does fear mess with your senses (this much)?

I wasn’t clear on where I should start this thread so mods feel free to move it.

I was wondering if anyone on ATS has had similar experiences to me in the regards to things happening, or seeming to happening when you are very frightened or nervous.

What I am referring to is a feeling that either the bed is shaking or you feel a kind of breath on your face. This breath can either be cold air or hot air but feels like something is there.

This has happened to me on several occasions, more of the bed shaking then the breath thing, but here are 2 prominent accounts that I think of while writing this thread.

When I was younger I lived with my dad in an apartment for a while, (this being right after the divorce between my dad and mom), and at night I would often hear dishes clanking around like someone was downstairs doing the dishes or washing pots and pans etc..this was very loud and I was pretty positive that that’s what I was hearing. I could even hear this noise from upstairs with my door closed. However, when I went downstairs, often very scared because it was a new place and I wasn’t used to it yet, I would arrive in the kitchen and find that nothing was happening. The lights were turned off and nobody was there. The pots and dishes would sometimes be in the sink (because we had eaten a few hrs before) and sometimes they would be put away. Then when I would go back upstairs I would close my door or leave it open, it wouldn’t matter, and I would hear the same noise again. When I heard this noise I became very scared and it seemed like the bed was shaking which made me more scared. I really don’t think this was a case of the paranormal. It could have been but I am more interested to know if fear can cause this feeling of strong shaking. The strange thing was that I can usually tell when its just me, for example im shivering or something, but this felt like it was coming from the bed.

Another time I can remember involved myself, a friend of mine, his dad and my dad, all going camping together. My friend’s dad had a trailer so we were sleeping in that. It was right after we had a ghost story session around the campfire and we were going to bed. One of them really creeped me out because my dad had said it really happened. When everyone was asleep except me I got the feeling again, except this time the whole trailer was moving back and forth, this scared me so much that I had to wake up my dad.

I can only think of one example with the breath thing. It has happened several times but it is basically always the same. I feel like something is right in my face but its breathing on me, again this only happened to me when I was younger and I don’t really think it has happened since. If it has I don’t remember.

Anyways, what are your guys' thoughts on this?



[edit on 21-6-2006 by captinofcats]

My first thought -- does this happen every time that you are afraid/really scared?
Did your father, or anyone else, feel the trailor shaking? Was there any noise (squeaking/creaking) coming from the trailor itself that might've told whether or not it was really shaking?
((Are you sure you were awake? sounds silly, but the mind is a sneaky, convincing son-of-a....))

I know that fear can heighten the senses, as well as dull them. You can become hyper-sensitive, which heightens the 5 senses. Does it effect the 6th sense? Might.. only way to find out is to try and re-produce it.. the situation, the emotion, et cetera.

I can add a story, altho I'm not sure if it's truly related or not... I was about 4, visiting my family in Germany -- a completely new everything (new language, new people, new house, new bed, et cetera). It was pitch black (which, at that point, I'd never experienced). I was little, and I was scared.
I was laying in a bed, on the side of the room; the bed was completely pinned in - wall on three sides, and a half-wall about a foot away on my left. No way that bed coulda moved, right? Yeah, well, it moved. The bed swung out into the room! No noise, nada. I swung my right arm out, and should have smacked the wall, and didn't.
I pulled the blankets over my head, and (if memory serves me) the bed moved back to it's correct (supposedly blocked in) position. (To this day, no one really believes me because it's physically impossible for that bed to have moved anywhere.)

I've heard noises (claps, drum sticks clacking together) *in* my room that no one else has heard, and I've never heard since. (I lived in the same house for 15 years.. I was 5 when it happened, and even tho I listened, memorized the sounds the house naturally made, I never heard them again.)

I've had someone sit on my bed, compress the blankets down -- and when I sit up and look, the blankets return to their original position. (No one has ever answered me when I ask 'who's there?')

I've never had things shake, and without a point of reference (to know that the object is truly shaking) it's hard to say one way or the other. That's the pickle of it, so it seems -- if you're *in* the trailor, or in my case in pitch black, how can you tell if the senses are telling the truth or not?

The other thing to consider is the type of bed(s) on which you slept.. a thin frame will wiggle under the slightest movement.

Does stuff like this only happen when you're scared? Any other emotions trigger any other weird happenings?

Thank you for responding Diseria, I appreciate your interest.

Answering a few of your questions, I think it used to happen pretty frequently when i was very frightened almost every time, but I remember it did not happen a few times. I have not been in this state of fear while trying to sleep since I have become an adult mainly for the reason that I have had no reason to, I don’t really get scared about movies or anything to the point that I am afraid when I go to sleep anymore. Also I have not experienced any sounds or seemingly paranormal activity since I have been to college.

