# Can someone explain why I wake up with scrapes & cuts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2006, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234 "2006-07-12T20:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/21 "2006-07-13T05:20:08Z")
The dingoes did it. If you have a baby, watch it carefully. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/22 "2006-07-13T06:11:53Z")
[QUOTE=Birdmonster] I’ve had this happen in my bed, hotel beds, sleeping bags, airplanes, and once, when **I stumbled blotto into a bush and fell asleep**. That last one makes sense, actually. And no cats. Not anymore. [/QUOTE] I don’t know what “blotto” is, but what the hell? Is this normal behavior for you? I am fairly certain I would not be able to sleep on/in a bush. Care to elaborate? ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/23 "2006-07-13T06:13:17Z")
Ah, looked up blotto. Thanks for increasing my vocabulary! ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/24 "2006-07-13T07:31:59Z")
Succubi. Happens to me all the time. I kinda like it. ---
**Author:** ![Mnemonic\_Obstruction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@Mnemonic\_Obstruction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemonic_Obstruction)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/25 "2006-07-13T11:32:06Z")
Are you sleeping on a feather pillow? I used to own an old down-filled pillow and eventually the quills started to poke through the fabric. I’d often awaken with scratches like those you describe. Granted, the scratches are extemely similar to those caused by alien sex, but it’s worth considering. The possibility of quill scratches, I mean, not alien sex. (The alien sex was okay once but I wouldn’t consider it again.) ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/26 "2006-07-13T15:50:11Z")
[QUOTE=Renee] I don’t know what “blotto” is, but what the hell? Is this normal behavior for you? I am fairly certain I would not be able to sleep on/in a bush. Care to elaborate? [/QUOTE] A sad tale of foolish younger days. It was a rather comfy bush, apparently, as I spent 4 or 5 hours there before waking up confused. The feather pillow thought was interesting, but I’m not quite that well-equipped. And the idea of sleeping in a tux with cotton gloves is the greatest thing I"ve heard all day. Of course, I woke up an hour ago, but still…to the tailor! ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/27 "2006-07-13T16:58:17Z")
I bet Birdmonster’s been playing sleep rugby. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/28 "2006-07-13T18:04:13Z")
Got a camcorder? Why don’t you record yourself at sleep and see if anything interesting happens? ---
**Author:** ![Heckxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f1d935/32.png) [@Heckxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckxx)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/29 "2006-07-13T19:10:01Z")
[QUOTE=Birdmonster] I’ll periodically wake up with very thin but sometimes fairly long cuts on my arms, my back, my face, or my neck [/QUOTE] I believe i experience similar problems. Every once in awhile i will wake up and find thin razor-like cuts on my upper chest, and one time on my upper arm. What always surpirsed me was how straight the cuts were, like i was being stabbed with the edge of a metal sheet or something. Anyways, someone mentioned fingernail scratching, and that seems to be a very good explanation. Fingernail stratches during nightmares i say… I know that I dont sleepwalk, and theres no sharp objects near or on my bed. And no feathers. But then again, i do keep my fingernails extremelty short.. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/30 "2006-07-13T22:15:08Z")
Um, are you alone when you’re asleep in bed? Cause maybe an extra special friend that you like a lot, gets carried away when hugging you and scratches you and at the time you don’t notice cause you’re hugging your extra special friend . . . cause otherwise, I got nuthin’. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/31 "2006-07-13T23:27:15Z")
Another vote for the camcorder idea, though it might take several nights, even weeks, before you solve the problem. At least it will establish if you are actually wounding yourself. And if it does turn out you’re a werewolf, or being abducted by aliens, the tape will support you for the rest of your life. Do you ever find pinprick wounds or lumps near the scratches? If so there might be arthropod life (bedbugs, mosquitoes, spiders, God forbid it’s lice) molesting you in your sleep. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/32 "2006-07-14T22:21:41Z")
Strange to see this thread here today. During my lunch break I was reading the novel “Empire Falls” and there was a passage in which a character wakes up bleeding from tiny cuts all over his body. He also has a terrible hangover and can’t remember much detail from the previous evening. He examines the bed carefully and finds tiny shards of glass in the sheets. Eventually he happens to glance upwards and notices the remains of a broken light bulb in the ceiling socket. Otherwise, I got nuthin. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/33 "2006-07-14T22:30:00Z")
Do you have unusually vivid dreams of visiting a land full of magic that’s fighting an ancient dark evil, and while you’re there you get wounded by this brooding darkness but rescued at the last minute by your own heretofore unrealized magical powers, and then you wake up and sigh with relief that it was only a dream, until you look down and see the blood? Or is that just me? ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234/34 "2006-07-15T04:14:00Z")
I’m sorry. I’ll try to be more careful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-i-wake-up-with-scrapes-cuts/364234.md?page=1)