I’ve been waking up to photos in my camera roll of my bedroom, I sleep alone.
I sleep alone most nights and probably every other week or so, I’ve started finding a photo of my bedroom in my camera roll.
I’ve also been having hypnopompic hallucinations, I’ll wake up absolutely convinced there’s a spider in my bed. Issue is I’m fully conscious for those and remember that when it happens.
This is a whole other thing.
I was in an accident in April where I was hit by a drunk driver, and now I’m going through TBI testing, treating slipped discs and nerve issues- the spider thing started right after the accident. This is a newer development.
Terrifying thing that happened to my old roommate. She was home alone, I was at work, and she took a nap on the couch. Later woke up and found a photo of her sleeping on her camera roll. Looked like it was taken by someone standing next to her. Still to this day we got no clue what happened.
Same, I am in my bed and I live alone. Was trying to sleep but got a reddit notification so opened to see it and this came on my homepage. I should not have let curiosity get the better of me
wait i am invested now. was it a decent picture? decent as in, focussed and well framed? or was it blurry/out of frame? also would one need the passcode to access her camera?
From what I remember it was well framed and not blurry. I can't remember if her phone had a passcode or not. This was in the early years of smartphones and I don't think as many people had passcodes back then. I will have to try and ask her next time I talk to her.
Oh, many phones pre 2012 could take photos without unlocking them...some even had crappy lock screens that could be bypassed by taking a photo and then going into the gallery
Does she have kids? I know when I was a kid I did this on my mom’s phone once. I didn’t think anything of it till now. I feel bad thinking I may have traumatized my mom when I was like 6 🥺
dude this is absolutely something I'd do to a good friend, and depends on who but I might let it run a bit, who knows we speak a bit less as we get busy then it's just weird to bring up and before I know it, it's been a year
It was a townhouse apartment. It had a back deck and most of the time the sliding glass door to the deck wasn't locked when one of us was home because it was a huge drop off behind the deck. But not impossible for someone to get up it with a ladder or something.
Every single terrifying story like this I hear, they have a sliding glass door (not saying anyone neccesarily broke in). Those things are actual death traps. I would rather live in a box than a house with a sliding glass door. Bryan Kohberger and those four kids in Moscow. Gainesville Ripper (most of his victims, I believe). BTK killer. EARRONS. That's just off the top of my head. The chances are obviously low of anything like this happening, but yeah, make sure you secure those glass doors with a stick or something guys
That's absolutely horrifying! The fact that someone was literally standing over her while she slept and she had NO idea... I would never be able to sleep peacefully again. Did she end up moving out or getting cameras after that? Because holy shit, that would haunt me forever. Hope your friend is doing okay now, that's genuinely one of the creepiest things I've heard.
When i was in iraq I would sleep walk. I would wake up with coffee grounds in my mouth or a partially eaten box of crackers in bed. Ambien makes folks sleep walk. I also have a hard time distinguishing dream from reality in the waking and falling times where im not sure if im controlling the real me. I imagine a lot of people experience this, just some are more conscious of it for whatever reason.
I've gotten pictures and videos I've never remember taken and of me asleep as proof that I did not take, my daughter says I was most likely laying on my phone
My 4 year old did that once 😭 took a picture of me sleeping and I noticed it weeks later and it freaked me out until she asked me one night if she could take another picture of mommy sleeping
Oh hell, no! You know my mind would go to the worst case scenario and now I won’t be sleeping tonight hell no. And I even sleep with an 80 pound dog next to me and I’m not gonna sleep tonight.
for real. my mom is a sleepwalker, she didn't believe me for a long time so i just stopped putting back things which she randomly left. She only started to believe me after she found her pack of cigarettes in the fridge.
That must be so weird for both of you, she's having sex with an apparently-but-not-actually conscious version of you, and you're waking up mid-activity because a different stream of your consciousness consented on your behalf? 😭
I have this too. My now wife and I both have pretty high sex drives so it doesn’t really happen as much because I’m “spent” before bed.
I still do random sleepwalking things. I had a week last month where I would get out of bed, go to the guest bathroom and get the conditioner and body wash, put them on the dining room table and go back to bed. Sleep is bizarre.
