59
#20
A field rat in my hair.
Field rats are about the same size as a pet rat, so nothing like those giant scary city rats, but i still don't want one IN MY F*****G HAIR.
One summer at my father's acreage a few field rats had found their way into the house, and this particular night I was sleeping in the basement where they were sometimes a bit more active. I had really long hair (to my lower back) and in my sleep the ends had fallen down over the edge of the bed and almost reached the floor. I awoke to a field rat climbing my hair like Rapunzel and it was absolutely terrifying.
I was not a fan of rats, or that basement, or sleeping after that experience.
#21
Exploding head syndrome...
"alternately termed episodic cranial sensory shock, is a benign condition in which a person experiences unreal noises that are loud and short, like a **[explosion]** or a **gunshot**, when falling asleep or waking up. These noises are often jarring and frightening for the person. **Neither the cause nor the mechanism is known.** Though harmless in and of themselves, episodes have been known to create distress or impairment in the lives of individuals."
It happens to me once or twice a year. It keeps things interesting.
Image credits: OPs_other_username
#22
The clear and obvious sounds of an animal in the bedroom. We had no pets. I'm in the UK so my sleepy brain at first thought it was a rat, or several rats fighting for their lives. After some minor panicking it turned out to be a pigeon trapped behind the boarded up fireplace. Slept on the sofa that night.
#23
After the tornado in Joplin, Missouri in 2011, we were left without power for several days. Our home was only slightly damaged, so we were able to stay there. My daughter had just turned 11 at the time and was sleeping on a pallet next to our bed because she didn't want to sleep in her room by herself with no electricity. She had been in a bathroom of her aunts house during the tornado and that bathroom was literally(and I mean literally how it's meant to be used) the only place in the house left "standing". Anyway, this was two night later. The three of us and our three dogs were all asleep in the room and I woke up to my daughter screaming that the house was on fire. Sure enough flames were coming from the master bathroom. Small flames, but flames. I got up and ran to the garage to get our fire extinguisher, but it was pitch black with no power. I had to go back in, get my phone and go back out to find it. By this time my wife and daughter had gathered up our two french bulldogs and gone outside but we couldn't find the pit bull puppy my daughter had gotten from us for her birthday. We couldn't find the cat either. So I went back into the bathroom but the flames were too much already for our fire extinguisher so I decided it wasn't worth it to die of smoke inhalation so I bailed. We called 911 about six times but emergency personnel was so spread thin with the tornado that it took about 20 minutes for anyone to get there. We sat in the road and watched our house burn. Total loss. My daughter was in the heart of the Joplin tornado and two days later watched her house burn.
TL;DR Woke up at 2AM to flames from our master bathroom. Watched house burn.
Edit: Thanks for the kind words everyone. Unfortunately the puppy and the cat both were lost in the fire due to smoke inhalation. The cat was found whole, but the dog surely passed before she felt any pain. And my family has had better luck since then. We had good insurance, so we were able to get back on our feet pretty quickly.
Edit 2: We had a candle burning in the bathroom for light. We think the cat pushed open the door and there were towels hanging on the backside. Insurance deemed it a negligent fire, which it was. But they still paid in full. They dropped us like a bad habit right afterward though.
#24
Woke up in the middle of the night to what I thought was my blanket all crammed up between me and the wall. It was uncomfortable so I went to move it but instead of a blanket I touched human skin.
Of course I immediately freak out and am now wide awake wondering what to do as I lay in the dark with this...thing laying next to me.
So I gather up my courage, reach over and grab it and yank it up so I can see what it is. It was storming and lightning flashed very dramatically at the same moment while I realize I'm holding my own arm.
I guess I'd been sleeping on my arm and it went so numb that I couldn't even tell I was touching it. Haven't laughed that hard in a while.
#25
My almost 4 year old standing at my bedside staring right at me. Once my eyes were open she said “I brought the monsters in here” then went back to bed. Thanks kid, I had you so they’d go in your room.
