# Please explain sound I heard in my room **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958 "2012-09-07T05:58:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/1 "2012-09-07T05:58:16Z")
I’m safe and sound in my bedroom, alone, last night. I’m getting ready for bed. As I go to turn off the light, I distinctly and clearly hear a loud sound, much like a voice, that seemed to come from about a foot to the left of me, as though someone were sitting on the corner of my bed. The sound was two syllables, “Du Wa”. It freaked me out, not gonna lie. I tried to come up with some rational explanation. I’m on the 14th floor, so its not like it was a noise from a car driving by. I will feel so much better even if someone can explain that I was having a one-time auditory hallucination. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/2 "2012-09-07T06:05:38Z")
Air coming out of your mattress. Or ghosts. Equally likely. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/3 "2012-09-07T06:08:04Z")
No idea… Too many possibilities. Air in the pipes, mouse in the wainscoting, pigeon at the window, creaky joists, neighbors having a spat, just dunno. Did you do a quick walk-through of your flat to be damn sure you were alone? You’re posting as if it happened a night ago, so I’m guessing you’re okay. But, very seriously, if I heard something like that, I’d go and take a look, turning all the lights on and checking all the closets. Sounds very unpleasant! Very recently, jet aircraft, in their flight pattern over where I live, have started making a new and different sound, something they never used to do. The jet engines seem to spin down, to lose power; the roar drops off, falling in pitch and intensity. It almost sounds like the engines are failing. The first time I heard that, I didn’t know what the hell it was. The second time I heard it, I figured out what it was…and it terrified me. I thought a jet airliner had lost power and was gonna crash. Now, I’m getting used to it. It’s just what pilots do nowadays. (No idea why.) Maybe it was something like that: a “new sound” for your background noise. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/4 "2012-09-07T06:15:36Z")
[Exploding head syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome)? It’s not as bad as it sounds. I am prone to frequent hypnagogic hallucinations while drifting off to sleep, and your description sounds like a typical one. I don’t think I’ve ever had one while getting _ready_ for bed, though. I have had them while awake when dead tired after an all-nighter. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/5 "2012-09-07T07:25:51Z")
Can you be more descriptive in describing the actual sound? The tone, cadence, clarity. Was it scratchy, or smooth? Distinct? How close to a human voice was it? Etc. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/6 "2012-09-07T07:31:40Z")
Sorry, that was me. I’ll be quieter tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/7 "2012-09-07T07:55:07Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Can you be more descriptive in describing the actual sound? The tone, cadence, clarity. Was it scratchy, or smooth? Distinct? How close to a human voice was it? Etc. If it really was ‘Du Wa’ (i.e. ‘Doo-wah!’, as you might expect to hear in a song), it could be a ringtone on a mobile phone or other electronic device. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/8 "2012-09-07T08:55:54Z")
[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360427,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360427,00.html) homeless woman lives undetected in Japanese man’s closet for a year ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/9 "2012-09-07T09:06:04Z")
One thing to do is try to see if a similar sound can be detected again under the same conditions at the same time of day. So listen again tonight and see if you hear something else. If my suspicions are correct it may sound like “diddy diddy” this time. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/10 "2012-09-07T10:04:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Air coming out of your mattress. Or ghosts. Equally likely. _Silly_ **TriPolar**! Ghosts don’t come of of mattresses! They’re afraid of being trapped under the covers. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/11 "2012-09-07T10:09:37Z")
There is only one reasonable explanation. There is treasure buried under your bed and the butler has rigged up an elaborate system of projectors and speakers to create the illusion that your fourteen-storey-high mansion is haunted, in order to keep the tourists away while he searches for it. Better get meddling or he might get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/12 "2012-09-07T10:55:06Z")