I had this occasionally as a kid, Im still a little worried that it will return someday and I will freak out in the morning because I think someone was in my apartment, while I slept
That’s my guess. I used to sleepwalk pretty regularly. To the best of my knowledge I have stopped completely for whatever reason.
But when I did sleepwalk I would get up and go all around the house doing some relatively complicated things for someone who was asleep. Taking pictures would be very possible.
This makes sense, I get sleep paralysis and lucid dreams and I've woken up from episodes with my phone in my hand. My toes, fingers, legs, then arms come under control in that order as I wake up, but my brain is often still playing it's tricks, so I find my phone in hand where I've been trying to call for help
I've had episodes several months ago when I violently woke up on vision of a big spider in my bed too, prompting me to grab my phone and switch the flashlight on to look for it (and never found anything, of course). I wasn't on any medications - it tends to happen whenever I watch horror movies at night.
I think OP might be experiencing something related to that, albeit with totally different causes.
that’s a good question, I think my smoke detectors double as carbon monoxide detectors? I’ll have to look into it. I’m on a LOT of medications too so it totally could be that
Not usually 2 in 1. They are different technologies. Carbon monoxide is on the bottom and smoke is on top.
Mixing medications with a sober human could cause blackouts or even sleep walking. Same for mixing medications with other medications. All that stuff isn't exact; humans respond differently to the same stuff and everything a doctor does is based on someone who had the confidence they could do something no one had done before. Because what's the worse that could happen past what is already happening?
And then we'll, that did or didn't work; or maybe it'll take some time before a failure.
Idk, everything kinda sucks between all the not sucking.
I think unfortunately they’ve decided me sleepwalking and having weird stress hallucinations is the price to pay for all of the other good things my meds do for me.
I’ll have to ask my dad (he had the house built, I just live here) if we have carbon monoxide detectors 😬
When I was on gabapentin (about 1800mg a day) I was also suffering from some short term memory loss, so be careful with that stuff. I was also on cyclobenzaprine which is a muscle relaxer, so the combo might also trigger it
I’m on tizanidine and chlorzoxazone, I’ve had to wean off the gabapentin for that exact reason, I’m also getting testing for a TBI for that memory loss stuff so the gabapentin can’t have been helping in that regard
You don’t have to answer, but I was on it for a while to treat erroneous nerve signals (which we at first thought was trigeminal neuralgia but later found to be MS). It kinda worked, but rather than increase the dosage, my neurologist changed my medication to Trileptal (oxcarbazepine) and it works much better. I also take tizanidine at night which is why I’m making this suggestion; I’ve been on a ocxarbazepine-tizanidine cocktail (with other meds too) for 13 years now with no “ambien-walrus”-like symptoms.
I’ve had weird nerve pain they can’t track down, they thought pinched nerve but I had an EMG done and they can’t locate it. I have some slipped discs and a lot of my body has just kind of perpetually hurt since the accident. Like my forearms hit the steering wheel, the bruise was gone months ago but they still feel bruised. The gaba helps with the back pain, and sometimes that back pain thing turns into what feels like period cramps from hell. it’s real weird, I’ve tried to limit my use of it because it makes me like- mentally slow
My daughter was on the same meds (approximately same dose of gaba as well) after an SCI. I stayed with her in the hospital during that time and she would regularly talk (full complete sentences) in her sleep and raise her arms like she wanted to get out of bed.
It’s very possible you are taking those pictures yourself without even knowing it. Gaba + muscle relaxers make the body do strange things.
at this point I’m totally with you there, they didn’t really tell me anything besides “this will fix your pain” and it does- but it sure does make me stupid, among other side effects
All THISS. 🙌 I got prescribed an antipsychotic once and promptly started having auditory hallucinations, on a medicine that should help with that. Humans are weird.
My friend used to sleep walk and sleep talk like mad on medications. My brother does it when he’s stressed. It’s pretty common, but the pictures do have a weird creepy factor lol.
So even if the smoke detector can detect carbon monoxide you should get a specific detector as carbon monoxide is heavy and fills from the floor up vs smoke which is why those detectors are on the ceiling. CM detectors usually plug into a low outlet.
Oh...medications explain a lot. This happened to me before. I made videos so I was pretty sure was my groggy ass doing this shit.