#26
I woke up to my mom panicking and locking my door and asking me to call the cops. it was around 3am and someone was trying to choke her and possibly do worse. she said that she heard someone open her bedroom door and lay on the corner of the bed. she called my name out multiple names thinking it was me, but then someone tried choking her and cutting her with something.
she managed to kick them off and ran downstairs into my room to protect me. once the police came, they did a search outside our home and found nothing. they asked if anyone else lived with us, and we said the only other person that lived with us was a man who rented the downstairs basement, but he was never a problematic person. this man went to church every sunday and kept to himself-honestly he was barely there half the time because he was always working. they decided to speak with him anyways and they found him in his room bleeding heavily because he had accidentally cut himself when my mom kicked him off.
yeah, that was scary. after that event, i had horrible sleep paralysis for several nights. i kept dreaming that a black shadow would crawl into bed right next to me and strangle me.
Image credits: rotten-flesh
#27
My heart racing so fast, I couldn't breathe. I was in the middle of a supraventricular tachycardia episode. My BPM was 210.
Had to go to the ER. I was absolutely terrified I was going to have a heart attack that night. Scary stuff.
Image credits: StevesMcQueenIsHere
#28
Sleep paralysis! I could not move and there were gigantic spiders trying to eat me.
Image credits: casstellar
#29
Part of my ceiling collapsed on me.
We knew there were leaks from the roof and were in the process of fixing those ourselves without really looking into any of the structural damage. After that, we hired professionals.
Image credits: anon
#30
My ceilingfan pulling off my ceiling and hanging a few inches from my face.
Image credits: 24jamespersecond
#31
Daughter had this Minnie Mouse baby doll that crawled on all fours when you touched a button on its back. Wife and I woke up at 2 am to the sound of the dolls creepy laugh. Went out to the living room and the doll was walking straight into the corner. Each time it stopped it would just start right over again. The button wasn't broken or anything, so i'm not sure what happened. Donated it.
Image credits: DaaaaamnCJ
#32
I stepped out of my bathroom to find my entire house lit up, 2 EMT's and a sheriffs deputy in my living room.
They proceeded to try to tell me to come sit down, stay calm, relax and let them help me.
I was like "[WTH] is going on, why are you in my house?"
Apparently I had suffered a grand mal seizure in my sleep, never having this happen before, My wife called 911.
I must have come out of the seizure, got up walked into the bathroom and had no idea it even happened. While I was in the bathroom, they arrived, came in and my wife had turned all the lights on and I was oblivious to everything.
Weirdest feeling ever...would not do again.
#33
I awoke once to a strange, high pitched trilling sound and bright lights beaming through my window. For a second I seriously thought I was about to be abducted by aliens. Then I realized it was a toad doing its mating call in the front yard and car parked on the street with the headlights on.
Image credits: StrangeFarulf
#34
I once farted myself awake, which was pretty startling.
#35
I had music box on a shelf, around midnight it started playing all own after not being touched for more than 5 years. It's why i believe i hold the record for fastest land animal.
#36
A loud BANG downstairs and then my dog zooming to the front door and snarling. By the time I had grabbed my gun and got downstairs whoever it was was already peeling out of the driveway. I guess they assumed the house we had just moved into was still unoccupied and got the scare of their lives. Looks like they were trying to kick the door down to gain access.
My good boy got some steak the next day as a reward.
#37
My daughter had a Ring Around the Rosie doll when she was little. You put the doll's hands together and it would sing the song. Anyway, she left it out outside one night apparently and the dew in the grass shorted it out. I woke up in the middle of the night to this faint Ring Around the Rosie song playing over and over.
It was creepy and we didn't have an outdoor light in the back yard so I had to go by myself with a flashlight and search the yard for this creepy doll.
#38
My dinkus neighbor was drunk and thought my apartment was his. He broke the lock on my door. He then opened up the door to my bedroom and scared the [hell] out of me at 1am. I screamed and he apologized profusely and asked if I wanted to drink Modelo with him and his wife at their house. There had been a baptism so everyone was partying it up across the way. I went because they're nice, and they had tamales.
Edit: Holy cow this got really popular. I'm female, so I was terrified for a ton of different reasons. My neighbors are from Guatemala, so these were the kind with banana leaves. The broken lock was worth the tamales yes. We're still on good terms. My neighbors are harmless unless you're a lock, or a tamale.
