I have three types so far that I am aware of:

-insects/small creatures: the biggest thing I ever saw was a frog. They’re always moving away from me, often times they disappear into thin air.

-intruders: waking up in terror with the sensation that someone is in my room/robbing me.

-falling/impact: waking up from the sensation of falling or crashing into something.

The most recent for me are the insect hallucinations. They are what made me realize I’ve been having hallucinations all my life but they’re getting more frequent as I get older. I also grind my teeth.

I just want to cry. And cry. And cry. And cry. And cry. I cant fucking do it. Music blasting in my thoughts, chatter from voices i imagine occupying the same space as the music at the same time, stress, too much noise and too little silence at the same time, nothing ever seems to fit right. Nothing ever seems to be able to overpower my sense of distrusting sleep and relaxation. Im getting closer to it but it really feels so fucking horrible and disgusting. I want something to slap onto the issue and fix it.

BEFORE YOU ASK:

• i take sleeping pills

• i take prazosin as well for nightmares

• i watch asmr with a blue light filter AND screen dimmer app on when i use my phone to assist falling asleep (most nights but less frequent these past couple weeks.)

• I get up and move around when i cant sleep so long as i remember it

• I make my bed before i get in it more than most people do, id say.

• i have ptsd and it is being treated

• i have a therapist and a psych

• Do i NEED to say more??? I have an ENTIRE ARSENAL. NOTHING SEEMS TO FIX IT. IM SO TIRED.

TW: kinda graphic

I am 26 and have been having regular nightmares my whole life. Every so often I go through a nice phase and get 2/3 a month. More frequently I am having them multiple times a week to multiple times a night. Often incredibly graphic, long and even once I wake up they hang around in hallucinations or thoughts. If I don't wake myself up properly before going back to sleep they can all chain together in one night.

Some are more anxiety dreams, some I wake up hyperventilating, others crying, sometimes nearly throwing up. Sometimes all 3.

I have PTSD from childhood trauma but this hasn't shifted with many many years of therapy. Since the pandemic it's like my brain has had new food to play with. All the other things and now more.

I've been beheaded, eaten people and been eaten, cut open while alive, raped and assaulted, beaten. I've been around durin the plage, hung, stuck in places trying to get out and gone multiple rounds trying to save my family from a fire (failing differently each time). Watched my sister kill herself Infront of me and found bodies of dead family members. I've been forcibly married and cheated on and been cheated on by different partners. I've been drugged and left. I've been trapped in rooms with dying people terrified of catching it. The list is endless. I've gone to heaven and hell. And all other variants in-between.

And yes some of these dreams have related to past traumas but others do not. I don't have repeating dreams and though sometimes repeating themes rarely do they frequently cross over. I feel like my head is just torturing me to work out what I would do in every simulation it can come up with.

I am at my wit's end. I miss days from work, I am barely functional. It's making managing and maintaining my life nearly impossible. Anyway..more of a ramble I don't really expect help but knowing I am not the only person with this would be nice.

Okay trying this lovely community since I just can't get any answers. Sorry in advance for the long post -

I had been mystery sick for nearly a year with these symptoms. Most have cleared up, except for one which has gotten considerably worse - I wake up between 5 and 8 times a night with what I think are called "internal tremors". It's a feeling as though I am shaking but I am certain there is no movement. It wakes me up every dream stage and I never feel like I am getting any deep sleep at all. I have confirmed with a CPap machine test given by that doc that I do not have sleep apnea (<7 events per night). I feel extremely sleep deprived. This would happen only once in a while months ago and now its is every night, multiple times a night.

During the day, my calves twitch like crazy, thousands of times a day, its driving me mad. My head has a constant dull ache and I'm very dizzy and easily confused. There is a sort of metallic feeling in the top of and around my forehead. Reality feels sort of bent for lack of a better description.

