What goes on in my room once the lights go out?

[MacabreMagpie]

This is a longish story with several different angles so I'll do my best to tie them all together.

So, ever since I can remember I've always heard noises in my room whenever I've gone to bed. I remember once complaining about it to my parents because it scared me - they told me it was just the house and furniture shifting/expanding. To explain the noise a little bit, it generally sounds like someone methodically going around my room tapping on the various bits of furniture with their finger nails. But their explanation satisfied me as a child and I never thought about it much again, even though I'd still hear the noises.

Skip forward to my mid-to-late twenties and I'm living in a different room of the same house and the noises still occur. Up until several years ago, I basically had that same attitude from my parents explanation in that it didn't bother me much at all. However, I have a friend (who is worthy of a thread all of her own!) who has occasionally seen "beings" and appears 'sensitive' to emotional events around her*. She was once at my house and told me that she'd seen a black "shadow-like" figure standing in my room when she walked past. She also commented that it was wearing an old-fashioned hat but I don't recall the exact specification.

To be honest, my initial reaction was that she was just pulling my leg as she DID enjoy winding me up from time to time. But she swore that she wasn't joking and we never really spoke about it again. Then I heard about "shadow people" and began to read up on them and it was around this time that the noises I'd hear after turning the lights out started to ramp up a bit. On one occasion, I had a pile of envelopes and other assorted papers on a chair near my bed and I distinctly heard the sound of rustling as soon as I turned over to sleep. More recently (around a year ago), I heard two extremely loud bangs on my desk that sounded like my Xbox and computer tower falling over. I jumped up and turned the light on but never found any source of the noise - nothing seemed to be out of place. These more extreme examples are rare but I still hear the 'tapping' on a nightly basis and any sound that I've referred to above also happened within minutes of me turning the lights out, before I'd started to drift.

Now, one thing I'd like to add here is that - generally speaking - I consider myself an open-minded skeptic. I accept that there's probably intelligent alien life out there, but I don't believe that documented UFOs are necessarily alien spacecraft. I don't believe in Heaven or Hell and I'm not religious. I don't believe in ghosts but, having said that, I am now of the opinion that there is something in my room. I know that some of you will put these noises down to me falling asleep but I assure you that this is not the case; I can lay in bed for an hour, reading with the light on and the SECOND I turn it out I suddenly hear the tapping. It's instantaneous, on most nights. I'm not sure if it's because I've heard them all of my life, but I'm generally not afraid of the noises either... in fact on some nights, if I get woken up by them, I've sat up in the darkness and whispered "Go away, I'm trying to sleep!".

I should also add that I've never actually SEEN anything, which is perhaps why I'm not so scared. I also had a few weird experiences as a child (which did involve "seeing" something, actually) but perhaps I'll save that for another thread. Thanks for reading.

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* I just wanted to add a footnote about my friend, because I know that saying "I have a psychic friend" without further explanation seems very contrived. We were best friends at one point and she'd told me that, since a child, she'd had flash-by visions of things that were going to happen in her life, including knowing when people she cared about were upset. I was going through a bit of emotional trauma at the time and, on two or three occasions, I'd break down in tears only for her to immediately call me and ask if I was OK. I was alone in my room on each occasion, had not contacted her or anything beforehand and she lived a train journey away from me. So, on that basis, I chose to believe her when she said that she sometimes had these visions.

On the part about seeing "beings" - she once called me in hysterics to say that a baby troll-like creature had just run past her in her bedroom. As I said, her experiences are worthy of their own thread!

 

[SRL+]

Hypnagogia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ?

 

[MacabreMagpie]

I highly doubt that I'm experiencing Hypnagogia whilst walking from the light switch to my bed or whilst reading my Kindle with the lights out.

I'd also like to add that I'm a freelance artist who usually works until 3-4am and most of the time when I go to bed, it's because I have to, begrudgingly. Therefore it usually takes me 20 minutes or so to drop off and the noises start the second there's darkness in the room.

 

[SRL+]

What does the finger tapping sound like to you? Impatient, playful, searching, or perhaps none of these?

 

[Randall]

This is a longish story with several different angles so I'll do my best to tie them all together. So, ever since I can remember I've always heard noises in my room whenever I've gone to bed ...