#39
The loud sound of breaking glass from downstairs. Husband armed himself and crept downstairs.
No intruder. One of the cats knocked over a centerpiece that exploded all over the floor.
#40
Someone standing in the bedroom doorway.
He flipped on the light then flipped it off.
I woke my husband up and this guy walked out of the apartment. My husband ran out after him in his underwear, I went to the kitchen and got a knife and ran after my husband.
Turns out, the woman who lived there before us had broken up with her boyfriend and moved without telling him or getting back his key. I guess he came back to see her...at 3 in the morning.
#41
The panicked shrieks of my mother. My father was having a heart attack.
EDIT: He's fine now guys, thanks for you concerns. :)
This was about 9 years ago. I never want to hear my mother scream like that again though.
#42
Somebody trying to break in.
I was living alone at the time in a little studio flat in the city centre. It was about 3am and I was woken up by some crashing sounds in the hallway, and then somebody started kicking hard at my bedroom door. Fortunately my door at the time was a pretty hefty fire door with a good strong lock, so I had enough time to call the police before he did any damage to it. I was living pretty close to the police station so they turned up fast, with dogs, and caught him still inside the building.
As it turned out the guy was absolutely wasted and looking for somewhere to sleep, and from the outside my place still looked like the empty nightclub it used to be before it was converted into flats. So my guess is he thought it would be empty, rather than actually attempting to rob/attack anyone living there. I was still very shaken up by it at the time.
#43
I was raised in the country on a cattle farm. No matter what we did we always would have to deal with something getting in the house or getting loose.
One night, when I was about 17, I went to a party with friends and came back home a little intoxicated. So I marched straight to my bedroom and passed out. I completely forgot, or didn't care that the light in my room was still on and fell asleep. At approximately 3 in the morning I get woken up to something hitting the wall above my headboard and my eyes shoot open, but I don't see anything. Then out of nowhere a small white alien with big black eyes staring directly at me jumps from the end of my bed directly onto my chest. At this point I am freaking out and even though I am a manly man, I let out the most girlish scream imaginable and punched the thing right in the face. It screams and runs off out of my room on both legs and proceeds down the hall. I get out of bed still terrified, but it's headed for my little sisters room. I grab a baseball bat and go after it. As soon as I exit my room the alien is flying through the air directly at my face. I never hit the ground so hard in my life. It flew directly above me and hit another wall. That's when I realized it was a gigantic barn owl that somehow found its way into my house. The feeling of relief when I put that together was amazing. I ended up getting a fishing net and catching him and released him outside.
#44
Woke up to the sound of kids laughing outside my bedroom window (it was 3am). I opened the window (living on the first story of an apartment) and came face to face with a coyote.
#45
This is my favorite story to tell:
I’m absolutely terrified of a home invasion type of situation, I’ll blame it on the copious amounts of true crime podcasts I listen to. So, when I’m home alone I constantly check the locks and sleep with a knife next to my bed.
Husband goes out of town for two nights, first night all is good. Second night I check the doors, lock my bedroom door and go to sleep. Well, I wake up at around 3am to the sound of the door rattling a bit. My first instinct is that it’s one of the cats pawing at the door wanting out, but after I’ve fully woken up I realize it’s someone trying to twist the door knob. I completely freeze, heart is racing, and I slowly reach for the light switch. I then start to think that maybe I don’t want them to know I’m awake by turning the light on, so that maybe I can hide or grab my knife.
Our indoor doorknobs if you twist them hard enough will just pop open, so I finally hear it click and the door just barely opens about 5 inches. I can see the outline of a man standing there just barely lit from behind from moonlight coming in the living room sliding door. So I’m just sitting there in this frozen position with my arm halfway reaching for the light and the other half reaching for the knife for what feels like an eternity. He just stands there, staring in the door and I’m convinced [it's the end].
And then the door opens a little bit more, and the mans outline starts to become more clear. I manage to just barely whisper my husbands name, and hear back “Yeah, why is the door locked?” This [jerk], had decided that the friend he was sharing a hotel with was snoring too loud and drove home 4 hours in the middle of the night.
