Have You Heard Someone Calling Your Name As You’re Falling Asleep? Here’s Why

I was 16, laying in my daybed surrounded by walls covered in movie posters and pictures of male celebrities torn from teen magazines. Just as I was inching toward sleep, I heard my best friend’s voice in my ear saying my name. “Trisha,” he whispered. I froze, now wide awake. Of course, he wasn’t there. He was on the other side of town, probably in his own bed not thinking of me at all. But I heard him. I know I heard his voice clear as day.

This might sound crazy, and for a while I worried that was the case. Then I heard other people’s stories. Otherwise sane people talking of occasions where they’d hear someone say their name right before they fell asleep. And it would more often than not be the voice of someone they knew. It turns out, this is super common, and actually has a logical explanation. There’s nothing wrong with you, I promise.

You’re not the only one.

First, it’s important to know that you’re not alone. While people may not feel comfortable telling those they know that they’ve heard someone saying their name, that hasn’t kept them from sharing their experiences anonymously online.

So basically when I lay down for bed, right when I start to drift to sleep, I will hear a voice. And it’s usually always someone yelling my name “Jessica!”

I remember one time it was so loud my actual eardrum hurt. As if the voice was physically next to my ear.

u/JessicaTheFirst

This happened to me about a month ago. I was in bed and hear my name said so clearly right in my ear. The voice sounded feminine but I turned to my boyfriend to see what he wanted and he was facing the other way a sleep.

u/olivieostrich

And this reddit user has the right idea:

Hallucinations, especially when one is between sleep and wakefulness, and especially of hearing one’s own name called, are more common than many people realize. Many people with no history or tendency toward psychosis will hallucinate at some point in their lives.

u/spicespiceworld

So what is it really?

They’re called ‘hypnagogic hallucinations.’

Hypnagogic hallucinations are sounds and feelings you experience when you’re falling asleep but that aren’t actually there. While hearing your own name is one of the more common forms of this, it could also manifest as phantom smells, loud bangs, or the feeling of someone grabbing your arm.

Luckily, according to WebMD, it’s no big deal:

These hallucinations aren’t a symptom of mental illness. Experts don’t know exactly what causes them, but they know they aren’t a cause for concern. They’re simply something that your brain might do during the process of falling asleep.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations, WebMD

Hopefully that makes you feel a little less like a freak. But why are our names so common when it comes to hypnagogic hallucinations? There’s some science that might explain it.

Our brains change when we hear our names.

There’s something a little magical about our own names. You could be in a huge crowd but if someone yells your name over the steady thrum of noise, you’re definitely going to hear it. Our ears and our brains are attuned to that word unlike any other. And it turns out there’s scientific proof of that.

A study by the Institute for the Study of Child Development found that our brains produce unique waves when we hear our own names. They scanned people’s brains as they heard a multitude of names but their brains lit up like Christmas trees when they’re own showed up.

Perhaps hearing our own names is a common hypnagogic hallucination because of that part of our brain that fires when we hear it. Or maybe other words get whispered in our ears as we drift to sleep, and it’s only our own names that wake us enough to remember.

Just remember, the next time this happens to you, don’t be scared. It happens to tons of us, and you’re okay.