Have you ever awoken like this?

dear god! no! sounds frightening. then again i spook easily. but still!

This has happened to me a few times before. I usually try to tell myself that I just happened to witness the furniture “settling” into the floor….
But….......

:(

sounds like Paranormal Activity! And that terrified me.

Um, I am having problems sleeping tonight, and I was just starting to think I was getting to where I can fall asleep.

Thanks. puts on the coffee LOL

@poofandmook Someone’s keeping the lights on tonight…..
:P

I woke up once when I was 10 because I felt something touch my forehead. This wasn’t long after my friend that lived a few houses down the street had someone break into her house. I was terrified!

Was it my mom giving me a kiss before she went to bed or was it an intruder?

I think it was my mom.

@jonsblond i pray it was yo mama

Yes this happens to me and then I start getting major anxiety and I do the dumb scary movie thing where I have to go and investigate or I can’t go to sleep it’s very exhausting. Thats why I used to take sleeping pills!

@jonsblond It might have been the intruder giving you a kiss.
:O

Wow. I just put a few things together. I lived with my sister and her husband for a while. And later I lived a block away. When lived near them I would wake up to her screaming my name. But she wasn’t. This would happen a few time every week.

Since she left her husband it hasn’t happened. And I live with her now.

Sometimes I wake up with a start because I’ve heard a strange noise, but I think it’s because I’m snoring and make a weird sound.

Have you ever woken up because a small dog has just jumped upon your testicles? I have. That will teach me not to wake up when she needs to pee.

This could be a hypnagogic startle, also called a “sleep start.” It is a sudden body jerk, observed normally just at sleep onset, resulting in at least momentary awakening. It can coexist with hypnagogic imagery, a form of hallucination, that consists of vivid sensory images occurring at sleep onset but particularly vivid with sleep-onset REM periods.

In other words, while you are sleeping you go in and out of REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep). Dreaming is done during REM sleep, and sometimes dreams can be so involving that you actually startle awake from a sound or sight within your dream. Most of us really don’t remember REM dreams so the awakening is quite confusing because the mind thinks the sound was real.

@Darwin Good answer, but it’s Rapid, not Random.

I stand corrected (and edited it). That’s what happens when you answer from what is in your brain rather than what is written down somewhere.

Someday someone is going to start getting annoyed that I bring this up just about every time there’s a sleep-related question, but…

Because of the sound aspect, I offer Exploding Head Syndrome as a possibility.

Yup. I woke like that from a dream where I could’ve sworn there were a pack of dogs snarling and barking in my bed, but no, there weren’t. I was pretty scared for a few seconds, I can tell you.

@MacBean I was going to mention that. That’s happened to me a few times. BOOM! Instantly awake.

I’ve also experienced hypnogogic-like awakenings twice. First time it was like I was paralyzed except for my mouth so I called out tentatively for help in English and then German (I was in Germany at the time). I suppose I may have been nerve-blocked like what normally keeps you from moving around during dreams. I gradually became more aware of where I was and finally was able to move and then fell back asleep. The second time I saw a dwarf standing in the entrance to my bedroom and also felt that sense of immobility that kept me from reacting to it.

@MacBean OMG! I get this all the time… and I’ve not heard you mention it before well I say all the time… that’s not true obviously… I get it a lot..and particularly when I’m falling asleep… thanks for putting a name to it!

@hiphiphopflipflapflop: That sounds like sleep paralysis which I also get sometimes. It’s ridiculous how many freakin’ sleep disorders I experience. Ugh.

@lynneblundell: Huzzah! See, that’s why I keep mentioning it. Every time I do, someone who hasn’t seen the link yet ends up reading it and being happy to know that there’s a name (and an interesting/entertaining one, no less!) for the phenomenon, and that it’s benign and not uncommon. I like helping out; I know I was pleased when I found out about it, too.

@MacBean That’s so weird; I think I get that more when I’m awake. I always think I’m hearing some loud bang, usually at the end of a yawn or sneeze or something that obstructs my hearing for a moment. And I often mistake one sound for another. Last week, I was bathing my son before bed and we have a very loud bathroom fan. It started storming while I was in the bathroom, but didn’t know until there was a huge crash of thunder. Well, it happened so out of the blue that I thought someone was running up the stairs, possibly several people. Scared the crap out of me. It’s like if I don’t know what the sound is, my brain places it in a scenario for me. Usually a really scary one.

@ubersiren: Brains are such weird things…

Yes I have woke like that, it is scary

i have woken up sitting straight up in bed with tears in my eyes.. it’s happened a couple of times. i figure it must be from a dream i was having.