What is causing my bed to shake?

[Rausken]

Alright, I really need some help here. For the past two weeks my bed has started shaking at seemingly random points during the day/night. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me until my girlfriend sat down on my bed one day and asked why it was moving. I was like, "you feel that too?" Anyway, the shaking is extremely subtle. It's not strong enough the shake the actual bed frame, just my mattress. The shaking will last anywhere from thirty seconds to three minutes and it will happen around three to four times a day. One night while the bed was shaking I decided to investigate.

I grabbed a flashlight and took a look under my bed. The only thing I have under my bed are a bunch of old toys from when I was younger stored in plastic containers. Everything looked normal and nothing was in contact with the lower bed frame. I then lifted the futon off of the box spring to see if there was anything between the two. There was nothing there and the shaking seemed to have stopped. The box spring nor my futon seemed to be shaking. I then put the futon back down on the box spring and my bed started shaking again. I then thought maybe it's due to seismic activity. So I checked a seismograph at a school around 1/4th of a mile from my house. There was no seismic activity at all. I know it's not anything like heavy machinery because I live in a suburban area. The closest place I can think of with that type of machinery is a quarry about seven miles from my house but even then the trucks stick to the highway which is nowhere near my house.

I don't find the actual shaking scary, it's just really annoying. I keep waking up due to my bed shaking. Last night was actually pretty bad, I got around three hours of sleep. Another strange thing, but probably irrelevant is that ever since the shaking began. I have been having some strange dreams, I have never in my life had dreams that felt so real and detailed. Last night I probably had one of the strangest to date but I also woke up and it felt like I had a burn on my left leg. I took a look and it looked normal as if nothing happened. Most of today it just felt like a burn but after taking a pretty long nap it now just feels really sore. I have been thinking of doing an experiment to see which area of my bed the shaking is coming from but due to school I just haven't been able to get around to it yet. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I just want to be able to sleep normally again...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Dr. Peter Venkman]

Alright, I really need some help here. For the past two weeks my bed has started shaking at seemingly random points during the day/night. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me until my girlfriend sat down on my bed one day and asked why it was moving. I was like, "you feel that too?" Anyway, the shaking is extremely subtle. It's not strong enough the shake the actual bed frame, just my mattress. The shaking will last anywhere from thirty seconds to three minutes and it will happen around three to four times a day. One night while the bed was shaking I decided to investigate.

I grabbed a flashlight and took a look under my bed. The only thing I have under my bed are a bunch of old toys from when I was younger stored in plastic containers. Everything looked normal and nothing was in contact with the lower bed frame. I then lifted the futon off of the box spring to see if there was anything between the two. There was nothing there and the shaking seemed to have stopped. The box spring nor my futon seemed to be shaking. I then put the futon back down on the box spring and my bed started shaking again. I then thought maybe it's due to seismic activity. So I checked a seismograph at a school around 1/4th of a mile from my house. There was no seismic activity at all. I know it's not anything like heavy machinery because I live in a suburban area. The closest place I can think of with that type of machinery is a quarry about seven miles from my house but even then the trucks stick to the highway which is nowhere near my house.

I don't find the actual shaking scary, it's just really annoying. I keep waking up due to my bed shaking. Last night was actually pretty bad, I got around three hours of sleep. Another strange thing, but probably irrelevant is that ever since the shaking began. I have been having some strange dreams, I have never in my life had dreams that felt so real and detailed. Last night I probably had one of the strangest to date but I also woke up and it felt like I had a burn on my left leg. I took a look and it looked normal as if nothing happened. Most of today it just felt like a burn but after taking a pretty long nap it now just feels really sore. I have been thinking of doing an experiment to see which area of my bed the shaking is coming from but due to school I just haven't been able to get around to it yet. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I just want to be able to sleep normally again...

Thanks in advance for any help.

