Hypnopompic Hallucinations

Its interesting to hear peoples experiences. I have had a history of sleep walking when I was a child (got up and hid under my desk staring at my terrified sister, who was trying to get me back to bed). I'm 22 now and no longer sleep walk but I have constant hallucinations during sleep, I hallucinate at least 15-20 nights a month. The hallucinations get worse when I'm tired. I also talk and act things out. I woke up, hallucinated that there were three people in my room and they thought I was a super star and I started throwing the blanket off me and doing super model poses for them. I just went back to sleep. I'm no longer scared of my hallucinations, just last night I saw a woman breasfeeding a baby in my closet, I got up, looked closer, blinked and she was still there, I wasn't freightned, I just turned on my lamp and it was gone. Some hallucinations are terrifying, for reasons I cant explain. There was this one where I saw a music stand with musical notes coming out of it, I bolted from my bed with my sheets wrapped around me and turned on the light, I was soaked with sweat and felt like I had run a marathon. I've seen men, women and kids in my room. I also see birds in my bed, I get scared I'm going to crush them so I stand up in my bed trying to walk around them before I turn on my light. I also had one incident when I looked at my sister sleeping beside me on a camping trip and was 100% sure that it was my ex-boyfriend, his face, his body... I wasnt scared but had to actually touch her face to see HER again. I tell myself they're not real, and am aware of everything, I can also recall everything perfectly. I DO NOT feel paralysed, or have out of body experiences, I can move perfectly well, talk perfectly well and hear fine. I cannot hear them, or hear noises from my hallucinations, I just see. Ive had this for about 8 years now. I would never go on anti-depressants (doctors say these can help alleviate halluciantions) because its something I've learned to deal with. I'm not afraid of going to bed, however when I watched a very scary movie, I really was scared because my hallucinations became terrifying. Here is what I suggest to people, I am still hoping that mine will stop, but I'll give my two-cents on how I deal with them:

1) Get a lamp by your bed that's easy to turn on
2) Dont go on anti-depressants unless the hallucinations are absolutely affecting your life (anti-depressants can trigger a chain of chemical imbalances in your brian that may lead to worse problems if you do not have clinical depression)
3) Don't let youtself get exausted if you can, for me the halluciantions are more frequent when I'm sleep deprived or over-stressed.
4) Do something pleasant before you go to bed, if you have an argument or are upset, try to change your mood, I dont have significant hallucinations, and often none at all when I go to bed happy.
5) If you have a thyroid problem, get treatment for it. I have a thyroid disorder (Hashimoto's disease) that cant be cured and my doctor tells me that my thyroid could be causing some of the hallucinations.
6) Stay away from scary movies, you may think its doesnt effect you, but pay attention to the halluciations, I can almost guarnatee that they're worse after you watch a scary movie.
7) Sleep with someone in your bed if you can. I had my boyfriend sleep over during the time I had really frightning hallucinations. I don't know what it was, but I didnt hallucinate those days, I think I felt protected and safe.


I hope that helps at least one person, everybody's story is different, I hope some day my sleep hallucination will just stop. Fingers crossed.

I have suffered with hypnopompic hallucinations my entire life, my sister has as well. They stared when I was about 10 and I am now 44 years old. They have come and gone in waves, my entire life, starting with seeing cloth twisted around, progressing into geometric shapes, changing into creatures, spiders, horrible things, all accompanied with a sense of evil.

I spent about 10 to 15 years working with the medical community on this - I've had 3 different sets of MRIs, my brain has been announced as the classic textbook example of a normal brain. I've had psychological evaluations, to see if I had schizophrenia, etc., and they say I'm normal... ( as much as we all are... heheheehe )... I've had sleep studies, I don't have narcoplepsy ... I'm not saying that some of you guys don't have it, I 'm just giving information on my story on life, in case it helps someone else. I would definitely do the medical checks, to make sure you are ok.

My sister and I got involved in a study, and started logging our experiences ( independent of each other ). The odd thing was, when we compared notes several months later, we saw highly similar things within a day or two apart, although they were always slightly different. Things like: I saw a rabbit's tail hopping along, she saw a rabbits tail moving, but the end of it whisping off/kind of disappearing. I saw bright red geometric flower shapes splattering on the ceiling, she saw bright red geometric flower shapes sliding down the walls. I saw an old, evil hag bending over me, she saw one standing at the door.