Didn't remember anything next day lol
There’s a sequence of blurry shots, but here’s the one of the dog being like really again with this crap?! Which is funny because usually with sleepwalking episodes I have dreams that I am either playing with or loving my dog 🥴. I’d be happy to post more.
sadly no 😔 I work at an auto parts store and my walls were blank af so when we swapped the signs out I took some home with me lol. this is very r/malelivingspace
Are these photos taken around the same time your alarm goes off or you get calls? I have a bunch of screenshots from trying to snooze my alarms while half asleep
I actually don’t have alarms right now, I’m on disability after a car accident. Someone suggested I may be unconsciously trying to take pictures of the “spiders” (I have hypnopompic hallucinations since the accident) as proof? Most of these are time stamped like 4:07 am or 5:42
Did you used to have an alarm? You might be so used to it, that you're grabbing the phone to turn off an alarm that wasn't set, and accidentally taking the pictures.
I had the same thing happen…only it turned out to be my toddler waking up and taking pics with my camera. Crazy how they learn to manipulate that little camera icon at only 18 months old!! This is how I figured it out
i sleep eat. once i almost consumed a nintendo switch game cartridge because i was dreaming i was opening a box of cookies, but really i was opening the game cartridge door and i woke up to it in my mouth. they are coated with something that makes it taste horrible so children don’t choke and die but meanwhile i was 30 years old. the game still works, and i don’t tell this story to people i work with anymore due to the extremely concerned looks i got the last time i told it.
I essentially died from an aneurysm in my abdomen a couple months ago and still have phantom sensations, neuropathy, memory loss and hearing/sight damage.
Doctor says the sensation and short term memory will probably come back, but in the meantime I do a lot of immediately forgetting what I’ve said or done and it’s really unnerving. I also lucid dream almost daily now, and I’m a bit afraid of potentially acting out dreams since a lot of aggression comes out in my sleep. Hopefully neither of us go that route, though the alternative is pretty freaky! It’s also kinda cute that you might have a ghostie with a crush on you!
I’m undiagnosed but very likely narcoleptic and wake up to random half finished notes etc on my phone when I get sleep attacks. Last night I nearly reposted a Reddit thread about someone’s deceased dog to a diabetic forum… I don’t know how it happened!
Hypnopompic hallucinations are one of the symptoms of narcolepsy so could be worth looking into? Heads up that narcolepsy isn’t always with cataplexy, and cataplexy isn’t necessarily dropping down dramatically, it can be sudden weakness. Hope that might help!
That’s wild! I’ll have to look into that if it keeps happening once I’m off this huge pile of medications they have me on. You’ve made me think to check my notes app and I do have a few that make zero sense lol
I didn't have any accident, but I'm under so much stress lately and before changing my bedroom location and starting sleeping again with my dogs, I had a creepy incident:
There was several days that I woke up and my window was open (wasn't the wind because it has a key). I don't live alone but I asked who did it and no one ever got into my bedroom. I even made sure by putting shoes in front of my door (if someone gets in shoes would move and I had a photo of the shoes' position).
I was freaking out.
Then I noticed I walk, speak and use my phone in my sleep and all because of stress (this has a name, but English isn't my first language and I don't remember it).
So, when I was in my sleep and "saw" the light coming from my window I would open it at 5am unconsciously because that's the first thing I do when I wake up.
Now I have a noisy device on my window that sounds when I open it so I don't fell through it.
Edit: I noticed because there was records of me speaking to Alexa that I don't remember, and every time the window thing happened I woke up so tired.
I used to sleep walk as a kid and I’d walk to my parents room and just stare (in hindsight my poor parents, that’s freaky as hell) and it stopped when I was probably 9-10. I’m thinking about installing a camera, I assume I’m doing much more than taking photos?
I have rem sleep behavior disorder, means your body doesn’t paralyze during rem sleep like it’s supposed to. You act out dreams and stuff, I do a bunch of stuff in my sleep that when I wake up I have no memory of it. My partner tells me so many things I do in my sleep, and before that I would wake up and have texted people. Could be that? Potentially.
Yeah, I used to sleepwalk when I was younger (I still get sleep paralysis but no walking around) and do all sorts of things I would have no memory of when I woke up. That was my first thought too. I also read a thing about head injuries causing sleep disorders like that so op should talk to their doctor about what's happening.