Buy a new bed, or move further away from the train tracks

[coconutmilk]

Hey, Rausken, are you stressed in any way from school? Instead of the bed literally shaking, it could be that you are the one shaking, but you are consciously aware that only the bed is shaking. From what I understood from your explanation, the shaking stops as soon as you stand up and investigate but begins to shake upon you lying back down. In other words, either you may be stressed due to the demand in school or you may have a psychological disorder. To explain the event with your girlfriend, maybe she was too shocked to notice your bed was shaking rather than notice that you were the one shaking. From my research, if this is true, you are experiencing signs of Myoclonus. But to be honest with you, I highly doubt this is the answer. I am just throwing ideas out there. If not this, then maybe something paranormal... nah. Anyone else have a solution?

[little_dreamer]

This has been discussed before in other threads. Hope this helps.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=144542&hl=

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=140246&hl=

[Rausken]

Hey, Rausken, are you stressed in any way from school? Instead of the bed literally shaking, it could be that you are the one shaking, but you are consciously aware that only the bed is shaking. From what I understood from your explanation, the shaking stops as soon as you stand up and investigate but begins to shake upon you lying back down. In other words, either you may be stressed due to the demand in school or you may have a psychological disorder. To explain the event with your girlfriend, maybe she was too shocked to notice your bed was shaking rather than notice that you were the one shaking. From my research, if this is true, you are experiencing signs of Myoclonus. But to be honest with you, I highly doubt this is the answer. I am just throwing ideas out there. If not this, then maybe something paranormal... nah. Anyone else have a solution?

I actually rather enjoy school. Yeah, I have a lot of homework but it's not stressing me out in any way. I still have plenty of time to do other things and I am a pretty happy person. Also, when my girlfriend asked me why the bed was moving I was sitting at my computer checking my e-mail before we went out for the evening. So I don't think it has anything to do with me moving the bed. I guess I should have worded that better.

EDIT: Also, when the bed started shaking again after I had placed my futon back on the box spring. I gently placed my hand on the futon and felt it shaking.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Rausken

[Aubrienne_Ellyrias]

maybe your about to become the next exsorcist. thats how they always start. get a new bed.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Lost Souls

[allie_shy]

Do you live near train tracks, even if they aren't really close by they can still cause your house to shake, and for some reason you can notice it more on the bed.

I moved into my house a few years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to my bed shaking horribly, for a long time i didn't know what it was i thought it was impossible for it to be the train i thought it was simply too far away, but later on in the year in the summer when I had my window open the horn of the train was in sync with when the shaking would start and dissipate.

go on to google earth, and just look around your area, see if there are any trains or major water ways or dams they can cause this as well.

[Jimmy T]

Alright, I really need some help here. For the past two weeks my bed has started shaking at seemingly random points during the day/night. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me until my girlfriend sat down on my bed one day and asked why it was moving. I was like, "you feel that too?" Anyway, the shaking is extremely subtle. It's not strong enough the shake the actual bed frame, just my mattress. The shaking will last anywhere from thirty seconds to three minutes and it will happen around three to four times a day. One night while the bed was shaking I decided to investigate.

After you get finished chasing physical explanations, if you are still unsatisfied with the mundane answers you should check out Robert Monroe's books about the out of body experience. The physical vibrations you describe are associated with the early stages of the process, which does happen spontaneously in some people. If you don't do anything with them, they'll eventually just go away, but working with them is something that can be learned and controlled. Several of his books are available in online format for free at www.scribd.com and the following link takes you directly to one of his howto books. Since you are already connecting a new type of dreaming experience to the presence of the vibrations, you should check this out and ignore the people here who say that life is no fun and we should just take the pills and be quiet.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11790843/Techniq...n-Robert-Monroe

Jimmy

[darkmanure]

I have experienced similar problems.

I have felt subtle shakings of the bed when I'm laying still watching tv for the last couple of weeks.

Not only that I also felt getting touched but nothing was there, I even checked for bugs and The room was lit.

I say just ignore it and it'll probably go away.

I wasn't freaked out or phased at all.

