Not every strange thing we experience at night is our imagination. Sometimes something actually is happening to our body or brain, but we don’t understand what it is.

Here are some eerie experiences that people have often related to a supernatural presence or phenomenon, whereas in reality, they have a perfectly normal explanation.

Sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis is a real thing. Almost all of us have experienced it at least once in our lives. In this condition, your brain is awake, but the part of your body that controls movement is still in sleep mode, which is why you can feel awake but still be unable to move.

Some people also feel like someone or something is in the room, or feel pressure on their chest, as if something is sitting on them.

Hypnic jerk

When was the last time you felt like you were falling from somewhere while sleeping and your brain woke you up with a little jerk? This is called a hypnic jerk. It happens just as your body relaxes and your brain shifts from being awake to being asleep.

Sometimes, this sudden relaxation can give your brain the sensation that you are falling, causing your muscles to jerk suddenly and wake you up. It is completely normal and happens to all of us.

Pareidolia

Pareidolia is when we imagine faces, figures or other familiar shapes in things, especially in the dark, even though there is nothing like that actually there.

For example, a pile of clothes might look like a person sitting in a chair, or two marks on a curtain might look like a pair of eyes. Your brain sees the shape but cannot make out exactly what it is, so it tries to make sense of it. Sometimes, what it comes up with can be a little scary.

Hearing things while falling asleep

These are called sleep-related hallucinations and can happen when your brain is moving between being awake and asleep, which means your senses are not working in quite the same way as when you are fully awake. During this transition, your brain can produce a sound from a dream-like experience before you are completely asleep.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 12th, 2026