Do you ever hear things when you're very tired?

Yes. I sometimes do now, but it was mostly when I worked 20 hours at a time. My work required those hours for about 15 years and it did a number on me in many ways.

You might want to be checked out for tinnitus.

I see things more than hear things. But, I know what you mean. I think caffiene plays a part, too.

I’ve experienced the same. Sometimes when deployed I was on duty 36 hours at a stretch. The auditory hallucinations often took the form of voices in the radio static. That could get very spooky, since often calls for help were barely audible above static, After a few false alarms, I knew that I was burnt out.

Interesting question for the wee hours of the morning. :-) But the answer is (1) yes, I’ve had that experience, and (2) yes, it was freaky. It should be. As long as it’s only when you’re really tired or sleep deprived in some manner, I wouldn’t worry. If you should be functioning normally and these same hallucinations are occurring, you should consult a professional.

Yes. The most common thing I hear is someone shouting my name when I’m drifting off to sleep. Used to freak me right out. Now, I’m used to it. God forbid anyone ever really is yelling for me at that time… I’ll just ignore them!

If i am in bed ‘home alone’ then i always hear the floorboards creaking downstairs….it scares me. I know i’m being silly and i end up light on and reading at silly hours because of it.

I have heard voices like a TV or radio. When I covered my ears I could not hear it. My husband could not hear it. One night when my sister was staying over, I ask her to sit on my bed and listen to see if she could hear something. She said it sounded like a TV or radio also.
I lived up in the mountains and all of my neighbors were vacations home owners. I finally looked around outside one day and there was a tall atenna attached to the house on the very wall where I heard the sounds. We all decided that had to be the source picking up sound waves from somewhere. I don’t live there anymore and I don’t hear anything where I am now.

Wow that sounds spooky. I have such experience long time ago after my excessive running,I heard irregular voices from people in my house,it bothers me but it soon disappear after I cool down for some time. In my opinion,I think when my body is extremely tired it would be more fragile toward ‘outer’ influences. Being receptive to all influences without picking which one to consume.

Exploding head syndrome! Seriously. It sounds like a joke but it’s a real thing. I get it as gunshots, explosions, car crashes, my dad or my best friend shouting my name, and horror-movie screams. I’m much more used to it now than when it first started but it’s still always a little unsettling.

A fundamentalist would probably describe the head noises as proof of the existence of Hell, when in reality it’s a common occurrence.

I would tend to think that it’s caused by stored auditory memories surfacing because you’re tired. The brain is a fascinating thing.

Yes, usually sounds like sounds like a loud static scratch, like if something hits a microphone. And, sometimes like if someone let a big book drop to the floor. Recently, it is some smaller sounds, like everyday sounds of the dryer going ding ding when it is done. The former two I mentioned might happen a couple days in a row, and the not happen again for months or years. The dryer ding has only happened once or twice. None of these things have a very regular occurrence, but I have to admit it was odd the first time it happened a few times, especially since people in my family have schizophrenia. I knew schizophrenia usually starts in late teens early twenties, and this started for me in my thirties, and it is not voices telling me to do anything. Some of these auditory hallucinations I think might be dreaming actually, but some definitely are not. I guess it must just be a neuron firing randomly?

I get tinnitis that sounds like an electrical short, zapp. zapppp. at irregular intervals when I get really fatigued. Along with the usual waterfall like rushing sound.

No but I have tinnitus 24/7 that gets loud when I’m stressed. I wish I could explain the sound. It isn’t ringing, not buzzing, no I can’t describe it.

if you drink caffeine in any form then you need to stop drinking it as this can cause this kind of semi auditory and visual hallucination.

I see things like shadows or faces. I have heard things, but I’m not sure if it’s what you’re talking about as these noises were just shuffling type noises and thumps that no one else heard.

I see shadows that move sometimes when I am very tired. Mostly like in the corner of eye . I will look and nothing is there. I know it’s time to take a nap.

There is a barrier of consciousness and unconsciousness; when you sleep you slip into unconsciousness and thus start rem sleep. When your body isn’t well rested, it is more difficult for it decipher that barrier and makes you start hearing and seeing things. If you are in a very quiet room with lots of ambient noise, it may cause these things to seem worse. Hope it helps. :)

When I’ve had extreme stress and anxiety I’ve had auditory hallucinations which seemed to have almost a malicious nature which usually were centered around some irrational or imagined fear and sometimes before sleep I’ll hear a slamming door or something which is kind of bizarre. And often just before nodding off I can have semi conscious hallucinations which are just like wild fractal images with endless designs.
I think what’s fascinating about it is the brain’s capacity to recreate sensory phenomenon which we all think is so fixed to the organs of sense. If we ever get to the place where we are acting out our lives through surrogate machines using only our minds we will probably have some adjustments. We are probably on the verge of a quantum leap in consciousness.
“If I hear a tree fall in my head did a tree really fall?”

No, not that I am aware of.