This reminds me of some odd things that started taking place in and around my own house. There was a tapping noise that happened every night just after going to bed that turned out to be the copper hot water pipe to the bathroom contracting after being used. In another case it was the heating duct inside the wall. In another case a squirrel had gotten into the attic. Another time a twig at the end of a branch outside was rubbing against the wood trim in the breeze causing it to skip across it and make a tap-tap-tap-scrape sound. Another time a woodpecker had taken to tapping on the same wood trim. So I wouldn't rule out small animals or even certain kinds of insects. They can get into the walls and make those kinds of tapping or scraping noises.

On the weirder side, one day something dark caught my attention out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see what looked like a shadow being outside the kitchen window that suddenly darted away between the two houses. I have no explanation for that. Another time my son said he saw me come downstairs and just stand there for a minute and then go back upstairs, but I actually wasn't even home at the time. No explanation for that either.

Another time I was downstairs and I turned around and suddenly this guy was just standing there looking at me in his freaking underwear. He said he was dropped off the night before by some people who had told him there was a party at my house and we'd take care of him. He'd obviously been drinking heavy the night before ( or something ). He'd made it up the driveway as far as my car, slept in it overnight, and then wandered into my house in the morning with a major hangover thinking it was some kind of bed and breakfast. That definitely ranks up there with the weirdest things.

 

[MacabreMagpie]

Thanks for your replies, people.

What does the finger tapping sound like to you? Impatient, playful, searching, or perhaps none of these?

I don't think I could actually apply any of those traits to it... tapping is just tapping, you know?

So I wouldn't rule out small animals or even certain kinds of insects. They can get into the walls and make those kinds of tapping or scraping noises.

I of course can't speak for every possible potential cause of noises around my house (and I wouldn't be arrogant enough to definitively rule them out) but all I'll say is this; I'm in my room for most of the day, working (literally 12-13 hours) and I never see any kinds of insects, save for the occasional wasp or fly that gets in. We also have no spaces between or in the walls, it's literally just solid bricks.

The desk that I refer to is a very large corner desk that takes up a lot of my room. Two of the surfaces are glass, with wood connecting them in the middle. When I hear the noises moving around the furniture, I know that it's doing so because I hear the surface changing from glass to wood. The desk is also right next to my bed so I can really hear where the tapping is occurring, when it's on the desk.

 

[Polterwurst]

Well, you can't go on listening for or wondering about every little noise in your room, can you? That'll just keep you from having a good night's sleep. Not to mention reading about "shadow people" and stuff. Most of the time, it'll actually be nothing but the wood expanding. And if there's anything else, well, that's probably quite natural and harmless, too.

 

[Randall]

I don't think I could actually apply any of those traits to it... tapping is just tapping, you know?

Well .. keep on investigating. All sound is caused by pressure waves in the air ( or other physical medium ), which means the source is physical ( not spiritual ) movement radiating from a specific location. There are certain tools you can get to help you pinpoint it. For example a parabolic microphone. You can also use other tricks like a stethoscope or a listening rod. Sound also conducts through objects, so if your walls are solid brick, the origin of the sound could be outside, or coming up through the floor. The branch I mentioned that was making the tapping sound, sounded like it was coming from the shelf along the wall next to me. It was actually outside and on the far wall of the garage. It just conducted through the materials in such a way that it seemed to be coming from inside and closer. It sounded just like someone tapping and dragging a pencil on the shelf.

Just for interest's sake, here's a tapping beetle.​

​

 

[starise]

I hope you get to the bottom of the noises that are bothering you. You must feel fairly convinced of something in order to feel this isn't typical house noises.

I know all houses are different. My house has baseboard hydronic heat and at night I have it set to go into a setback mode which ramps back the heat system to a lower temperture. When it is cooling down you can hear all kinds of creaking almost tapping sounds. All houses respond to temperture changes from outside and from day to night.The things in the house are also cooling down and make noises. Turning the lights off at night means you have a heat source that is cooling down and contracting in a very small way. Maybe this is the cause When I turn off the TV in my bedroom at night it makes some strange noises while it cools down.

The problem could also be something else especially if someone you know seen something there that looked out of place. With houses being the way they are it would take some real convincing for me to believe that there could be something supernatural happening.Having said that I have had things happen that I can't explain or the explanation seems to be a supernatural one.

