Ever been woken up by someone calling your name?

[Bluestars]

For any of you that dream that you are awoken by spiders, bugs, insects, etc and you still "see" them when you are awake, those are called Night Terrors. I have had them since I was a little kid, and most people grow out of them, but I'm almost 40 and will still get one every once in awhile- usually when I am under stress.

I also have Sleep Paralysis which is a is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or wakening, temporarily experience an inability to move.

I sometimes hear voices call my name, but not very often. This is called Hypnogogia (when it occurs as you're falling asleep / half-roused) or Hypnopompia (when it occurs as you're waking up).

I am been to waaaay too many sleep studies to count!

I have experienced sleep paralysis once in awhile. I read that if you make your pinkie move, then you will wake up. It worked for me on multiple occasions. I guess that's easier than making your entire body move.

A few weeks after my dad died I heard somebody call my name one morning. It was almost like a whisper. They just kept repeating it. When I became fully awake, it turned into my husband's breathing. It was so weird.

Another time was a very real dream. So real that is spooks me to this day. I dreamt that the phone beside my bed rang in the middle of the night. When I answered it, my mother told me that one of my brother's had passed away due to a car wreck. She said that somebody else was with him, but they didn't know if that person survived.

The dream happened about 8 years ago and my brother is still alive. But it was so real. It was the most vivid dream I have ever had, and I have had a lot of lucid dreams.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have not had it happen to me, but I have heard of this before. From what I've heard from those people it can be pretty unsettling.

and RE: Sleep paralysis, been there done that

 

[cassandrap83]

I had a dream in which someone was screaming my name on an answering machine in deceased grandmother's room. As I crossed the thresh-hold into that room to pick up the phone, I woke up instantly to the sound of my computer BLARING a power surge type sound.


Freaked me out. Could barely fall back asleep.

 

[Disney Doll]

Not while sleeping but one time while I was driving home from a friend's house. They lived in a fairly rural setting so the road was dark and winding. I had had a couple of drinks (bad idea I know but we all did really stupid stuff in our 20s) and was driving along when all of a sudden someone screamed "STOP!".

I was alone in the car but the scream was so loud and so insistent that I stopped. I kind of got my bearings and looked around and realized that the road was curving (which I hadn't realized while I was driving) and had I kept driving straight like I was intending to do I would have driven off the road and into a river...not a huge river like the Mississippi but a large enough river where it would have engulfed the car.

I looked around. There was no one walking around the vicinity who would have screamed...it was actually probably about midnight. Plus it truly sounded like whomever screamed was literally sitting next to me in the car.

I always said it was my guardian angel. I have no better explanation.

 

[CocaColaGuy]

I just read this whole thread and now I have the heebie-jeebies!

My dad and I were putting some furniture in our church basement for the day care to use once. Several members of our church live nearby and so it is common for one of them to stop by if they see a car there at an odd time. I heard footsteps and a voice above us, so I said to dad, "Sounds like we have company."

He asked, "Why do you say that?"

I replied, "The walking and talking (pointing at the ceiling). Tom S------ must be checking on us."

He responded, "I didn't hear a d*** thing. Hand me a screwdriver."

Now, my dad is not hard of hearing, and when we went upstairs just a minute later, no one else was there. I still get the creeps when I have to go into that basement!

 

[MissManda]

and RE: Sleep paralysis, been there done that

Yeah, me too. Sleep paralysis sucks.

I don't remember hearing someone speak to me and wake me up, but not long ago I vividly remember someone shaking me awake. I felt their hand on my back as I was waking up. As I opened my eyes, I was sure that my DH was waking me up. I was actually really ticked because I had been dreaming about my sister that had passed away several years ago. It was upset to be woken up and to lose that dream. I was in total shock to find that I was alone. He wasn't even in the room. It was very strange. Makes me think my sister was actually here some how.

 

[DawnM]

I asked my husband this question today and he says he often hears ME yell for him in the middle of the night and it wakes him up and he realizes I am asleep.

 

[Becky2005]

I also have Sleep Paralysis which is a is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or wakening, temporarily experience an inability to move.

I had this happen to me ONCE in my life and it was terrifying!!! It was early on when we were married and DH tried to convince me I was asleep and didn't know it...to this day I want to go "sleep my foot" to that answer because I was awake mentally at least. The only way I broke out of it was screaming at the top of my lungs (which of course made no sound) and then finally a little eep came out and I was back to normal. I always think about that when I hear of coma patients, etc... that they can't make themselves move but are fully aware of what is going on around them.

I had never heard of it and I did see a special once on where your body basically does this as a protection method so you don't make all the movements you dream about. They were doing a sleep study on people who for some reason didn't have that and they would wake up exhausted and bruised up, etc.... I was NOT happy with DH telling me "you were just sleeping but didn't know it" when I totally freaked out about it afterwards...as far as I was concerned I was NOT sleeping because I was fully aware and it has been about 20 years since then and I can still remember it exactly.