Anyway, about 3 years ago, it got really bad, to where I was hallucinating 3 times a night, stuff that would jolt me awake, feeling terribly evil - I saw this horrible black creature suspended in the air, lights going in circles on the ceiling - it looked like a huge 5 foot spider with octopus tendrils radiating outwards - and I totally freaked out. Ended up getting another MRI - came back normal, ended up doing another round of tests, all normal. I'm anti-drug ( don't drink/smoke, eat very healthy ) and don't usually take medication of any kind - the neurologist suggested I see a licensed hypnotherapist. I thought it was whacky, but I was desperate.

Anyway, I did end up seeing her, over the course of several years, I've learned alot about myself, even though I have been through traditional therapy before, as stated above, to see if my problem was mental. I discovered "thought-forms" - you should really read about them, I found it odd because most of the shapes and colors I saw were documented already. I also discovered that I still suffered from post traumatic stress disorder from having trying to save my mom's life as a kid, even though I had already been to traditional therapy over that one. Anyway, as soon as I started addressing some of these long buried feelings once again, my hallucinations decreased dramatically and FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, I started seeing positive ones.

I really don't get why hypnotherapy worked for me, she didn't tell me I wasn't going to see stuff anymore, she mostly just asked me about the feelings I felt when I saw them and what those feelings meant to me, and I told her all kinds of crazy stuff back, but the end result was I didn't hallucinate at night. She believes my energy has changed, that I'm attracting different thoughtforms to me now that feed off of different energy, that I had put out a lot of fear and depression before, and I was attracting that to me at night.

All I know is, I went from hallucination 3 x a night to about 6 times a year now, and I'm not scared anymore when I see them, and I don't feel surrounded by a presence of evil. I'm also happier during the day, now that I'm sleeping and now that I'm no longer carrying guilt from the past, because I hadn't realized I was carrying it still.

I suffered for about 20 years with these hellacious things, and in the end, the only thing that really worked for me, was to really dig down deep and figure out what pain/fear I was really carrying around inside me. Yes, I still see things, yes, I actually had one really bad one about 4 months ago, where this creature climbed down on my arm and told me it fed off of fear and hatred, but that is the only bad on in a year, compared to 3 a night. So - I've obviously still got to keep searching, I don't know if I'll ever find a 100% cure, but I've managed to manage it better somewhat through what I have tried.

I've also found that mediatation seems to put me in a state where these kinds of experiences escalate, so I've kind of stayed away from that as well, but it might be a coincidence. Anyway, that is my story...

If this is still happening to you, I truly suggest you pray. I mean that, not as a joke. I for one believe that evil exists. It doesn't necessarily mean that your hallucinations are ghosts or that they are real or from satan, but it could be that you are very sensitive to negative energy that comes from dark forces which are all around us. Although I believe these things you see are fictions of your imagination, I do think they are driven by negative energies. I really do believe that these forces have most influence in those that are more sensitive to them, aware of them or scared of them. I have issues with sleeping too (see my previous post) but not to this extent where I hurt myself or I fight things, I'm not scared of mine. I am religious and I brough my sleeping problems/ hallucinations to my priest. He prayed with me, blessed me and asked me to pray every night before going to bed and BELIEVE that God will protect me. I now hallucinate once or twice a month- if that! and none of my hallucinations are memorable or scary and they are now very very brief. I mean it, if you've tried everything, faith may just be the answer in keeping these negative fields away from you. I do suggest however that you keep trying to get some treatment from a doctor, but pray that God will protect you from the things your mind produces. You're not crazy, but I think you should try praying!

I also have these with the lights on. I walk around, talk to my husband and still see these things - many times I've fallen asleep on the couch while he is watching a late night movie, I'll wake up and see something, talk to him, see the movie and STILL see the thing.

I was raised in a very religious family, I tried praying for years - but it didn't help me ( not saying it won't help you, just giving you the facts of my case ). I believe in God, but I also believe we have to help ourselves. I no longer believe he'll come down and 'save' me if I just pray. I think it is more along the lines of I have to change myself, face my fears of death and the supernatural ( because it feels like that, I have have to face these feelings ) and truly face all the fear and anxiety inside me - not cover it up with medicine. Once I started slogging through all that, I changed and that is when I saw the change in the hallucinations.

It had nothing to do with stress in my case, but everything to do with anxiety and fear.

I'm 17 and I'm pretty sure this is what I've been having the past year or so. I've woken up- always with my hands above my head, always in the dark or the middle of the night, and I've seen really gruesome or threatening things, always people. I can't seem to sleep unless I am really really really tired and I have early starts so I don't get much sleep which I suppose is part of the reason why I get these weird hallucinations. I don't really know how to bring this up with my parents or my doctor because I'm worried they'll think I'm weird or they won't take me seriously.