#46
Fairly strong earthquake and kidney stone (not on same night, thankfully).
#47
The condensed snuffling breath from a lioness pressing her nose against my tent in Tsavo a few feet from my face.
#48
This happened when I was around 12 years old.
- I awoke to lightning striking my house.
- The lightning hit my brick chimney which pretty much exploded sending bricks flying.
- The bricks then fell through our aluminum awning making a horrific loud and scary sound
- **Bonus!** My dad then bolts into my room to make sure I am okay whilst smashing his toe off of my door and falling to the ground screaming in pain.
I had no idea what the actual [hell] was going on.
#49
My daughter was a sleepwalker. There is something so indescribably creepy about waking up to a four-year-old standing at your bedside, just staring. She wouldn't make a sound; she'd let her stinky breath wake me up. Then once I recovered from the shock of her being there, she'd speak in tongues because she wasn't really awake. I'd assure her she was asleep and escort her back to her room to be tucked in, never taking my eyes off her for fear her head would swivel around fully and she'd laugh maniacally at me. Scared me every time.
#50
Two cats mating under my window. My god, it sounded like a convention of demons!
#51
I'm sure there were worse things. But one time when I was a kid, my parents placed a full-body shaped Elmo balloon in my room while I was sleeping.
Ever woken up to a floating body...?
#52
In college, I woke up to my glass closet doors violently shaking in my apartment. I 100% thought someone was IN the closet. My roommate was working a night shift on campus and wasn’t there, so I was alone. I basically sat in silent terror for an hour until I got enough courage to get up and go check. Nothing was there, and I convinced myself that I had a weird nightmare.
That morning, I got up and was reading the news and saw that there was an earthquake. I realized that is what I heard and it made much more sense. I went to college on the east coast of the US, so it was really strange to have an earthquake.
#53
I got up to go to the bathroom, and didn't turn my bedroom light on so I didn't see that anything was amiss. When I got to the toilet, I suddenly realised that my hands were *covered* in blood up to my elbows. It wasn't dripping wet but it wasn't dry either. I didn't have any cuts or seem to have any injury of any kind. When I washed my hands I checked everywhere: no injury. What the hell was happening? When I went back to my bedroom I turned the light on, and half of my pillow was covered in blood as well, almost exactly down the middle. It was then that I realised I'd gotten a nosebleed and been wiping at it in my sleep, and it must've stopped just before I woke up so I didn't have any clue left on my body as to where I'd bled from. I was living in a very dry area at the time, so nosebleeds were a common issue for me. That's the only time I've gotten one during my sleep though.
#54
About a year ago I was woken up at 4:30 am by someone walking into my apartment. I live alone. Oddly, after the first split-second "[wth]?!?" startle, I wasn't at all scared. I guess I just sensed there was no danger. Turned out to be the wasted hookup of the guy in the apartment downstairs from me. She had taken his keys to go out for a smoke, then forgotten what floor he lived on. And my cheap landlord had reused a matching set of front and back door locks on two separate apartments, so they had the same key.
She was so disoriented and way more freaked out than I was. I ended up escorting her to the right apartment, and then she asked me for a hug! I have a new lock now.
#55
I woke up to sound of scampering racoon like creature inside my room zooming about the night before christmas. It then bounce on my bed jumped off and ran out. Racoon sized.
I followed it and it was laying on the couch and barked at me adorably.
Apparently my parents got my sister a puppy and it had escaped during the night because it was lonely. They had it in a uncovered puppy kennel in the living room and he climbed out.
The interesting thing is he dint like my older sister and instead clung to me and he became my dog when she moved out and couldnt take him. Best friend to this day.
#56
My husband jumping up in bed next to me, screaming that a cockroach just crawled over his legs...then he continued shrieking while doing a strange jig on top of the bad, furiously shaking his arms back and forth.
After the initial terror, shock, and confusion however, it was hilarious.
#57
Was woken at 3am by a drunk man trying to open the external door into my room.
It's not something you expect to happen when you live out of town, surrounded by paddocks.