 

[runsandjumps]

When I wake up to any sounds at night my heart races. I don't mean like my kids calling out for me, but thuds or knocks. The last time was a month ago when I thought I heard someone trying to get in the house. I lay awake with my heart pounding, my DH already asleep again, straining to hear any new noises.

I thought to myself how fast can I run to get a weapon because the feeling was so real. Pretty much if there is a disaster I think DH will sleep through it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

My experience w/the sleep paralysis was totally weird. It was different than not being able to move, it felt as if something was actually restraining me. It was like I could feel a hand on my chest pushing me down. It was totally freaky, not an experience I would care to repeat.

I have also had the situation where I wake up and think I am in a different house/different time (like a different year or something). Totally weird.

 

[pascalstongue]

I have had sleep paralysis quite a few times but the scariest was when DD was still a baby. Dh was working nights and dd must have woken in the night and we both fell asleep in my bed. In my "dream" I heard the front door open, I opened my eyes and saw DD asleep next to me but couldn't move. I heard someone coming upstairs and the bedroom door creaked open. I wanted to reach over and grab DD to protect her but couldn't. I "felt" someone right behind me and was about to grab me when I finally woke up. I was so relieved to realise it was a dream. It wasn't DH returning home from work either. I was too scared to go back to sleep then!

 

[WDWBarb]

I have had this happen several times - sometimes it's my name but mostly I hear my DD say "Mom!". This happened a lot when she was sick for several years and when she went to college. I used to wonder if she was dreaming about me or feeling anxious...

I also had an incident once when I had the "exploding head.". I kept dreaming about this ball of fire falling through the atmosphere and I'd wake up perplexed. It was a weird dream. Then I dreamt it one last time and at the end there was a terrible BOOM! I actually flew out of bed from the sound of this explosion and my ears were ringing. Only.. there had been no boom. It was only in my dream. But my ears did ring for hours. The next day was the Columbia disaster and I always wondered.. well, you know.

Sleep paralysis is the worst. It happened to me once and it was terrifying. I was awakened by the sound of someone breaking in our back door. Then I heard them coming down the hallway toward my room and could see the light of their flashlight. I saw the shadow of a man projected by the nightlight in the hall just as he made it my room. I was trying to scream but nothing was coming out. I couldn't move and I was sure I was about to be murdered. Then, suddenly, I sat bolt upright and he wasn't there. It was like he disappeared before my very eyes because everything else was the same. I never want to experience that again. I know I had been reading Stephen King's Rose Madder, so my brain was in a spooky state of mind.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

This has happened to me several times. Sometimes it's my first name, said loudly, very close to my ear. Usually, it's the name that has awoken me the most, "MOM!!!!". It always kind of freaks me out.

Same here. I seem to get woken up all the time my MOM.

Funny you guys are mentioning sleep paralysis. My 21yodd has that happen to her all the time. She hates it.

 

[Couchy]

I had this happen to me ONCE in my life and it was terrifying!!! It was early on when we were married and DH tried to convince me I was asleep and didn't know it...to this day I want to go "sleep my foot" to that answer because I was awake mentally at least. The only way I broke out of it was screaming at the top of my lungs (which of course made no sound) and then finally a little eep came out and I was back to normal. I always think about that when I hear of coma patients, etc... that they can't make themselves move but are fully aware of what is going on around them.

I had never heard of it and I did see a special once on where your body basically does this as a protection method so you don't make all the movements you dream about. They were doing a sleep study on people who for some reason didn't have that and they would wake up exhausted and bruised up, etc.... I was NOT happy with DH telling me "you were just sleeping but didn't know it" when I totally freaked out about it afterwards...as far as I was concerned I was NOT sleeping because I was fully aware and it has been about 20 years since then and I can still remember it exactly.

Yes . Sleep paralysis happens during REM sleep which is when we dream. It is protection so we don't act out our dreams. That could get messy. Sometimes we can wake up consciously in our minds before our bodies wake up and sleep paralysis is over. It is a very short period of "overlap" but it can seem to take forever to come out of. I went through a period of time when this happened to me every time I took a nap. I stopped taking naps because it was terrifying. It has not happened to me in years and I hope it never does again

 

[MissManda]

Yes . Sleep paralysis happens during REM sleep which is when we dream. It is protection so we don't act out our dreams. That could get messy. Sometimes we can wake up consciously in our minds before our bodies wake up and sleep paralysis is over. It is a very short period of "overlap" but it can seem to take forever to come out of. I went through a period of time when this happened to me every time I took a nap. I stopped taking naps because it was terrifying. It has not happened to me in years and I hope it never does again

I usually have sleep paralysis every couple of months. The first few times, it was completely terrifying because I felt like I was being chased and I couldn't move, scream or anything. I remember telling my DH about it and he brushed it off and said it was just a dream. I knew it wasn't so I researched it and found out that sleep paralysis was real. Now when it happens, I can recognize it and I start telling myself that the scary part is just a dream and I keep telling myself to wake up. Still scary though.