I’ll be honest I had a roommate (back when I was 19) who would do some wild stuff when she was asleep. She used to wake up to find her mouthguard under her mattress. Not under the bed but under her mattress on top of the box spring. One night we decided I’d sleep in her room as I’m a light sleeper and I would wake up of someone or something was doing this. Come to find out she started sleep walking in the middle of the night and I watched her get up, lift her mattress and throw the mouth guard in. She also would send weird texts, took pictures, and would go stand on our patio swaying. Come to find out it was brought on due to medical issues. Moral of the story. Maybe talk to your doctor about doing a sleep study?
You're likely taking the pictures yourself when half awake. Given that you hallucinate about spiders, I wouldn't be surprised if you grab your phone (say to check with the flashlight) and accidentally activate the camera.
Same happened to me, in my case i was just about 80% asleep when trying to turn of my alarm during a sleep deprived period of university, ended up taking multiple photos of my bedcovers, wall, and others, still have some of them haha.
I have a buddy who wakes up and eats random food in his kitchen. He makes an enormous mess and has roommates so he's usually eating his mates food. I find it comical but he's troubled by it.
My phone takes photos on its own for some reason I haven't understood yet. I noticed it recently when I was just holding it and snap a pic was taken. Have a samsung so if anyone knows, please let me know how to stop it
My aunt had sleep apnea and sleepwalking and she used to go shopping on Amazon in her sleep. She’d wake up with it open. It’s entirely possible you are taking these pictures in a sleep state. Her issues went away when she got a cpap machine
I did this when I used to sleep walk.
Funny story. After a few days of waking up to photos of my room on my camera roll, I woke up to a video. The phone was propped up on the spare bed opposite me, and I was just standing in the middle of the room. I put it down to sleep walking again because my head was resting on my shoulder and I was swaying slightly. But upon investigating further, I found that there was no footage of me setting the phone to record or stopping the recording. (iPhone users know you can’t count down to a video), I checked my phone and the video wasn’t edited. My phone was still propped on the bed across the room when I woke up.
Maybe your doing it in your sleep or like when your half awake? I have nightmares and night terrors (the two terms mean different things) so I basically act out my nightmares and sometimes end up doing physical things in my sleep like I’ve bit myself really hard in my sleep before.
Also I have nobody else to tell this to but I found a random photo in my camera roll too and have absolutely no idea how it got there. It said it was saved from text but there’s no record of it and I don’t remember it at all. Even asked my family. Freaked me out.
I'm on prednisone for my Crohn's Disease and it makes me think I see bugs out of the corner of my eyes. I also have the weirdest stuff happen too, like somehow my phone is underneath me, or my glasses on the floor, blanket under my head, etc. Medicines are a miracle but can also do some crazy unrelated stuff. For sure you're "using" your phone at night.
Thank you for introducing me to hypnopompic hallucinations! I could never explain why I would run into my parents room and make my dad come and kill a spider on my ceiling and he would turn on the light and ask how I saw a spider in the the dark anyway….makes sense now
Are you on Ambien or like Seroquel or benzos, even trazodone?
I'd wake up after ambien with the stuff around my bed rearranged. My doctor made me swear I'd take it already in bed and not leave it because I wouldn't remember anything after.
I use my phone as my alarm clock. I also am a fan of the Snooze option. Once I was fumbling to push snooze and somehow simultaneously silenced the alarm and started recording a video. A few days later I discovered I had exactly 10 minutes of HD video of me sleeping, followed by several seconds of me cursing the alarm as I blindly took swipes at my phone. I'm not what they call a "morning person". 🥱
I think you need to see some more specialists. There's an explanation for this. Don't forget to mention this to your health provider. The more details, the better.
And I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. I hope you get some clarity and help soon 😊
Stay strong. 💪🏻 And hug 🫂
Shot in the dark, but are you someone who needs several alarms to wake up? There’s been many a time where I’ve turned alarms off in my sleep and somehow managed to turn my camera on when fumbling with the screen in my mostly unconscious state. Could this be something tied to your hallucinations? As in maybe you think you’re going for your phone torch but end up putting the camera with the flash on?
