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The Scariest Ways People Have Ever Been Woken Up

young woman covering her face with blanket
woman covering her face with blanket

Unless you’re a real morning person, waking up is a huge chore. You’re always groggy, you usually have to do something that day that you don’t want to do, and you see no reprieve in sight.

Waking up is even worse when you're woken up in an uncomfortable way.

It was annoying when my brother would wake me up by blowing his recorder in my ear and downright cruel when my dad used to wake me up by pulling the comforter off me in the dead of winter.

However, the worst way to wake up is when you open your eyes to a truly frightening sight or sensation. Redditors have plenty of stories about that!


Curious to find out more, Redditor Chromepunk19 asked:

“What’s the scariest way you have been woken up?”

Stray Body Parts

" Woke up to find an arm laying next to me without a body. I was so scared I grabbed the arm and threw it out of the bed only to discover it was my own arm. I had accidentally slept on it cutting off all circulation that I could no longer feel it."

– Galileo1609

Not Exactly Itsy Bitsy

"A spider crawled onto my face. It was a huntsman, which is very common in Australian homes – completely harmless, but rather large and hairy. Unfortunately, I have a phobia of spiders, even when I know they are not venomous. I screamed and woke the entire house."

– InbhirNis

"Calling a huntsman spider "rather large" is such a f*cking understatement. Those things can be HUGE. I'd sh*t myself if I had one on my f*cking face."

– Ok_Whatever_Buddy

Doggy Heroes

"Either being carried by a fireman out of my bedroom as a kid while my house filled up with smoke, or my wife frantically shoving me awake while my dogs were going bananas because someone was trying to break into our bedroom as an adult."

"We were spending our first week in a new rental. Around 4 am, wife started shaking me awake frantically saying my name. I, very groggily, turned on my light and asked what was up. The dogs were barking like I’d never heard before, but it didn’t register. She just kept pointing at the sliding door to the balcony outside our bedroom. I saw a bulge in the curtain and sleepily assumed it was my toddler sleepwalking. I walked over and pulled the curtain to put him back in bed, and there was a guy trying to open the door. (Wife knew he was there because she saw his silhouette, but I didn’t because I turned the light on. She was too scared to spit it out.)"

"We both stared at each other in shock. He smiled and waved and pantomimed me letting him in. I pantomimed him getting lost. He shook his head and motioned again to get in. I motioned again for him to get lost, and closed the curtain to put my pants on and go outside and yell at him. Halfway down the stairs I finally woke up and realized I should call the police."

"He was long gone, but they picked him up wandering around town. When I requested the police report I found out the cop who came out changed the story to keep the would-be intruder out of trouble. No mention of him trying to get in (he changed it to knocking) so it wasn’t an attempted b&e or trespassing. He did end up in detox for awhile, somewhere between 3-7 days, which I was told meant he was high."

"Turns out his mom was the landlord and he used to break into the empty house to sleep it off so she didn’t find out. He didn’t see our vehicles or stuff when he scaled the wall to get in."

"We moved 2 months later when she raised the rent $300 per month and after the second time we called the police on her son."

– Bo-staff_n_Aces

Beam Me Up

"I was staying at a hotel. For whatever reason they put us in a disabled room. The fire alarm went off on the middle of the night. Except you don't just get a fire alarm in a disabled room. You get fire alarm +. Vibrating pillows, and bright flashing red lights. I thought I was being abducted by f*cking aliens."

– AlterEdward

It Could've Been Me

"Hearing my screen door rattle one night the summer that the Nightstalker Richard Ramirez was on his killing spree. We had all of our windows locked shut too though it there was a heat wave. He massacred a couple a few blocks away from me around that time."

– Zenithreg

"SAME!!!! We lived in Orange County, and my bedroom was the only one at the front of the house. Woke up in the middle of the night to the rattling of the window screen and then our two big dogs running into my room, barking their heads off and jumping at the window. It was the end of the summer, 1985, around the time of the Mission Viejo murders."

– AstralCath

So Creepy!

"I was donating blood, but passed out during it. Had a nightmare while I was passed out that evil doctors we're trying to take my blood and my life - woke up to about six doctors trying to pin me down because the needle was still inside of me and I was having spasms. I thought I woke up to those evil doctors though, so I screamed as if my life depended on it and started fighting the doctors until one of them yelled "madam, you're at the blood bank, you're donating blood" and then I remembered"

– TheGooney

"Sounds like you were successfully brainwashed into thinking you gave blood voluntarily"

– 1000Years0fDeath

*Shudder*

"Woke up to my daughter who was about 4 or 5 years old whispering "Dad I can't stop bleeding." My eyes open and she has blood all down her face and chest. Panic ensues and fairly quickly me and my wife figure out it's a nose bleed and she got it all down the front of her and couldn't figure out how to stop it. Nightmare inducing."

– scottyb83

"Generally, just little kids standing beside you whilst you're in the depths of sleep, talking like you're awake, is terrifying. That's one I do not want to experience."

– audiolady

Silly Screaming

"My husband had a nightmare that he was tied to a chair about to be bludgeoned with a hot clothing iron. Screamed like he was about to be murdered and jumped out of the bed. I was confused and VERY scared - not knowing what all the screaming was about - so I screamed too, you know, for solidarity. Couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. Also still tease him about it occasionally."

– FerretsAreFun

"That reminds me of a hilarious story. When my son was just a couple months old I was staying at my mom's house. We were watching a movie and my stepdad fell asleep. I had the baby sleeping on my stomach. All is well until we heard the juiciest wet sounding "fart" coming from my son. My stepdad wakes up from a dead sleep and asks us if he is drowning. Probably pretty terrifying for him, but for my mom and myself, it was the funniest thing ever"

– MrsRandallFlagg

Some Joke!

"My friend is a horrible practical joker. We were on a road trip out in the desert. I fell asleep in the passenger seat. He drove his pickup up really close to the rear of an 18 wheeler that was traveling in the same direction as us. Then he slammed on the brakes, screamed and gave me the mom-style protective right arm across my chest. I woke up thinking we were in a crash and then I had to listen to his stupid giggling ass for the next 100 miles."

– PraylikeTomAmes

I'll Save You!

"I was awakened by the screams of my girlfriend's college roommate. She was yelling,"Get off at me! Please stop!" I jumped up and went to her door and started yelling that I was coming in. She just kept on screaming. My first thought was it was her giant wrestling boyfriend and I was going to be in a fight I would probably lose. Then I thought what if it's something supernatural? I had all these thoughts in a matter of 3 seconds. I opened the door, and it was a stray cat who climbed through her window and was stuck on the covers of her bed. I can still hear that scream and feel that fear."

– straightloco44

I totally get it. Cats are evil!

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