The technical term for what is happening is "hynopompic hallucinations." This is wake-pattern visual hallucinations. Visual hallucinations when going to sleep are called hypnogogic hallucinations. They usually involve giant insects, mechanical creatures, space aliens, and the like. They are more common than you would think and are simply a disturbance in the sleep rhythm and often a reaction to stress.

Google "sleep paralysis." I had it as a kid (and thought it was real!) and then it came back when I was pregnant. I also had vivid dreams through all 3 of my pregnancies.

I used to wake up and see the room filled with smoke. If my husband was there I'd wake him up in a panic, and he'd tell me there's no smoke, and we'd bicker back and forth about it. If alone, I'd jump out of bed, turn on the light, and then feel disoriented for a moment while I tried to figure out whether there's really smoke or not. Eventually, it happened so often, that I was no longer freaked out by it, other than a second of panic before falling back to sleep. Then, it stopped happening.

OP, have you listened to the Mike Berbiglia Fear of Sleep story on This American Life?

This is so weird. Anytime I have caffeine before bed. And oh do I love a real cup of coffee with a nice piece of pie or a pastry once in a while for dessert. I always have the same thing happen.

I'll wake up on my side turned towards my night stand (I am a back sleeper) and I'll see a totally black/dark man standing there - no features but looking down at me. I always without fail, punch out at this "dude" while waking with a start. No dream that I can remember before it.

Last time it happened my DH woke up giggling and told me I wasn't allowed coffee after 4pm anymore.

Its so weird.

I get them, too, within the first hour of falling asleep. I have not noticed them being related to sleep deprivation, more to general anxiety. They started about eight years ago after a really traumatic breakup and move to a new city. Initially, they were about having forgot something really important (but once I wake up I cannot remember what it was). Then after I got married and went through fertility treatments, it was about having forgotten some medication. Now that I have kids it's often about having swallowed something from which I will die (I can never verbalize what that is). I always come out of it quickly, but it sure is annoying. Interestingly, my sister (who is a much saner person than I overall), also sometimes gets them. She told me recently that she woke up in a panic because she thought she had swallowed a Brio train!

Get more sleep or try sleeping with the bedside light on.

OP here. I am taking a few medications currently, but I have had the issues with night terrors for as long as I can remember, so it is unrelated. If they're going to happen, it's within an hour of falling asleep and they are so vivid that I hallucinate about what I see until a light turns on. It's almost always that someone is trying to hurt me and I scream for them to get away. Sometimes I see a person, sometimes I think it's my husband (who is sleeping). It's strange as I have never been attacked or physically hurt. If my husband isn't in the room and I have one without someone else to turn on the light, I will run screaming from the room. This only happens when I don't get enough sleep... so sleep does cure it, but with the baby kicking and waking to pee, and waking to take meds for contractions, and waking if one of our kids needs something, I am just not sleeping well at all and this is now happening every single night, sometimes multiple times during the first few hours after I go to bed. Pretty awful.

I do. I wake up in a total panic and ripping at clothes, sheets, and blankets. The trigger for me is daytime stress and anxiety. The night terrors are actually my only anxiety symptom that crosses over a line into problematic. Some combination of time and diligent daytime routines helps, particularly vigorous exercise. I've had ~ a half dozen periods of this happening, generally for a week or two at a time. Sorry to not have specific advice. All of the standard sleep hygiene tricks are worth a try, along with the hope that this too shall pass.

Ate you on any medications that could be causing this?

Anyone else deal with this? When I am sleep deprived, I wake with terrible hallucinations- often screaming at things I 'see.' The only way to snap out of it seems to be turning on a light, which often falls on my husband to do. It's embarrassing. They are happening every night right now as I am dealing with pregnancy insomnia/waking to pee and not able to get back to sleep and a change in our schedules that has me getting up very early in the morning. I have talked with a neurologist in the past, but she had no helpful advice other than to try to get more sleep. If you deal with this, any advice? Feel alone with this embarrassing issue .