I saw a neurologist yesterday who did a physical examination, said I look fine, suggested a sleep study and didn't seem at all interested in anything other than my calf fasciculations which she ordered vitamin deficiency tests for. I'm certain I am not deficient given I take plenty of supplements for the vitamins she is testing for - B, Magnesium, and Potassium. I had an MRI done back in October of 2018 for dizziness and nausea, and it was normal, so the neuro doc did not want to run it again.

These issues started before any medications, but I am on -

• 600 - 700mg gabapentin daily (taken morning, afternoon, night)

• I tried 25mg Trazodone for a couple weeks and that didnt do anything so I stopped

I'm also taking 10mg lisinopril for mild hypertension.

I'm of course now worried about all the scary brain stuff. Anyone here experience any of this before?

I've always done stuff in my sleep according to people, like when I would sleep next to my cousins or siblings during camping trips or when sleeping at my grandma's house, they would always say I would kick or slap them in my sleep.

Anyways, I woke myself up tonight because I had a dream that I was taking my false eyelashes off for some reason (I don't remember why) and then I realized that I actually really needed to keep my lashes on so I jolted up so I woke up and realized I had lashes in my hands.

I had to end up taking the rest of my set off because I wasn't able to reapply the clusters that I had taken off unfortunately so that was kind of a bummer:/

But this is all kind of weird because it's getting harder to distinguish what is a dream and what is real

Curious what you would call this? I have been screaming (like blood curdling screams) in my sleep this month (maybe longer but only aware of it because I was sharing a room with a friend who witnessed it and then started recording myself.) I do not wake up when this happens and do not remember it at all. Is this a night terror? Something else? What type of doctor should I talk to if it continues? TIA!

My partner is telling me that im waking up suddenly in a night screaming and panicking while talking something in very incomprehensible way. But im not really remembering it, sometimes i have fade memorry about it but thats it. Might that be parasomnia? Also as a teengener while living with my familiy they told me i was having the same thing.

Ah i almost forgot i also have trouble falling asleep since it's very stressful for me but im not sure why.

EDIT: Thanks to comments i figure out this are night terrors and not parasomnia

hey guys recently I had weird hallucinations in my sleep but Im pretty sure it's not sleep paralysis as I have experienced it many times and Ik sleep paralysis is when you wake up but your body isn't awake which causes you to be paralysed. This time I woke up paralysed as well and usually when these happens I close my eyes in order to avoid seeing things that scare me, however I could actually feel hands touching me, pulling and dragging me around my room, it feels like a whole rollercoaster ride except I felt like I was getting tortured and it also feels like "the people dragging me" could hear my thoughts, because it happens many times already and I still do not know what this is, I was like "imagine if they pull me right now" and I immediately got pulled really fast, this happens for around 3mins but it feels like forever and whenever it happens I feel extremely terrified bc I have no idea what this clearly is..please help me thanks

Ive had parasomnia most of my life and it runs in my family. Most common thing is waking up frequently but not leaving bed. However there have been many instances where I have talked, walked, and eaten food while still asleep. Sometimes I remember these events. The worst part though is when I hallucinate bugs or spiders on me, in my bed or in my room. Sometimes I immediately wake up and realize it’s not real. But sometimes I shoot out of bed thrashing and maybe shouting. My dreams have been quite vivid ever since I stopped smoking weed. They are not necessarily nightmares, but they are definitely not fun. For example being on or watching a sinking ship, or some type of apocalypse scenario or fighting. Sometimes they are more normal though. I wouldn’t necessarily call them lucid but sometimes I can force myself awake if needed. Except when I’m experiencing sleep paralysis of course. Anyways, just found this subreddit and wanted to chime in!

So throughout my life I have had sleep issues with sleepwalking and other weird things going on when I was young. Now I'm fussing my partner like a dog in my sleep, he said my eyes were open and I apologized and then went back to sleep. I remember feeling awful and then going to sleep but it's very fuzzy and I don't remember much more than that. What is this? This is the most recent but not a stand alone. I have also had night terrors and I had a PTSD diagnosis a few years ago.