[sickpuppy]

mine used to shake when i was waking up (or it woke me up?) i always put it down to astral body coming back in.

how new is this mattress?

the burning could be a rash/irritant/etc.

describe your dreams, if you care to..

Enjoy the journey, i say

[Karl_Kolchak]

i live a bout 8 miles from train tracks,and sometimes on a clear crisp night,the windows shake,also how old is the house,and are there pipes located anywhere under the floor around ur bed?

[glyndowers heir]

Sounds like harmonic resonance from large machinery operations,

At one time I lived 5 miles from a Drop forge works and we could sometimes feel the thump from the hammers as several of them operated in sequence - it all depended on the frequency of co-incideal hits by several hammers at once.

[Jon-Jon]

Under my personal opinion, there are several things that it could be, but to begin with lets leave paranormal for last, first you need to see if anything "rational" can be proven or disproved.

My first suspicion as i read threw your post is plumbing, and waterlines. It is very possible that a waterline, pipe, or vent for your heater could of broke, or cracked in the last few months. If so as it is used and the air or water goes threw, it might be hitting on something, or just might be causing pressure to shake that individual part of the house where your bed is. Even if it can just as easily, if not more happen, due to pipes running threw out the whole building.

The first thing you want to do is move your bed, hopefully as far away from that spot as possible. See if the shaking continues, If it dose, an entity may very possibly be targeting your bed as an object to get your attention. But if it dose I highly suggest that you call a plumber, or something. Because if it continues too long and it actually is due to something hitting the bottom of your floor, or pressure, then you may be in serous risk, and your floor may deteriorate.

So you may want to get an inspector over for that.

If you are absolutely sure that it is not that, i would check your futon next, make sure that the maters is good, I don't know what you would be putting in such a thing, but it could be possible; something might be in it.

If it dose not stop even after you check everything off, i would try getting a new mattress, or whole new bed altogether. Don't let restless nights come to you, I'm sure its not good for your academic carrier or your health.

Thanks for bringing up the topic

- Jon Jon

Edit: It could be the box spring.

Edited March 6, 2009 by Jon-Jon

[Blueguardian]

maybe your about to become the next exsorcist. thats how they always start. get a new bed.

Yeah that sounds about right, not enough good nights sleep and an uncomfortable bed will cause your head to spin 360o

[Jimmy T]

The really interesting stuff happens when you eliminate all the physical possibilities, but I think we might have lost our test subject by now, is he still looking at any of this? I still get the vibrations from time to time, usually happens sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning and I'm so used to it now that I don't notice them unless I'm awake. I found Robert Monroe's techniques of working with them to be completely valid, although it takes some patience and concentration. People fail a lot before they have any success, and it takes a lot time to get consistent results. Heck of a lot of fun, though.

A physical source that I don't think anyone here has mentioned yet is the person's own heartbeat. If you've ever spent much time sleeping on Army cots (and not many have unless they've actually been in the Army) you probably know this already. Blood flow is mostly lengthwise, head to toe or toe to head. If you are sleeping on something that's loosely framed, sometimes you can get a harmonic vibration going just from your own pulse, in phase with some odd aspect of the bed, strong enough that it shakes you back and forth like somebody has a good grip on the cot.

The other vibration is different, happens at a higher frequency yet is strong enough to shake the entire body sometimes. When it gets strong enough to rattle you back and forth in the bed faster than any physical explanation could (short of heavy machinery, which is pretty easy to rule out), then you have to wonder if something else is going on.

Not confined to any one place or situation in my case. Happens when I'm around people sometimes, sometimes when I'm not. I used to work at night and it would happen to me when I was sitting at my duty station.

Jimmy T

[Moonie2012]

My bed in my old house used to shake from trucks going by on the main road, but the road was about 100 yards from the house.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Moonie2012

[Resonance]

This has been discussed before in other threads. Hope this helps.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=144542&hl=

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=140246&hl=

Yes, my post.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=140246&hl=

If anyone can help explain it, please do.