Similar things have happened to me. A voice (not a well-known voice) saying a syllable or two out loud, usually pure nonsense. I, too, perceive the voice as coming from a certain point around me. Happens maybe once every two years. It always happens in the bedroom, either while I’m falling asleep or as the first thing I hear waking up. I consider it to be an auditory hallucination when I’m in the hypnagogic (or similar) state. A similar thing that happened once or twice: I wake up and wonder if I’ve just been woken up by a certain loud sound (say, the dog barking). Within about 10 seconds, I get a very clear auditory memory of the dog having just barked. Then I open my eyes and find the dog sleeping fitfully. So I guess I’m just very suggestible in the transitions between the waking state and sleep. I’ve never really worried about it. I read an article about these once, and it wasn’t considered a sign of illness (or hauntedness!). (I think my mom had similar symptoms, but she interpreted them as apparitions of departed loved ones…) ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/13 "2012-09-07T11:01:04Z")
Actually last night I was woken by a growling monster. I survived the night so presumably I imagined it. Mississippienne did say she was turning the light off at the time, though, so presumably the sound was not hypnagogic unless she was very tired or something. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/14 "2012-09-07T11:03:25Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Better get meddling or he might get away with it. He would have, if not for those meddling kids. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/15 "2012-09-07T11:06:00Z")
I think I may have mentioned this before. I was about 12 to 13. I was laying in bed in my own room. I wasn’t at all tired it was early about 7pm. ( mum used to make us sleep early to save on electricity costs) I heard a sound as though someone was clearing their throat and then heard a spit and suddenly felt a cold wet lump hit my right eye. I moved my fingers to my eye and my og there was a cold wet foamy residue WTF! I remember calling out to my mum sleeping in an adjacent room. Hey mum did you just spit at me? To which she replied of course not go to sleep. Now I was rubbing this substance between my fingers and I remember them being wet but I was not scared at all but rather puzzled and thinking WTH, WTF? But as I couldn’t explain it I just kinda decided to forget it and go to sleep. Now obviously it couldn’t have happened, I slept in my own room ( had three sisters sharing one room hehehe!) there was no one else in my room. I must have had a spontaneous hallucination. I never mentioned it anymore, even the next morning. The human mind is an incredible thing. Now I wasn’t tired or in the least sleepy but somehow my mind played this trick. I haven’t a clue where it came from but even in an alert state a teenager’s mind can play tricks. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/16 "2012-09-07T11:10:39Z")
Missed the edit window. I know you are not a teenager, but I think my experience shows that at all ages the mind can play incredible tricks ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/17 "2012-09-07T11:14:39Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > [Exploding head syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome)? It’s not as bad as it sounds. > > I am prone to frequent hypnagogic hallucinations while drifting off to sleep, and your description sounds like a typical one. I don’t think I’ve ever had one while getting _ready_ for bed, though. I have had them while awake when dead tired after an all-nighter. Wow, thanks. At least twice in the past two years, I have accused my wife of making noises (banging kitchenware or whatever) when I was trying to fall asleep, when in fact she had made no noise at all. Now I’m sure this is basically the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/18 "2012-09-07T11:16:20Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > Similar things have happened to me. A voice (not a well-known voice) saying a syllable or two out loud, usually pure nonsense. I, too, perceive the voice as coming from a certain point around me. Happens maybe once every two years… Yes! Me, too. Even to the timing. The voice is a woman’s (but not a voice I can identify) and says my name rather sharply - not like calling my name, more like “Hey! Getting your attention, here.” The first time it happened I called my mother the next day to see if she had been thinking of me or needed something at around whatever-a.m. Nope. But she had similar episodes at my age. Now she has tinnitus and hears music all the time, so she can’t say whether it still happens to her… ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/19 "2012-09-07T12:07:46Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > _Silly_ **TriPolar**! > > Ghosts don’t come of of mattresses! They’re afraid of being trapped under the covers. Presumptuous Tricorian! Of course ghosts come out of mattresses! Why else are they always covered by sheets? ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958/20 "2012-09-07T13:03:59Z")
Manfred Mann? [Do Wah Diddy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9fofFGXKc) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-sound-i-heard-in-my-room/633958.md?page=2)