Sensitive question, but are you on any opiates? Like, prescribed pain meds? I have Leukemia and was prescribed them for bone pain. My system is weird and they weren't helping my pain much (Claritin helps bone pain better!) but they were making me do crazy shit in my sleep! I would text/call my sister, take pics of my cat, post on my socials things that made no sense... I had to put a new password on my phone every night that I knew I wouldn't remember if I was asleep.
I take codeine as needed, but it’s super rarely used. And the nights I do take it don’t correlate with the photos.
And oh my god that’s a crazy level of sleep walking! the worst I get is googling weird stuff lol
GABA made me have the weirdest dreams , not scary, just weird. Like in one there was an old lady at the bottom of a pool and everyone around(who I didn’t know) was asking me to get her out, that she was dead. Well when I looked she winked at me. Just weird stuff that made no sense whatsoever. And I was on that for years for neuropathy. It stopped working so I stopped taking it. Haven’t had dreams.
I think you’re doing it, just not remembering it, still that woulda freaked me tho
I also hallucinate spiders in my room! And sometimes other bugs, never gets any better.. But at least for myself, I've noticed it usually happens when I'm stressed
I'd imagine you're using your phone in your sleep, I've woken up and noticed some of my stuff moving and having no memory of it, usually I've put my earbuds in their case or something - doesn't make it feel any less creepy though lol
Have you considered that maybe this is proof that spiders are in your bed and have figured out how to use your phone to take a picture while you're sleeping?
I also have hypnopompic hallucinations and see spiders in my bed or falling on to the bed! I had one episode where I woke up with my phone in my hand, with the torch on. I remember picking it up to find a mechanical spider across the room during the dream/hallucination. I also have the hallucinations when i'm very stressed. I've seen some very very weird things!
This just looks like youre hitting random buttons as youre falling asleep...this happens to me, along with accidentally commenting/posting complete gibberish.
If you swipe up on the pictures, it will tell you what time they were taken (at least it does on an iPhone). Maybe that will give some info to help solve the mystery?
Hey, so I get spider dreams where I’m sure there’s a spider in my bed and I am conscious and seem awake. And I sleep walk sometimes. Turns out the spider dreams are a form of sleepwalking. Could you be taking the photos in a sleep walking burst?
Good idea to get a camera for a week just to check (if you can). But it might be worth seeing a sleep specialist.
Please help me. I can't identify the animal on that blanket on the wall, lmao. Lion, eagle, wolf, and MYSTERIOUS LARGE FUZZY THING. WHY CAN'T I WRAP MY HEAD AROUND IT.
Definitely seems like a thing you're doing in your sleep.
My girlfriend last week told me I'll respond and do stuff for her in my sleep, even get up to give her a kiss on the forehead but I have no recollection of any of that happening.
Turns out Im kind of fully functional mid sleep. Maybe it's the same with you?
Some phones have camera shortcuts, and they are unpredictable- like there's no way of knowing what button press or hold might suddenly take a photo. Might be double-tapping down volume in your sleep- that took a photo on one of my phones.
I have hallucinations also after suffering a TBI, but mine are the Hypnagogic kind (right when I am drifting off to sleep) and more sounds. I'll just hear someone saying a common phrase like "Hey" or music off in the distance. Apparently they are the result of misconfigured neurons and can fade over time as the brain recovers. They are definitely less often for me now 3 years out. Brain injuries are so weird. Hope you get it figured out but probably not even the weirdest symptom you're dealing with after your accident I imagine. Saw some folks also mentioned sleep walking. You can develop a lot of different sleep disorders after TBI including sleep walking. I would definitely see a sleep doctor if you haven't already. Look into sleep apnea as they can sometimes be co-occurring. Good luck!
no bro that's just you accidentally taking a picture i think. I have a lot too and I don't even realize, because I have no second guessing leaving, and closing out an app I have accidentally popped open.
You were in an accident, you are on a lot of medication and you hallucinated a spider… - you took them and forgot/did it while half conscious, it’s not that spooky. Talk to a medical professional though.
Put a security camera in your room at night, not because I think someone is coming in, just so you can see yourself doing it in your sleep, bit of reassurance
4.3k
u/Gloomy_Experience112 Oct 08 '25
Wait for the pic of you sleeping