It happened.

I’ve written before about how I frequently wake up and in my half-asleep state think that I see spiders that aren’t actually there. It hasn’t happened lately, but it used to be a weekly occurrence. I’ve also written that at least I don’t wake up and think I see a person standing over me like my mom sometimes does…but I can’t say that anymore.

Last night I woke up after drifting off for a few minutes and saw a person. Surprisingly, it was a lot scarier this morning when I remembered it than it was in the moment. I just pulled the covers over my eyes for a second and then looked back and he was gone. I didn’t scream (my mom does this and it’s the worst — please don’t scream in the middle of the night unless you’re being stabbed, because I assume that you’re being murdered in your sleep when I hear screams in the middle of the night). I did open my laptop so that there’d be some light in the room and I did keep checking every couple of seconds until I fell back asleep to see if anyone was there. It was definitely unsettling.

I don’t really know if I believe in ghosts, but this definitely wasn’t a ghost or anything. It’s the same situation as the spiders. I’ve looked this kind of thing up before and the best explanation I’ve read about seeing things when you wake up is that your brain hasn’t fully come out of its dream state, even though you’re technically conscious, giving you dreams while you’re awake.

I don’t know anyone else that experiences this except my mom, though I suppose this isn’t something people frequently discuss (“Hey, do you imagine things when you first come out of sleep sometimes? Like spiders or people? Oh, no? Uh, me either…”), but it seemed somewhat common when I googled it because a lot of results came up on Yahoo Answers and different forums.

The brain is weird.