Do you have sleep paralysis as well? Do you feel like you can't move and when you do they go away? That seems to be really common w/these types of hallucinations. Honestly, I've had mixed reactions w/doctors ... my son's pediatrician and my neurologist were VERY understanding and educated on the subject. My primary care doc was pitifully ignorant and wanted to drug me out ... so I switched. I don't know what to say, only if you can test the waters w/your doctor and see if they know about these and if they do, tell them bits and peices at first. If you get a negative reaction, can you go to a different doctor? Hopefully, you'll have a doctor who is more up-to-date than my primary care doc was.

I have tactile hallucinations. They disappear for weeks or months at a time. When they do occur The second I turn off the lights and lay in bed someone sat pushing down on mattress. It will go up and down over and over again. Sometimes a separate person small like child walks on the mattress behind my back and stops near my head. I think it's gone for a long time and then it walks back off the bed. I can feel a hand on top of the comforter on my leg. I only get about three hours sleep and it wakes me up. It's pressing hard and fast making the bed shake. For example one morning it woke me up at 7:30 am and there was constant activity until I finally gave up and got out bed at 9:00am. That's a hallucination that last 1 1/2 hours! I'll get some to eat and go lay down and immediately the activity starts again. Is this hypnopompic or hypnogogic? Or am I haunted by invisible beings.

I had my first hypnopompic hallucination today. I woke up on my side facing my room (as my bed is against the wall), and saw a tall man standing near my bed, either reading signs above my bed or watching me... And a few seconds after I'd begun looking at him, he noticed I saw him and disappeared. At first I was questioning whether this was paranormal phenomena or some sort of vision, but the more research I do on hypnopompic hallucination, the more I believe it's this.

I have hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations. They are not visual but auditory. Usually they are a single sound, like a phone ringing, or a doorbell, and sometimes electrical sounds.
They have made me suffer greatly and I am often sleep deprived. Doctors have nothing to offer but sleep medication which has its own
negatives.
I suspect that my thyroid problems and synthroid may be at fault. I had less of these when I took Armour, but now my docs only want me to use synthroid....I quit taking it to see if there will be a difference.
Armour does not make me nervous but synthroid does so perhaps after a few weeks I will know if it is an excerbator.
This is destroying my productive life and I wish I could just be cured of it.

When I was meditating regularly for 7 years I never had hypnogogia, but after a bad autoimmune flare and lots of plaquenil and other meds, I started having them. I have been told that anti-anxiety medication can cause them or make them worse, and some people say meditation, sleep deprivation and other things. Stop meditating and see if that reduces them. I hope that works for you.

That Tactile hallucination sounds like what I'm having - it's weird. It only happens for me in the mornings when I get up really early to take the kids to school and then snooze in the parking lot before going to work because I'm so tired. I used to enjoy my 40 minute naps until all this weird activitiy started happening. I'll hear something slide up and down the back seat of the car, or touch my shoulder, or walk around back there. It freaks me out and I immediately get out of there. I even started taking my husband's car ( cause I thought maybe mine was haunted or something ... ! ... ) and it didn't happen for awhile, but it started again a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm not really taking naps anymore. I don't know what the heck it is. Think I'll look up more on 'Tactile Hallucinations'. It's weird that someone else experiences it - the walking around bit - very nice to know I"m not alone, though.

I was going through my divorce. I was broke, living in strange people's houses renting rooms. I had never been so depressed in my life. I too would lay on my bed and cry. One night immediately after turning the lights off something started pushing down on the mattress over and over. Then it would sit on the bed sometimes on the side of my bed. It was always when I was laying on my side and would do these things behind me. These included walking on the bed and standing behind my head. Sometimes tapping on the bedspread. It got really bad when I realized that they were waking me up. One of them would jump up and down on the bed making it shake. Sometimes it would stand next to the bed and push sideways make it jolt like in an earthquake. I have moved three times and every time they have followed me. I went to a psychiatrist and neurologist who said they could do nothing to help me and that it was paranormal. Now here's the amazing part. I talked to a paranormal guy and he said to put a thick unbroken line of salt across the window sill in your room and if there is a bathroom connected to the bedroom do that as well. I did it and it worked immediately. When the salt gets old or in the bathroom gets hard from the moisture they start to come back. I replace the salt and they're gone again. Amazing right? He said that salt has a spiritual cleansing effect. I'm serious try it.

Your post was helpful to me. I am going to work on those suggestions.
thanks.

thank you for the info. I am going to try those suggestions and hope they help.

JennyMc, Did the hypnotherapy help make you not afraid of the hallucinations? Was that the point of it? I have thought of self hypnotherapy to implant the truth that they are not real and I need not be frightened.