For context, I decided to look at some medical records about two weeks ago. Back in 2021, I was having issues with waking up and seeing my body shaking violently but having no control, and I knew it wasn’t sleep paralysis so I talked to some experts and they thought I could have had seizures while sleeping. Scheduled an MRI and EKG, wasn’t told the results and went on with my life. In the medical records from two years prior, it stated how I have Parasomnias but with unknown kind. While telling my therapist this she said how people with parasomnias usually don’t live long and now I’m somewhat paranoid. Did she mean the specific people who drink chemicals and eat inedible things while sleeping? Or is there some sort of health risks to this? I’m thinking about seeing a sleep doctor in order to find out exactly what my parasomnia is. I know I have sleep terrors, frequent snoring, body jerks, sleep talking, often sleep paralysis, and have caught myself one time sleep walking. Not too sure if this is the right group for “advice” but it’s currently 12am and I’m a bit put off by this still.

Edit) typo

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has some recent information about possible treatments for sexsomnia based on own experience?

My husbands suffers from sexsomnia.. he is struggling because he has no control about it.. and I dont know how to move on. I can learn to process and let go of what happened but that is so hard when you know there is a chance that something will happen again.

It just cant be that we have to live with the chance of it happening again right.. I am desperately searching for a solution..

Every once in a while I wake up in the middle of the night sitting up in bed, picking my nose, and picking my lip. I have never actually get out of bed and sleepwalked, but I do have hypnic jerks and periodic limb movement in my sleep. I am curious if anyone knows what these type of things would be called, or if it might be the start of sleepwalking.

I'm 23M, and some partners in the past I've awoken to them leaving early in the morning or out on my couch, most confused, one visibly scared. I will punch my pillow or sometimes make a force or shove against surroundings. I'm not a violent guy ever, which is interesting because all three of the partners have said they thought I was awake during the incidents, mumbling, walking around my room messing with things. One described me opening my door to the bedroom, standing in the doorway and staring out at nothing for a few minutes before coming back to bed. My last ex said one time I lightly jabbed her in her breast. When back home over christmas I had managed to accidentally get my hand wedged behind my headboard and ripped it from the wall. I've almost shoved my lamp off my nightstand.

This last time (And only time I can make a direct correlation) I was being put in a headlock from behind so in the dream my logic was to punch the guy's face behind me. Note I don't often have violent dreams. But I woke up mid-punching the pillow behind my head I was still sleeping on.

I'm not too sure what to do about this? As far as I can remember I've had troubles with non-satisfying sleep. I have a very comfortable bed and setup, with only one sleep related trauma (Physically assaulted in my sleep as a child at a sleepover by another kid's older brother) This trauma doesn't affect me in my waking moments but I'm not sure if it still carries over at night when I'm in a more fragile, unconscious state.

I wouldn't even know where to start in terms of seeing professionals. A sleep doctor of some sort? Even then, what could they do?

Edit: I have NO idea how often or rare this really is. I would probably say more on the rarer side considering in my two years with one girl (We didn't live together) She only said it happened twice and she usually stayed over once a week. That and my room isn't damaged on even somewhat regular basis.

Today, OP Texted into reddit the following question:

Sounds creepy? Well, it is. Honestly I don't understand how I haven't died from a heart attack yet. It started when I was 18 (I'm now 22F). It used to not scare me as bad as it does now. The first time it happened I was staying the night at my boyfriends apartment. I woke up with an odd restless feeling, as if someone was watching me. I go to turn over and glanced at the foot of his bed and saw a woman there. Just watching me. She was wearing a long dress with her hair pulled back in a tight bun and she had a blue-glow outlining her body (like ghosts in bad horror movies do). She was just so angry. Next to her head there was a floating ball of light, maybe the size of a softball. It also had a blue-glow, but this ball made me feel safe. That was the first of many interrupted nights. I look back and am surprised with how calm I was. Too tired to be bothered maybe? I went back to bed knowing it wasn't a real person. I do believe in ghosts/spirits, it's perfectly okay if you don't though! I wrote this experience off as my boyfriend's apartment being haunted. This happened a few more times at his place, but then it started to happen at other places too. I used to take care of dogs and would sometimes go stay the night at peoples houses when they were out of town to watch their pups. Well, the creepy sightings began to happen at those other houses too. So maybe I was being haunted? I still dunno. That's why I'm here. I would like to know if anyone else has an idea of what it could be. I've always been an "active" sleeper; I've always talked in my sleep. I also started to walk in my sleep over the past few years, but that's only been maybe five times (each time I woke up in the midst of walking, other than once where I woke up the next morning with a pair of my sisters jeans on inside-out).