My dad did say he felt the trailer shaking, however he could have just been playing around or saying it to reassure me. It was not windy outside because after i woke up and he calmed me down I went outside with him to go to the bathroom and it was not windy. I could tell the trailer was shaking because i was on the top bunk and i could see the latter down to the bottom bunk shaking, also the windows seemed to shift in comparison to what was outside which gave me the feeling it was rocking. I also could just feel it, it’s hard to describe.

I am positive I was awake because an embarrassing thing happened when i got down from the latter to sleep on the bottom bunk ...my pants got caught on the ladder and i got a really bad wedgie lol! My friend still talks about it to this day..so i know i was still awake.

I don’t really remember what kind of bed it was in the trailer but I imagine it was pretty thin with springs...however my bed at my dad's said apartment had a thick mattress. The only way I could tell it was shaking was the feeling, and also the ceiling looked like it was moving in comparison to how it looked when if I felt still..

fear severley messes with your brain, i have felt something breath on me and every time i dared myself to open my eyes it stoped but carried on afterwards.

i also remember the worst ive had is when i was about 8 i had a nightmare, but i was awake and i imagined all sorts of things gathering around my bed.

it was getting to much so i decided to make a run for it as my mum was downstair but when i tried i couldnt because the covers were stuck, so being 8 i screamed and my mum was up within a few seconds.


somehow i had managed to turn around and be facing the end of the bed which is why the covers were stuck but i could have sworn i had never turned around.

[edit on 22-6-2006 by verymad]

Verymad, i have had the exact same thing happen to me with the breathing. I didn't go into too much detail about that part since I am more interested in finding an explanation related to the bed shaking, but that is basically what used to happen to me. I would feel someone breathing on my face while my eyes were closed then, when I opened them or jerked up and looked around, I would feel nothing.

If anyone knows anything about this bed shaking thing, I would be extremely greatful if you could post some information or possible non paranormal causes? I would just like to have this phenomenon solved for me once and for all.

It happened again today while i was laying down on my bed in a hotel im staying in temporarlily. I am in DC to visit my sister and when i felt the room/bed shaking i asked her if she felt something too and she didnt. This leads me to believe that it must be something purely physical, but i wasnt scared at the time, does this mean fear is not a factor in this at all? Can someone point me to some info or give me some advice on this one? I'm still trying to figure it out.

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I'm not sure if this has any bearing on your own experience, but quite often, pre-sleep, I 'feel' as if I'm vibrating all over. It doesn't always happen, but happens often enough for me to be able to basically ignore it these days.

I've had a number of paranormal experiences over the years, but the 'vibrations' didn't play a role, as far as I'm aware.

I'm not sure what the 'vibration' signifies. Possibly it happens when the mind is switching from one mode to another, or preparing to move into some astral type mode.

It's just one of those weird little things that happen and I don't think it's ever occurred to me to ask anyone if it happens to them too. It's only on forums such as this, when someone else mentions something, that there's an opportunity to discuss little oddities.

The vibrations I experience seem to come from within and involve the entire body --- but I'm not sure they're really physical, although they certainly feel as if they are. It would be great if i could ask someone to touch me, to see if I'm actually vibrating as much as I think I am .... but it's not the sort of thing you do and in any case, when it happens I'm in a non-communicative state: not asleep, not awake.

At first -- when it began happening -- it used to alarm me. It did feel as if the bed was vibrating very quickly. But in time I got used to it to the point I realised it wasn't the bed -- it was me. Now when it happens, I just ignore it.

It's difficult to describe, but basically, it feels as if the entire body is vibrating to the rhythm of a very rapid heart-beat. Don't know if this is similar to your own experience though.

I posted the breathing sensation quite some time ago and colcuded afterwards that it was sleep paralysis but im 99% certain that I was fully awake but just frightened to move. Heres my post which you might want to check out >> LINK

I can remember on one occasion where I was laying in bed, and it sounded like a kid was calling me names. I got soo freaked out by this. I prayed and prayed for it to go away, and then i started to cry, and it went away.

this just happened again last night..its been a long time since anything like this has gone on but i felt the whole freakin bed shake last night...it wasnt violent shaking or vibration..more like just slow shaking it creeped me out..

Just to throw something into the mix of thoughts and idea's. But have you been to the doctor about it at all ? It could be something as you say just happening to you and it could be a physical thing rather than a paranormal experience.

Maybe your ear canals are causing the unsteady occurances ? Or yes it could be paranormal. I don't really understand fully how you describe the bed shaking. Is it an actual shake of the bed you can feel...or is it your perception the bed is shaking ? The reason I ask is because you have asked people if they have felt it and they havn't so it may just be your perception / physical damage etc.

thats what i was thinking actually. I was almost sure that it was something physical but it seems like its outside of me and im not causing it its a really strange feeling..its not like an ear canal thing or anything like that...the best way i can explain it is by imgaining someone slowly rocking the bed just a little like you can feel it rocking right? thats how it feels it feels like someone is rocking the bed but im pretty sure its me i just dont know how im getting the sensation..or if its a common thing or what..