People Describe The Absolute Worst Thing They've Ever Woken Up To

People Describe The Absolute Worst Thing They've Ever Woken Up To
Image by Jess Foami from Pixabay

When we go to sleep, we slip into one of the most vulnerable positions we can possibly embody. And we do that every single day.


So it's hardly surprising that, at least a few times throughout our lives--maybe more than a few--we find ourselves snatched from slumber, and left sitting started and defenseless against a threat we can barely make out in those first few seconds.

But for all the vagueness of those first few sensations, we sure do remember those horrible awakenings rather vividly.

And recently, some folks on the internet shared their most memorable experiences.

Redditor ScoopySnacks829 asked:

"What's the worst thing you woke up to?"

Many Redditors encountered animals in the dead of night. The creepy crawling hands and mouths were enough to make their skin crawl.

Pests Everywhere

"My grandmother had a filthy house and made me and my brother sleep on the floor whenever we were over."

"Once I woke up with a rat tangled in my waist length hair. I was 8"

"Another time I woke up to see a giant roach crawl. Out of my brother's mouth as he was sleeping. (I never told him as I figured he would rather live in blissful ignorance.) I was 9."

"To this day have a fear of Rats, roaches, and sleeping on floors."

-- CimeroneMurphy

Double Whammy

"A dog's paw in my mouth and getting stepped on the balls at the same time" -- Lower_Environment774

Only Thin Nylon Between You and It

"The sound of a bear outside my tent. Got my heart racing." -- SingLikeTinaTurner

"Oh fu** okay, so I once was woken up by a bear paw to the head. It was just fu**ing around with our tarp but I'm tall so the top of my head stuck out just a tad. It felt like being brained with a sandbag."

"It was a black bear and ran off when we made a bunch of noise, but I'll never forget the few moments of sheer terror, head reeling and seeing that bear paw slide next to my face." -- Cthulhu_sneeze

Fresh Kill

"Blood all over the bed that I was in. Then I saw the flyscreen had been torn open. Then I heard a crunching noise. And then I saw the cat with the remains of a magpie."

-- ArtisFarkus

Others shared the times they encountered a personal tragedy immediately upon waking up in the morning.

Gruesome Details

"woke up to the news one of my best friends family had been murdered in an arson attack and that he had tried to save them and had 3rd degree burns over 70% of his body..."

-- Empty-Refrigerator

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Devastating News

"I woke up to my dad telling me my mom had a brain tumor."

"It was during a sleepover with my best friend at the time. I knew they were going to get her an MRI because she had been having really bad chronic headaches, but none of us expected brain cancer."

"When they removed the tumor two weeks later they removed a baseball and a half sized mass of tumor from her right frontal lobe. She's alive and well now 15 years later, thank god, but that was an awful time for everyone in our family."

-- fishycaitlin

The Worst Reason to Get Up and Go

"My uncle calling me in the middle of the night to tell me my mom was in the hospital, and that I should fly out as soon as possible if I wanted to be able to say goodbye."

-- friendofredjenny

Finally, some people discussed the times they felt threatened by other human beings that clearly did not have their best interests at heart.

Just What Did They Want

"Someone jiggling the handle on my door, trying to get in to my apartment. Scary as fu**. I don't know if he was drunk and thought it was a different apartment, or if he was just going door to door, seeing if any were unlocked."

-- jeeub

Remember Goodfellas?

"My ex-girlfriend pointing an unloaded gun (I thought it was loaded) at me. She pulled the trigger and she wanted to scare me, she thought I was cheating on her with a friend of mine (a female)."

-- DayMack8006

It Gets Worse and Worse

"When I was like 16, the landlord and a couple of other men (LEOs of some sort, presumably, but I didn't get a good look at them) came in to physically evict my mother and I from the duplex we lived in at the time, something I had no idea was in at all."

"Like, we apparently went through the entire eviction process without me getting even a slight sniff of it. I slept naked even back then, so basically, I was awakened by two or three strange men coming into my bedroom."

"I threw on a cream-colored dress and got the fu** out of there, having no other option obviously, and went to my mother's workplace in a panic...where one of her coworkers gently pointed out that I had started my period, which was obvious from a distance, apparently."

-- Grave_Girl

Here's hoping this list won't give you trouble falling to sleep tonight.

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