I do a lot of paranormal research and one night I had brought home a used book I bought on the occult. I was sitting in the room the book was in and something started to rap on my ceiling just like knocking on a door.Now this has happened before years ago to me. No mechanicals were in the place the rapping came from and when I called on God the rapping stopped immediately. I threw that book out the next day. In that case I sincerely believe that I had invited something over without realizing it.This was not a light tapping this was an unmistakable knocking noise, no doubt about it. It sounded like there was a guy on a ladder in my room knocking on the ceiling, only there wasn't.

Recently I was getting up in the middle of the night to make a bathroom run. In one of our bathrooms we have a lighthouse my wife bought several years ago. It has batteries in it and a switch on the back to make the light in it come on although we never turn that switch on. When I was in the bathroom in the dark I realized that the light was flashing on the toy lighthouse. I assumed that someone must have bumped the switch on accidentally and thought no more of it. About a week later the same thing happened again. I was up at around 2:30 am and the lighthouse was on. This time I asked my wife about it the next day and she told me she never touched it. We don't have any real business around the lighthouse that would bump the switch, and the second time I made a closer examination of the switch itself and realized that it is actaully very difficult to accidentally turn it on and almost impossible to bump it on. For one thing the switch is not easy to move and it is located at the back of the toy in a place that would not be "bumped". I can't explain it yet.

We have also had quite a few incidents of our doorbell ringing and noone is there. Where I live you can see if someone is running away there is no way that they would have gotten away and not been seen. Moisture maybe? But the times it seems to happen are not in keeping with that theory. On one occasion It happened when I needed a little wake up call. On another occasion it happened at an important time and an important date that has meaning for my wife. Very difficult to write off as a malfunction especially when it isn't " malfunctioning" now.

It is a little creepy but on the evening the lighthouse flashed I was researching black eyed children before I went to bed.

I could go on with other examples that are close to me. Recently my son had electronic toys turn on by themselves at his house. Not just turn on but go through multiple functions that should only be possible when it is operated by a person. If the toy were bumped it would not act like that.

Did I scare you ? lol.

I do believe in a spiritual world both good and bad and so it neither scares me or surprises me, only make me curious as to why it might be happening and in some cases the only answer I can offer is simple...harrassment. I do sleep like a baby though.

I have other stories to tell sometime if you want to hear them.

 

[Squirrel]

When it is cooling down you can hear all kinds of creaking almost tapping sounds. All houses respond to temperture changes from outside and from day to night.The things in the house are also cooling down and make noises. Turning the lights off at night means you have a heat source that is cooling down and contracting in a very small way. Maybe this is the cause When I turn off the TV in my bedroom at night it makes some strange noises while it cools down.

I'm not so sure my noises-at-night experience can be explained away so easily.

I'm in a very solid all-concrete apartment building and nobody has mice or any other animals running around. I have no pets, and live alone.

For years, I keep a large (plastic) bag of roasted peanuts in my hallway, opened. This is because I always carry a pouch of peanuts for wildlife (crows, squirrels, chipmunks) as I walk about my wilderness village.

A year ago, I began to hear loud crackling of the bag during the night, as if someone were reaching in and helping themselves. If I shined a flashlight on it, I would see nothing, hear nothing.

This kept going for a couple of months.

I also noticed I was "using up" the big bags much more quickly than my usage while walking could account for.

Then one day, I was searching for something I knew was put away at the back of the hallway closet. As I moved a couple of items sitting on top, I discovered a huge pile of peanuts which had been carefully pushed in, under the items I had stored there. Neatly done so no peanuts were visible unless the items in storage were actually removed.

This required considerable strength - more than a small animal would have, if an animal were responsible. There was never even a single shell, which might indicate an animal were snacking while hoarding the peanuts. No droppings or urine stains.

The volume of this inserted, hidden pile I would estimate at maybe 6 quarts.

I began tightly clasping the open plastic bags with a couple of large office foldback clips. The loud manipulation of the plastic peanut bags ceased after that.

I should say that because I live alone, I have some additional devices to prevent my apartment door being opened. Having a pass key would not get someone in.

-- Squirrel