But I live in the woods so most of the noises I might think I am hearing, I AM hearing! lol

I was really tired last night and dozed off in my hot tub after a couple o’ 3 glasses of wine.

Forgot to lock the kitty door and didn’t even hear the raccoon crunching away at the bowl of cat food in my spare room right next to my room.

Usually I can hear the extra loud crunching. Not last night. Might as well have been dead.

Yeah…and it is reoccurring too….
“Cuiser….wake up…time to go home…”
“Dad….wake up….time to make breakfast…”

Yeah I see things move when I am tired.

Your brain tries to make sense out of the stimuli it receives. If you hear a constant hum from a fan, your brain tries to make it into something it can understand like voices or music. I have had that experience often. It seems to happen when I am tired and in a relatively quiet place. It is just an artifact of the brain’s software.

Yes, I hear someone say my name once in a blue moon when I’m totally sleep deprived. Always wakes me right up because it’s so scary!

@MacBean Exploding head syndrome is a crazy name! But now that you mention it, sometimes I also can’t move or speak when this happens. That’s only when I’m incredibly exhausted. I guess pushing yourself too far results in dysfunctional sleep- your body falls asleep before your brain, or your brain starts doing REM-type things while you’re still awake. Your symptoms sound really unsettling because of their violent nature- that would really freak me out. Thanks for posting the link.

@BarnacleBill One of my friends, who is really into the paranormal, seriously thought I was being stalked by a demon from hell. (Gee, thanks, friend.) I think your idea that stored sounds resurface when you’re very tired sounds close to being right.

@SeventhSense The sounds you hear would be very unsettling, but the fractal images must be really cool. When I experience this kind of thing, I do feel like there’s something malicious about the sounds, like they’re out to get me. That’s what makes me think it’s related to dreaming, because sometimes dreams will bring up strong emotions that may not be related to the content. It’s fascinating that our brains are able to create things like this, which are completely unconnected to reality. If we do have a leap in consciousness like you said, hopefully the things we perceive won’t all come from inside. Because it seems like our subconscious is capable of inventing some pretty irrational, scary stuff.

@Haleth
Yes it’s really like a perverse intelligence that tries to exploit my weaknesses. It leads me to believe that it’s some buried aspect of my shadow that I keep from myself or some repository of negative shit that I can’t confront or something and will just come out like a terrorist. The only thing to fear is fear itself though. And there’s wisdom in everything. Behind every breakdown is a breakthrough
And the fractals are even more bizarre then I mentioned but just like the most trippy psychedelic abstractions of form and space. Rarely with a recognizable nature yet strangely familiar as some plasticine world I know. And never when I’m wide awake but with a very different and more lucid nature than dreams.

I think our forays into this realm will be like learning to drive a finely tuned light speed Ferrari-incredible power and potential but with training an enjoyable and safe trip. I think we’ll someday tune into these amazing journeys without the use of drugs just like plugging in the coffee pot. Maybe we’ll drop our bodies completely and exist as pure energy.

This night, as I was drifting in and out while fighting sleep, never actually falling asleep and still awake; I suddenly thought I heard sounds. Like trumpet noises. I flew back to full consciousness for a moment upon realizing this before relatively quickly going back to my between stage. Then I started to hear music for a bit, almost as if I was actually hearing it in real life.

I would keep waking up more fully to process what happened then kept going very quickly back to that state, and I kept hearing music like I was literally listening to it.

When I was in my relaxed drifted off state the songs would seem familiar as if I was hearing songs I knew but each time I grew awake I would realize I have never actually heard these songs in particular. It would vary from lone instruments to full sounding songs.

Anyway this is the first time I have ever experienced this and I looked up key terms to see if others have also, stumbling upon this. Just thought you should know.

I hear things when I am falling asleep like popping sounds but I can’t tell a direction, I don’t think. It sounds like a balloon being popped close to my head or shooting a shotgun. The vocal sounds are typically short, loud, abrupt, and aggressive. I am usually super tired when I hear them. Like physically and mentally worn out while stressed out from heat or traveling.

So three days ago had a nasty case of norovirus. Had the whole puking for 12 hours and unable to sleep for the last few days. Last night not sure I slept at all. During the night I kept hearing rock music everytime I put my ear to the pillow. Tonight, after roughly 30 hours without good rem sleep all I can hear is axel rose singing sweet child of mine, over and over! Do have a window fan (hot as hell) but it’s really annoying. It’s stopping me falling asleep. Usually when I’m this over tired to be wired I read for a few and pass out. Alex won’t allow that! I even looked under the bed/ side table for some type of music player! Hopefully I finally get so tired I just pass out.

If you are experiencing this right before sleep, these are hypnagogic hallucinations And they are very common. Just a little bit less than 40% of people are believed to experience it. I frequently have visual hypnagogic imagery before I go to sleep. Salvador Dali had methods he used to purposefully Induce hypnagogic hallucinations.