Oh and there was also the time I woke up to a possum on my side table. That wasn't pleasant for either party.
#58
Wasn't middle of the night, but still very early in the morning. Wife and I heard our son (then 2 years old) shuffling around outside the bedroom, nothing unusual there. Then we hear him say, _very_ clearly, "sharp knife". You've never seen two adults leap out of bed so fast, I think we must have flown to the door.
EDIT: He didn't have a knife, or anything sharp. We've taught all our kids to have a healthy respect for all things sharp, hot, or electrified. For reasons only known to himself, he just decided to say "sharp knife" at that moment.
#59
My bedroom is on the first floor and looks out onto the back garden. Our kitchen is an extension, the roof of which is right below my bedroom window. About 5 years ago when I was home alone in the middle of the night I woke up to a faint tapping on the window. Took me a brief few moments to work up the courage to open the curtains. Turns out it was my drunk brother who had climbed onto the kitchen roof to get my attention as he'd forgotten his keys. Closest I've ever come to a heart attack I believe.
#60
I was sleeping on my belly when I felt something on my back.. I didn't think anything of it because we had cats and I figured it was one of the little kittens. I then look over and realize my door was closed and that when I went to bed there were no cats in my room. Queue me touching this thing on my back.. it flops onto my head and starts screeching, I instantly get up and fling the thing off my head into the wall.. it was a big bat.. and now I'm terrified of bats.
#61
I just thought of another one though it'll probably not be seen. Whatever.
This was just last summer. I was out camping up by the boundary waters (MN/Canada border area). The next day we would drop in and spend a few days/nights canoeing and camping in the area.
I was solo in my small tent and fast asleep. I was having a bizarre dream that I don't quite remember. However in the dream someone kept saying, "Hot....Hot...Hot...Hot" over and over in a very throaty deep voice and in rhythm fairly rapidly.
I suddenly woke up and realized what it was. There was a nose of some animal, I think it was a black bear given the size, poking against my tent and breathing in the same cadence and low guttural kind of voice that was in my dream. It was indenting my tent about 8 inches from my head and sniffing about, breathing heavily.
Strange how your brain integrates external stimuli into your dreams.
#62
When I was really young (about 7-9 years old) I had a bout of sleep walking. I remember it vividly because it was like a dream, except that I would enact the dream in real time. Like REM paralysis totally failed or something. Usually it was harmless stuff.
One night I was having a dream that my mom was leaving one weekend. In the dream she said she was leaving and that I was to stay next door at my best friends for the night. I remember running outside to tell her something before she left. I ran down stairs, unlocked the door and ran outside where I could see her headlights as she backed up in the driveway. I yelled out, "Mom!!" multiple times to get her attention as she drove away.
Then I woke up. Standing outside in the dark in the middle of the night in my pajamas, completely and utterly confused. It was pretty scary. I screamed out in fear and confusion and my mom bolted down the stairs out the doors so fast to retrieve me. I'm sure she thought I was being kidnapped or something.
We then took measures to secure the doors aside from the handle lock and deadbolt since they obviously did nothing. But I always think how terrifying that had to be for my mom and what if I had walked further away before waking up. It could have been much worse.
#63
Lightning hit the tree outside my house. The bang was so loud I saw myself in the third person. I cant even explain how that happened.
#64
I'm a professional firefighter. When we are on shift at night we are allowed to sleep. It's pretty routine to get woken up for any kind of emergency that we respond to from shootings, to car wrecks, to house fires with people trapped. When we catch a run the bunk room lights come on, and there's a very gentle beeping sound that is meant to wake us gently (instead of jolting is awake and spiking our blood pressure) before the dispatcher goes on the air to tell us where we are going and why.
A few weeks ago at around 3 AM, the lights came on and there was a different sound. It was an alarm that sounded like the world was ending. We all sprang out of our bunks, wide-eyed, ready for battle. Then the dispatcher came on the air to tell us that the National Weather Service had issued a WINTER STORM WARNING, effective two DAYS in the future, in a city that's no stranger to winter weather.
We were very...confused.
