There aren't many pleasant ways to be woken up in the middle of the night but some are downright awful. Maybe it's a result of too many horror movies but the worst instance for this writer was being woken up by my then 2 1/2-year-old.
Not the cute little wake-up type. But the dead of night with nothing but moonlight through the window, startle you awake as you type. I spotted my toddler standing in the dead center at the foot of my bed--in total silence, perfectly still, a small stream of light illuminating just half her face while she stared me down. Like chin low, eyes squinted, glaring. It felt like one of those haunted children scary movies. Kids are fun...
Redditor A_Jack_Of_Herrons wanted to know what scared others awake. They asked:
“What is the worst thing you've ever woken up to in the middle of the night?"
Terrifying sleep paralysis...
“I've only experienced it once, but it was terrifying. Woke up to pressure on my chest and couldn't move. Opened my eyes and there were three shadowy Asian women sitting on my chest, just grinning. When I tried to scream they reached out and held their hands over my mouth and nose and started pretending to scream at me. Would not recommend.” el_paradidlo
Just a wee bit of arson in the morning...
“My MIL pounding on our door at 2:30 a.m. because a guy who had struck my FIL's parked car several days prior came back in the middle of the night drunk to set the car on fire."
“Was especially fun because he'd apparently tried to do it earlier that night as well but the fire didn't fully catch (we didn't get woken up for that one) so he obviously was prowling around making sure his arson succeeded, and we had to sit around waiting and wondering if he'd come back and try to torch the house or something."
“Luckily they caught him fairly quickly while he was still driving around the neighborhood in his truck. No telling what his next plans were. Scary." isilluminated
“They described the centipede as barbed wire walking across their face."
“I was in Puerto Rico at the time with a group of others. Our sleeping accommodations were on the floor. I woke up to someone saying ‘it bit me, it bit me.’ In my slumber my first thought was ants. I wish it was ants.”
“This person had a centipede crawl across their face while they were sleeping and grabbed it with their hand. The centipede proceeded to wrap around their hand, biting it, and drawing blood. They described the centipede as barbed wire walking across their face.”
“This thing was pushing close to a foot in length and managed to escape before we could do anything about it. They had to be seen by a doctor for the bite and none of us slept on the floor again after that. We just put benches together to at least have a little feeling of safety. I hate centipedes.” 2DucksInABathtub
"dude, we just slept through a tornado."
“Had a friend visit me in college. We went on one of those crazy night out benders and got back to my house around 3:30-4am. Woke up a couple of hours later to my cell phone ringing. My dad was excitedly asking me if we were alright from the storms that had passed through (he lived 170 miles to the west).”
“Confused, I rolled over and looked out my living room window. There was devastation EVERYWHERE. A string of tornadoes had ripped through the island I lived on and trees were down, power lines ripped up, roofs torn off of houses...pretty much the works. It nudged my friend and just said, ‘dude, we just slept through a tornado.’” RevSnakebite
Probably smelled like lunch...
“A black bear sniffing my head through a thin tent wall.” yotanerd
bear GIFGiphyLock your doors people...
“Sleeping over at my boyfriend's place, I'm awake for some reason about 3 am. I hear noises in the living room that I assume are the cats. But it doesn't sound quite right. I hear boyfriend's roommate get up to investigate. A moment later he appears in the doorway saying: There's somebody in the house.”
“It was a homeless guy, probably mentally ill, he'd just walked in the (yes, stupidly unlocked) front door. Just standing in the living room. Boyfriend jumps up and confronts him, guy claims he was just cold and that he knocked first. He definitely did not knock, but anyway he seemed harmless so we gave him a blanket and he left.”
“That door was LOCKED from that point forward. And I still wonder what was really going on there. He was trying to be quiet, and I've never seen a homeless person in that neighborhood, and why our house? I'm just glad nothing happened” ethottly
*GAGS*
“My 2 year old daughter was sleeping with me and I woke up slightly and thought I smelled something ‘off’. Not like poop but what my half-awake mind interpreted as maybe a strong sweaty smell or b.o.. I just figured I needed to wash the sheets.”
“However, once I completely woke and went into the bathroom to shower, I noticed some "chunks" that fell out my hair. Looking closer and going back into my bedroom, I realized that my daughter vomited during the night and we both had slept in the warm pool of it, snuggled up cozily against each other. Really a heart-warming moment. Or something.” SoggerBean
Have kids they said...
“My kid puking right in my face. Like, little dude, you weren't feeling well, so you got out of bed, walked right past the bathroom, and decided to let me know you were sick by puking on my face?” Bubba2475
Nightmare fuel...
