How to freak your husband out

The other night, soon after falling asleep, I awoke to see a huge spider hanging over Andy's head. He had already been sleeping for awhile. I kid you not, this spider was the size of my fist. It was big, black and hairy. I yelled, jumped out of bed at lightening speed, and turned on the light. Andy woke up too, and was like "what? what?" I think I told him there was a spider, and for a few seconds I was scanning the bed looking for it, thinking it had fallen or jumped or whatever. I didn't see it, and that is when I came to my senses. There was no spider.

This has happened to me a handful of times in the past year or so. It is always within minutes of falling asleep, and it is always a huge, black spider. Most often I have seen it on our curtains. And it is NOT just a dream, for I really am "awake", looking around at my actual surroundings. I am aware and able to make purposeful movements. Only I am also seeing a spider that doesn't actually exist. And it has made me jump out of bed in complete panic and fear more than once! It is that real. There have also been a few times where I am "paralyzed" for the first few seconds. Like, I am terrified but I can't quite move like I want to so instead I just strain my eyes to see where the spider is going in the dark. After freaking Andy out (this was the first time it has happened with him in bed too - up until then it had always been when I was alone) I decided to research it a little. Turns out I am experiencing what is known as "hypnagogia", defined as: occurring just before sleep; applied to hallucinations occurring at sleep onset". It is like a transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, when you can experience conscious awareness at the same time your mind happens to be entering subconscious dream state. It can last from seconds to minutes - luckily mine only last 5-15 seconds before I realize what is actually going on! People can experience all kinds of hallucinations - sounds, animals, people, geometric shapes, flashes of light, etc. People can also experience a variety of tactile sensations, like numbness, heaviness, somebody touching them, etc. A very common form of this is sudden jerking as you are falling asleep. Oh and the "paralyzing" feeling I have had a couple of times is normal too...it is called...what else...sleep paralysis. It the inability to perform voluntary movement upon falling asleep or upon waking up. In my "research" I found it is commonly associated with hypnogogic hallucinations.

Now that I think of it, I have had it happen once not involving a spider. Instead, it was like a "ghost" image of a woman standing at the end of the bed. That was also soon after falling asleep, and must have also been one of these hallucinations. Because it was also very, very real (yet not) and startling. Andy has been known to tease me about that one from time to time (he was there that night).

Has anybody else ever had a weird experience like this? I wish I could begin to describe how real it seems. It is very freaky, but a really interesting subject. (Thus the research and blog post about it). In any case, it is good to know that I am not going nuts and that it all has an actual name and has been researched and is not totally uncommon. It can be a part of narcolepsy or other disorders, but in an otherwise healthy person is no cause for concern. I did read that ways to minimize episodes include getting plenty of sleep/having a regular schedule. Two things I definitely do not have.

Hopefully I don't freak Andy out again. Sorry about that, hun! haha.