#65
I suffer from sleep paralysis. One night I was having an episode where I was "stuck" on my bed and I heard a loud noise in the dream. When I woke up, I looked out into my room and saw what looked like a man sprawled over my chair and the bang I heard I figured was him landing there from crawling in my window.
Turns out the clothes arranged on my chair made the silhouette look like a guy. Took a while to fall back asleep.
#66
I had a siamese mix cat and one summer it started to ''sing" in the middle of the night. Sounded like a crying baby right in my condo. Freaked me the hell out the first time I heard it.
#67
I woke up to a bright orange window thinking it was just something strange or that I was just dreaming, went back to sleep. Woke up again some time later in realisation and ran to tell my mother. The neighbours' shed was on fire and our fence and cherry tree were catching fire as well. Still remember standing in the middle of the night looking at the fire and all the ash falling.
The neighbours got a cool looking rebuilt shed now.
#68
A coyote pacing back and forth by my window after bouncing off the glass.
#69
A fox, they have a weird scream.
#70
Some time ago my wife and I lived in a very small space, so we kept the PC in the bedroom and I'd browse whilst she slept.
One night I was youtubing clips of the joker and had a backlog of about 10 tabs I intended to watch. Halfway through I got bored and opened new tabs for big construction machines and projects, ships crashing against docks, stuff like that.
Anyway I decide to go to bed and left the PC on. Halfway through the night my PC must have restarted and restored Chrome's tabs, because at 3am we were awoken by the sounds of metal grinding, violent crashing and maniacal clowns laughing. My wife has a fear of demons and I remember her pitifully whimpering "oh my goddddd" next to me.
She still hasn't forgiven me. I think its funny as hell though.
#71
There was this one time...
So I live in Southwest Colorado and during the summer months it gets pretty warm. One night, I was sleeping with my window open (mind you its one of those up scale s**t hole rental apartments where the windows don't even have screens).
So there I am, dead a*s asleep when all of a sudden I just am JOLTED awake... By what? I had no idea.
I lay there a few seconds trying to gain my bearings when I feel this heavy thing step on to my chest and walk up towards my face. It was like having a huge cat on [me.](https://me.As) It's making this sound that kinda sounds like your cute ex girlfriend when she snores, but much faster. As I feel what I could only imagine were whiskers tickling my chin, I'm screaming in my head "DON'T F*****G MOVE!!! STAY STILL!! YOU'LL GET YOUR FACE RIPPED OFF!! W*F IS HAPPENING!! IT'S CHUPACABRA!!!"
Once the whiskers were satisfied that I didn't smell like food, it wandered toward the edge of my bed. I didn't waste any time. I threw the blankets off myself forcing basically the whole mattress, all my bedding and chupa-f*****g-cabra onto the floor. I stand on the edge of my bed and do a cat walk from bed to bedside table to computer desk until I can finally find the light switch. When I turned the switch, I wasn't prepared for what I saw on the floor...
It was the biggest raccoon i'd ever seen in my life. Just kinda staring up at me like, "Dafaq bro, that's bright".
Getting him out of the house was a whole other story entirely.
#72
My cat, who was sleeping at my feet, starting to hack up a hairball. Nothing has ever woken me up quicker than hearing my cat about to puke all over my bed in the middle of the night.
#73
My little brother was hiding in my closet to scare me when I went to bed, he was in there for a while and fell asleep on some stuffed animals. He woke up in the middle of the night and just sorta fell out of the closet. I woke up to him just getting up and going to his room.
My life is tame.
#74
I was put on celexa when i was a kid. The weirdest dream i had of that was seeing all these different kids experiencing the worst possible death. There was one kid who a statue holding a hatchet fell on him and the hatchet nailed his skull. Then another kid rolled out of bed and through a trap door and as the door closed, it poured this liquid which was lighter fluid and the casket erupted in flames and the kid is screaming. Then another kid was flying on this weird glider and fell out. As he is falling, a jet flys by and he get caught in the engine and the engine spews out the blood. I had different versions of this kind of dream to where i could not sleep for 5 days. I would go to school looking like the [zombie]. It scared the hell out of me.