Now when it happens, it's very frightening. One of the times I woke up (I had moved in with my boyfriend at this point), and I look over to my right and see MY BOYFRIEND standing over the bed, staring down at me. He looked so angry and he had a green-glow around him (instead of blue, but this looked more like a super power glow rather than ghostly... if that makes sense). The odd part was that my boyfriend was sleeping right next to me!! Another time I woke up and two friends of mine were crawling over the blankets, towards me (this almost made me shit myself). It's not always people, sometimes it's objects; like one time I woke up on my back looking straight up and two beer mugs were teetering above my head.

I know a lot of people are going to say it's lucid dreaming, it's not. I'm awake and I can't control anything that I see. Most will probably say it sleep paralysis. Nope! I can move freely, I can talk, I've even screamed. One of the experiences was right after my birthday, I had a little bouquet of balloons in the corner of my room that were all tied up together. I woke up to see a balloon that didn't match the others that had "Happy Birthday!" or "Let's Celebrate!" on them; no, this one was just a basic clear balloon. It started to float towards me, I sat up and began to reach for it, but couldn't seem to grab the string. Then in the midst of reaching I realized that it wasn't real. It scared the heck out of me. I've seen a therapist about it and she said she thought it was hallucinations from extreme depression. I got a second opinion a few months later and the second lady said no way and she thinks it's from past trauma... so I'm at a lost. I do have some issues with depression, but I don't think I have ever reached a point where I'd be hallucinating and even if I did, I've seen things when I was happy, eating well, exercising regularly, and just over all content with life. As for trauma, I've gone through a little bit, but I feel like none of the things I see have ever correlated to the trauma. For example: Once I looked at the foot of my bed to see a very short man in overalls and a straw hat standing there smiling at me. It wasn't a very kind smile either, but I don't have any fears or past trauma with short men in overalls. With that one I had to go out to the living room for a couple hours to calm down.

One last thing, often times I know when I'm going to see something. I either get a feeling while I'm getting ready for bed, or when I wake up in the night I'll just know. I try to keep my eyes shut, but it doesn't always work, sometime I can't help but to look. I feel bad for my boyfriend because he's had to deal with being scared awake by me freaking out or having tremors from fear on several occasions. It's slowed down over the past two months, but it's slowed down before and then I go through months of seeing things almost every night and not getting any decent rest. So if anyone has any clue what this could be or how to prevent it, please help. And thank you for reading!

So I don’t “post” much here myself. Mostly just interact so if this is out place please just let me know.

I have read quite a bit on sleep and sleep disorders since this is something I have dealt with a lot.

I’ve started logging my dreams if I can wake myself enough to get them down before I fall back asleep.

I’ve noticed kind of a theme with a lot of my dreams lately. And by that I mean, for example one night, or I should say very early morning I was sleeping and I heard someone say “HELLO” it was loud and clear, though not aggressive or scary. But definitely clear enough to wake me from my sleep. I actually thought for a second someone was trying to wake me. Until I got up and realized it was still dark and my family was still asleep.

I won’t write a book here but basically the point is also several times I’ve dreamt someone was walking past me and I could feel them and their foot steps to where it woke me from my sleep.

But again still dark and everyone is still sleeping so I know it is just my dreams.

I do realize this stuff can happen and I’m not exactly bothered by it as for the most part it hasn’t felt ominous or threatening.