“A wolf spider trying to lay eggs in my mouth.” fustigata
Spiders GIF by memecandyGiphy“I just remember one of the paramedics telling me I had a seizure...”
“Woke up inside the back of an ambulance. I had my first grand mal seizure and I apparently made some pretty terrifying sounds and rightfully scared my girlfriend. I just remember one of the paramedics telling me I had a seizure and when she asked me what day it was and my name and I couldn't remember I started crying.“ Ddgraves
Hopefully, none of us have to experience any of these awful wake-up calls, yikes!
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Redditor TractorLoving wanted to hear about the things many of us have seen that left us shaken and a bit scared, so they asked:
"What's the most creepy thing you've ever witnessed?"
I've lost track of the number of things that have creeped me out in life.
I barely leave the house.
From the bushes...
the lion king disney GIFGiphy"When I was about 12 I was sleeping on my trampoline with a friend and we heard the bushes move behind us, we flashed our flashlight to the bushes and a mountain lion was laying there stalking us, I have never run so fast in my life."
Fortherecord87
Voices
"Finding my dad dead in his recliner. I swear I heard his voice when the coroner came for his body."
PolesawPolska
"My granddad knocked over my great-grandma's ashes in his car accidentally, and to this day swears he heard her laugh, loud and clear as if she was standing next to him. She had a hugely wicked sense of humor and would have found this (and my very stressed granddad carefully collecting her ashes back into the container before my grandma saw) very funny."
Tanyaaahhh
From the Sea
"When I was serving my time as an engineer in the merchant navy we used to have to clean out what is called 'sea chests;' they're basically big filters for seawater that we would pump in to use as coolant and if the pumps were on when we were dockside we'd find all sorts of things like bottles, fish, crabs etc."
"One day we opened up the chest, pulled out the filter, and immediately saw this gold shiny thing which turned out to be a Rolex watch. Usually, we'd just dump out the filter but with the mitigating circumstances, we went through it thoroughly and found a piece of a shirt with cufflink still attached and last but not least a nicely rotted finger."
"The police ended up closing off the dock and dredging it but never found anything on the end." ~ MarkyBhoy101
Terrified
Watching I See You GIF by TravisGiphy"This guy followed me home. Said he saw me there often and named a few local spots I go to sometimes as places he sees me. It’s been about a year. Never saw him again. I was terrified for a little while for sure."
ewqdsacxziopjklbnm
Stay vigilant out there kids.
People are watching and some of us don't notice.
Back Up Creep
Scared Homer Simpson GIF by reactionseditorGiphy"I was in a restaurant years ago on lunch break. At the time I was a very thin 25-year-old woman. There was this big creepy guy sitting there who would NOT stop staring at me from the moment I walked in the door."
"I mean just open face staring without blinking for the entire 15 minutes I was eating several seats away. I asked for a box and left early to get away from him. As I walked out he said, 'You shouldn't be out alone. Someone's going to grab you and steal you away." 100% convinced creepazoid had someone locked up in his basement."
xain_the_idiot
'Youth in need'
"Was working in a restaurant. Nice place. That night we held a charity dinner for a 'youth in need' type of house. The guy representing the house, a worker there, was such a nice and kind man. Every teen there was only saying nice things about him. A good soul, that was giving everything he could for these teens."
"At one point they gave a big check to the charity. I must guess an amount they rarely received. Well under the excitement, that poor man had a cardiac arrest. Dropped there on the stage, cheque in hand. He couldn't be brought back. He died. Seeing this was already bad enough, but the kids everywhere in the restaurant screaming and crying for hours after... haunting."
Agronut
Inside the House
"One random night in middle school I woke up and had the odd feeling that something or someone was present in the house and coming towards my room. I was scared so I closed my eyes to pretend to be asleep. I could faintly hear something come into my room and it felt like someone was standing over me, looking to make sure I was asleep. I laid on my back, eyes shut, until the feeling passed, and ended up falling asleep. I woke up in the morning to find out that our house was robbed."
ThatOtherOtherGuy3
There in lies the rub...
"Well dressed 50 something business dude on a quiet Chicago L train reading a Wall Street Journal. Pretty woman with long curly hair dozing in the seat in front of him, her hair dangling behind the seat. The guy is rubbing and playing with her hair while reading his paper so I figure she's his wife or girlfriend who just wanted some space to nap."
"He is now intently rubbing and fondling her hair and not reading anymore. Suddenly she snaps awake and pulls in her hair like a bug was in it or something. She gets off at the next stop, he continues reading. They didn't know each other at all."
mtzuker
Why do people feel the need to overshare?
People really need to discuss boundaries.