#75
Woke up with it being colder in my bedroom than usual. My dog slept downstairs in his dog bed most of the time and rarely awoke from his sleep. That night I wake up, he is standing between me and the doorway, in full defensive mode as I could see him snarling a bit and ready to bark at any minute. I get up and turn the lights on, and went back to sleep with the door closed and him in the bed with me. Never have I felt more weirded out and strangely so scared in my life.
#76
Was on an airplane. It was packed with Business-People. (I was never on a plane before). It felt really realistic. We were flying for an eternity, I asked why we don't land. The guy next to me pointed to the window. What I saw outside was only Lava on the ground. everything was red and melting slowly. I was panicking and woke up sweating like hell.
#77
We had a nasty thunderstorm and I suddenly hear a loud motor. I wake up and see out on my deck a guy with a chain saw! After freaking out a little bit I found out it was a guy from the power company. My neighbors tree was in danger of falling on a power line so they had to cut it.... thanks for asking first.
#78
Weird metallic scraping noises coming from my bedroom window for nights on end. It freaked me out so much that eventually I stopped sleeping in my room.
Long story short, I discovered a few years afterwards that someone had tried to pry open my window so much that they had scraped the paint off the outside of the window frame.
#79
I heard a gigantic crash, which I presumed to mean my cat just found a way to knock my TV or my entire gaming shelf over, but when I went out to see, nothing was wrong. Not even the slightest hint something had fallen.
#80
Sleep Paralysis - absolutely terrifying the first time :/.
#81
My laptop screen lighting up. It would be normal except *I closed my laptop before heading to bed.*.
#82
The sound of someone coming in through the back door of my place at 3am.
#83
Someone calling my name. I was *100% sure* that I heard someone calling for me, in a casual manner, as if this person was asking me to pass the salt or something. I was alone in the house. It was certainely a dream, but scared me anyway.
#84
A stereotypical evil laugh. What freaked me out was that it started in my dream just before I woke up, and continued a few seconds after I was fully awake.
#85
Severe pain in my chest making it nearly impossible to breathe. I was ready to go to the emergency room in a panic, but then thumped my chest with my fist, stopping the pain, and went back to sleep.
#86
My father screaming my name in a blood-curdling, horrific cry for help. He had an aneurism and passed in my arms.
#87
The sound of a train while camping in Kansas. Turns out it was actually a train and NOT a tornado, but that train had me fear for my life.
#88
It was scarier in hindsight. In college I lived in an apartment with 3 other random people. I was the only one who spent much time in the apartment. The other guys had gfs or something and were rarely home.
Anyway late at night I heard noise in the kitchen. Walked out and there was a guy going through the freezer or something. I wasn't fully awake but said "uhh hi" or something.
The guy was like "oh uhh I was looking for the party, is this where it is?" I said "no" and he said "sorry man" and left.
The next day it turned out he had eaten one of the roommate's breakfast sandwiches.
But overall we had been really lax about locking the door, so from then on I made sure the door was always locked.
#89
Just moved into a new house, not really unpacked other than a mattress on the floor.
Startle awake in the middle of the night. I'm wide awake and I don't know why.... then I hear... this faint noise on the hardwood floor followed by a small thunk.
I wait.
Same furtive noise followed by another thunk.
This sporadically goes on for a couple of minutes and I decide to investigate it.
Go across the hall fully expecting to find someone trying to stealthily rob us or something.
Nope. One of the d**n cats had taken a round makeup container out of one of the boxes and was bating it slowly across the empty hardwood floor.
#90
Woke up to what I thought was a giant lobster on my leg. Ended up being a stuffed animal. Hence the name.
#91
My brothers friend broke into the house once while I was sleeping on the couch, and I woke up to him in the fridge. I didn’t know who he was so I stayed silent. I was 9 I think
Edit: he was not in my fridge.
#92
My sister laughing. She had been dead for about a week.
I was staying at my parents house and was just sleeping on the couch. My dad had passed out in his arm chair on the other side of the house and my mom was upstairs in the bedroom. My sisters laughter came from the kitchen which was sort of between where we all were and sure enough we all converged on the kitchen because we all heard it. Needless to say we were freaking out a bit.