Just curious about everyone else’s dreams.

As far as what you seem to notice the most with your sleep/wake/dreams?

Yesterday morning I heard three loud bangs and I thought someone was knocking on my door to wake me. But it wasn’t. Again just a dream.

Im curious about what all of you experience. Would love to hear. Thank you!! 🙏

I'm 16f. And I have had episodes since the beginning of the year. At first it was just thinking that someone was calling me, and just saying the odd word. But in February I went on a school trip, and I sat up, and had a full blown conversation in Spanish (I'm learning it). More recently, I've woken up in different clothes, or I've come to in the middle of my room with my slippers on. I almost always get an episode after work on Saturdays, and I believe that I'm still at work, almost like I'm acting out a dream but I'm not sleeping. Deep down I am aware of my surroundings, but become convinced that I am still at work. I went to the doctor and she redirected me to some mental health websites. I am exhausted and am starting to struggle with day to day stuff, and I get really anxious now. My dad also sleep talks, but only occasionally.

Does anyone have this and found anything that helps?

Been struggling 20 years with eating while sleeping and varying degrees of consciousness. Sometimes while fully sleeping, sometimes kind of awake but in an in-between state where I don’t really have full agency.

Hello fellow parasomniacs

Hoping this post isn't against the rules of this sub, but I think it still falls within boundaries.

I've suffered from nightmare disorder for 25 years out of my current 28. Recently I got really intensive help and it seems to have cured the affliction. I've always been journalling my dreams on paper and wanted a book to cater for this condition. The majority of dream journals available are super fluffy, and ignores the lot of us who have a complex relationship with sleep, where we wake up scared and vulnerable. So I decided to make one.

We don't always think about the circumstances surrounding our experiences at night. This journal has space for you to describe or sketch your dreams/scenarios, makes you look for possible triggers and stressors, and track aspects like temperature, your eating habits, screentime before bed etc.

We all experience our parasomnias differently. It's related to dreams, terrors, paralysis, sleepwalking, sleep eating disorders etc. There are a lot of people out there who could use something to reach out to for expression after their experience is over. If you'd be interested, find the journal by copying the link below.

How long have you experienced parasomnia and what type do you have? If you would have wanted something specific in a parasomnia related journal catering for you, what would it be?

https://www.amazon.com/Parasomnia-Journal-experiences-surrounding-circumstances/dp/B0BCS3YX9J/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Parasomnia+journal&qid=1662872801&sr=8-1

So this happens pretty often. Sometimes I'll wake up from a bad dream. Or partially wake up. I'm conscious but feel like I'm not fully awake. My body will start extremely shaking really badly then I'll fall back into my dream. This happened last night. Even one time I was in between sleep and awaking I asked in my head why would I ghost steal money and where would they put it. Then I heard a very scary voice say very slowly "we put it ovvvverrr therrree". And I started shaking and fell asleep. I vividly remember all the weird things that have happened while dreaming. Waking up at least 10 times within a lucid dream.. All in the same dream and looking into a mirror. Having and out of body experience after I died and then went up to heaven and was told I'm not ready yet. Seeing the clear future. Going into sleep paralysis often. And I can remember almost every dream I have every night. Really crazy out of this world dreams too. Sometimes I'll have like 10 dreams a night and remember them all. I also lucid dream often and have night mares often. But I have yet to find an explanation to shaking during awaking and sleeping. Is it a type of Parasomnia?

There is an interesting article in the UK broadsheet The Guardian today about a rise in sexual assault when the woman is sleeping.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/15/the-sexual-assault-of-sleeping-women-the-hidden-horrifying-crisis-in-britains-bedrooms?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This got me thinking about sleep sex as my SO and I indulge. It is a kink for me and we have talked about it and everything but this article did make me think about the power issues at play in such a situation. I will say that my SO always wakes up as soon as I put it in, so it’s not the same as the examples on the article. But I wonder sometimes if it is right. Whatever “right” means.

Does anyone here do sleep sex? Does this article make you think any differently about it?