The question on reddit was simple: What is the worst/scariest thing that has woken you up?

Over 22 THOUSAND comments later (wow!) we’ve got the creepiest, scariest 15 answers for you to check out.

Enjoy… ? ? ?

1. When ya gotta go…

Back when I lived alone in a studio apartment, I used to wake to just about anything…never woke up more terrified than the night when I woke up to the sound of my toilet flushing.

To this day I can only assume that a ghost just couldn’t hold it anymore.

2. At least it wasn’t two ghosts…

Woke up to scratching, chittering, and screeching at my second floor window. Sounded other-worldly.

Got the courage to look outside … saw two squirrels f*cking on a tree branch.

3. Tragedy follows this guy around…

First was a phone call at 5am to let us know that two family members were killed by a drunk driver.

Second was the smoke alarm as the entire basement was burning and the fire was almost at the top of the steps.

We all barely made it out.

4. Submarines are terrifying!

The general alarm shrieking through the 1MC speaker right outside of my rack when I was on a submarine.

Someone’s clothes had caught fire in the dryer (the only one on the boat).

I was deep asleep and woke up confused as hell, scared witless and choking on smoke.

5. Holy f**king sh^t!

Woman screaming for her life.

Luckily for her it was a big apartment complex and about 30 people got outside before they could shove her in the trunk.

Her head was wrapped up in a duct tape mask.

It was all quite f*cked up.

6. The worst wake-up call

My girlfriend’s mother telling me there were 2 police officers and my mother at the front door.

It was 4am and I was sleeping at the girlfriends house.

They had come to inform me my Dad had died.

That was around 14 years ago.

I’m afraid to say that I don’t think this sort of wake up won’t happen again.

7. When you know, you know…

I remember when my grandmother died. My mother woke us up (my brothers and I) at around 3 in the morning, saying they’re going to drop us off somewhere and an uncle was going to take us to my grandmother’s town to see my grandmother because she was very sick. My parents are divorced and father lived elsewhere, but closer to that town than us.

I remember the car ride there. Everyone was quiet. I even remember imagining what it would be like if my grandmother died and wasn’t sick, as my mother had said. Turns out she did die, but my mother thought it best not to tell us. Good on her, that would have been a terrible 4 hour car ride and even worse way to wake up.

That’s the worst memory I have. Us pulling up to the house to see numerous cars parked out front, then us getting off the car to hug my father, who had tears in eyes.

At that moment, no one had to say anything, we knew.

Worst pain I’ve ever felt, didn’t get over it for years.

8. “…hemorrhaging what looked like gallons of blood…”

My grandmother was battling lung cancer.

Me and my aunt were taking care of her. She was bedridden and close to the end, we knew that.

One night I went to sleep and was woken up at 1am to the sounds of my aunt screaming my name. I rushed to my grandma’s room and saw my grandma hemorrhaging what looked like gallons of blood from her nose and mouth, while my aunt held her crying and screaming.

I called 911, kept myself as strong as I could until they arrived a few minutes later and then I completely broke down.

They pronounced her dead shortly after they got there. I’ve never felt more pain in my life than to see my best friend bleed out naked on the floor.

9. “…while my heart is spinning in my ass…”

I stay with grandparents from my mother’s side. Both have to get 3 sessions of dialysis a week. Grandma has started going senile these past few months so I quit my job so I could look after them for the next few years until my parents retire and move back home.

Anyways, I had a similar experience about 2 months ago. Grandma is at the beginning of her deterioration, she tells me “my partner has died” at 3 in the morning after shaking me awake. I immediately gun to their bedroom and my grandpa is chilling watching some series I got him into. Turns out my grandmother just figured out that her dialysis partner that she spends so much time with during a week passed away on the chair that morning.

I made her some tea and told her to go back to bed, while my heart is spinning in my ass with the image of my dead grandfather running through my mind.

10. Collapsable life

I woke up at 6am with a 90 percent collapsed right lung.

I was in shock and lived alone but had no idea what was wrong with me I just couldn’t breath right or catch my breath. Called a spontaneous nemothorax and I guess it’s common on tall lankey white guys that have big growth spurts.

I was 27 when it happened.

Had to call 911 and get a medic ride to the hospital. The paramedics thought I just had some anxiety (so did I lol) and they mocked it on my ride to the hospital. But the doctor cleared that up quite fast and let me know I was in shock and my blood oxygen levels didint look good. It was a life changing event. I couldn’t fall asleep without fears of waking up unable to breathe for about two years and I still got the scar where they put the tube through my ribs and into my lung to reinflate it. Let me tell ya it was not fun lol

To expand on this. The first doc didn’t put the lung tube in correctly. He was really shoving that thing into my ribs and I could hear the muscle and such tearing. I was quite fit at the time and had a ton of muscle. They also couldn’t use the normal smaller tube because they were out so I got this thick tube. Yay me. A day later I had a new lung tube put in. Because of that I was in the hospital for 3 days. My mom flew from Hawaii overnight to be there for me and I still couldn’t thank her enough.

11. It’s in the walls!

My house trying to fall apart.

I was remodeling a nightmare of a room in a 1925 house. Got into the walls (anyone who has done this knows what I’m talking about) and it was a nightmare.

I removed the layer of plywood behind the drywall to see what the studs looked like. Well the f*cking plywood was holding up the walls, the studs had more or less disintegrated. So, the whole night I heard constant, loud settling noises, not normal ones. Loud pops, wood crunching, etc.

Next morning I set up an exterior brace and that kept it sound long enough to properly repair it.

12. god d*mn dog!

We used to have this weird old labrador that lived next door but would come sleep at ours some nights. It was weird because it would stand on it’s hind legs and trot around for a bit before getting on all fours again.

One night I woke to what sounded like someone walking around the room, for about 5 seconds I completely sh^t myself thinking there was a child walking around my room before I realised it was that dog.

I think it did it for food.

13. Good doggie!

Actually just happened last week.

Woke up to my dog growling and someone was shining a light into my window at 2 am.

I was super out of it and trying to process what was going on since the light was coming from someone in my fenced in backyard.

Then my dog barked loud and the person ran away.

14. Robot problems

Anyone here have one of those robotic vacuums?

When the power goes out those f*ckers start wandering around lost, bumping into sh^t.

Absolutely terrifying thing to be woken up by at 3 in the morning.

15. “But honey, don’t you remember, she died in the car crash??”

Me and my wife’s bed was positioned so if the door to the kids room was open you could see into their room from our bed. In the middle of the night I wake up for no apparent reason. Before turning over and returning to sleep I glance into our kids room, I notice our daughters bed is empty. Strange. I call out to her, no reply. As I call louder, my wife awakens and asks wtf I’m doing.

“I’m calling for Wilma”, I reply.

“But honey, don’t you remember, she died in the car crash??”, she tells me.

As my world crumble and I’m overcome with pain and sorrow, I wake up again, for real this time.

Our daughter is safely asleep in her bed.

Worst nightmare ever, still gives me the chills, 10 or so years later.

Wow. That’s some truly chilling stuff!

Good luck sleeping tonight!