Her phone, which had died, was plugged into a charger in the kitchen. It had turned itself on and begun playing a video of her laughing and playing with her new puppy. We all just stood there and listened to it, then turned it off and went to bed without really talking about it.
None of us believe in paranormal stuff and I’m a real atheist/skeptic, but it was really jarring tech based oddity to wake up to.
#93
I woke up in the middle of the night to a rustling sound at my bedroom window. I wasn't sure if I had dreamed the noise or not and stared sleepily at the window for a few seconds. Very slowly my window began to slide open, long thin fingers gripping the glass.
My eyes widened. My heart pounded. My breathing froze. For a moment I was paralyzed with pure fear. *Something* was silently sliding my window open in the dead of night and coming into my room.
My fear soon turned into some kind of primal aggression. As quietly as I could I rose out of my bed and reached for the baseball bat underneath it.
The dark shape was now climbing through my curtains, it's lanky arms reaching down to my floor, crawling, almost slithering in.
I turned on the light and took a few fast steps toward the creature with the baseball bat raised ready to deal a crushing blow when I suddenly stopped....
It was my little sister high as a f*****g kite.
She had forgot her keys, was locked out, and didn't want to wake my parents in the middle of the night while s****d. She thought all this was pretty funny and proceeded to go to her room and pass out. I laid in bed and stared at my ceiling for awhile, adrenaline still pumping thinking about my almost confrontation with some sort of alien/monster/rapist/demon which turned out to by my s****d sister. Thankfully I turned the light on before I swung.
#94
My boyfriend screaming at me to wake the f**k up. Was a car on fire pretty much right outside our bedroom window. How I managed to sleep through the exploding tires sound is beyond me, that s**t was loud.
#95
My family was staying at this haunted hotel in Savannah,GA. It was an old hospital during the Civil War or something like that, and my brother and I were sharing a bed. The first night, I woke up to him smashed up against the headboard, no noise and movement at all. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was afraid to move because he wasn't entirely sure if he was dead or paralyzed. That he woke up to this enormous pressure and was pushed up against the headboard. Freaked me out and I refused to share a bed with him again out of fear of another ghost attack.
The next night, I was sleeping with my sister and she rolled over on me. I kept trying to push her off when I noticed she wasn't anywhere near my side of the bed. Almost [wetted] my pants, and then watched tv until he sun came up because ghosts.
TL;DR Ghosts are real. And scary.
#96
This happened like when I was 8 or 9 and sometimes when I went to bed I would make hand shadows and the wall next to me. Well one time I did this I raised my hand up and started waving it like you do when saying “hello” to someone, but after I put my hand down a different shadow appeared and started waving back. This really scarred me and I always slept facing away from that wall until we moved out of the house (old habits die hard).
#97
I always get a little jumpy the first night I am alone when my spouse travels for work, which is pretty frequent. One night, I turned off the light and started falling asleep. About 10 minutes after I turned off the light, I thought I was still awake, I opened my eyes for some reason and saw a large shadow, human sized, dart from the door of my room across to the window on the other side. I sat bolt upright and screamed out loud, turned on the light and nothing was there. I did not think I was asleep, but it is possible. The orientation of the windows would not have allowed for a shadow moving in that direction. No idea what happened. Could have been dreaming. Never happened again.
#98
Sleep Paralysis. Woke up feeling electrocuted, hearing "voices" and "pounding on the walls" .
#99
In the house that we just moved from last summer I woke up one night hearing a young girl/teenager sobbing. I presumed it was my daughter so I went to her room and she was fast asleep. So I went back to bed. I again was awakened by the sobbing and it appeared to be coming from downstairs so I flip on every light in the house as I go downstairs and there's nobody there. The next morning I mention this to my daughter and she says she heard it too. I know that our dogs would have gone crazy barking if a stranger was in our home but they were all silent. This happened on more than one occasion. I haven't heard anything in the new house.. ..
#100
A baby crying when we didnt have a baby at the time.
#101
I woke up next to my ex-wife for 10 years. Does that count?