[Resonance]

The really interesting stuff happens when you eliminate all the physical possibilities, but I think we might have lost our test subject by now, is he still looking at any of this? I still get the vibrations from time to time, usually happens sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning and I'm so used to it now that I don't notice them unless I'm awake. I found Robert Monroe's techniques of working with them to be completely valid, although it takes some patience and concentration. People fail a lot before they have any success, and it takes a lot time to get consistent results. Heck of a lot of fun, though.

A physical source that I don't think anyone here has mentioned yet is the person's own heartbeat. If you've ever spent much time sleeping on Army cots (and not many have unless they've actually been in the Army) you probably know this already. Blood flow is mostly lengthwise, head to toe or toe to head. If you are sleeping on something that's loosely framed, sometimes you can get a harmonic vibration going just from your own pulse, in phase with some odd aspect of the bed, strong enough that it shakes you back and forth like somebody has a good grip on the cot.

The other vibration is different, happens at a higher frequency yet is strong enough to shake the entire body sometimes. When it gets strong enough to rattle you back and forth in the bed faster than any physical explanation could (short of heavy machinery, which is pretty easy to rule out), then you have to wonder if something else is going on.

Not confined to any one place or situation in my case. Happens when I'm around people sometimes, sometimes when I'm not. I used to work at night and it would happen to me when I was sitting at my duty station.

Jimmy T

If he isn't, I am.

Please help me out too.

hehe.

Another wierd vibration.

Read through all of my posts on that thread.

[TehGrant]

Is it possible some bolts or screws in the frame are loose? Because thats what happened to me and it irrated the hell out of me till I fixed it.

[Jimmy T]

If he isn't, I am.

Please help me out too.

hehe.

Another wierd vibration.

Read through all of my posts on that thread.

I didn't get anything but error 404 on that link. Read the other thread, though, seems like people are focusing completely on poltergeists, earthquakes, and mechanical problems. I don't have any experience with poltergeists but I've been through earthquakes and I'm a pretty competent practical engineer. The things I felt (still do sometimes) have moved along with me from place to place. In the beginning I thought it was my imagination, but as they got stronger the bed itself began to shake, eventually so strongly that other things in the room would begin to shake. Seemed obvious to me it wasn't my imagination. As soon as I would move to check things out, it would stop. When I'd relax it would start again. I mentioned that thing with the heartbeat, which can be kind of strange when it first happens, but it's pretty easy to figure out that it's in phase with the pulse. After that it's just irritating. This other thing is different. It's a faster physical vibration than the pulse but it also gets strong enough to shake you physically. Odd thing about that, it shakes you vertically, in ways muscle tremors won't.

I eventually gave up on the physical explanations as not being correct. It wasn't a troublesome thing, but it was really interesting, so I kept looking for information about it. I found something in a text about Taoist meditations that seemed like it might be similar, a story about an old master who would go to bed and do his meditations lying down, causing vibrations so strong that they shook the entire house. No results from that on my part, just seemed intriguing, other people from other cultures might have found ways to exploit whatever is happening.

The thing that did pay off was something from Robert Monroe's books about out of body travel. He experienced vibrations of that sort, himself, and learned to use that as a way of moving his consciousness out of his physical being. His methods were mostly self taught but they do resemble many of the old Tibetan and Chinese techniques that were designed to focus and move strange energies.

I did try those things myself and found that they worked, although it took a lot of practice and it wasn't quite a free ticket to the world outside. You might find out it works for you if you try it. There are a few of his books available online for free at www.scribd.com. Far Journeys is at http://www.scribd.com/doc/4059245/FarJourneys-ROBERT-MONROE and there's a short how-to manual there as well.

Looking for physical answers yielded no solutions. Looking for medical answers yielded no solutions, although I'm sure I could have gotten prescriptions for all kinds of things had I asked. Monroe had techniques that worked, so I used them.

Jimmy T

[qlxmxg]

I have exactly the same problem. My bed intermittently subtly vibrates for about ten seconds. This occurs very sporadically. It can happen several times in a day or not happen for several days. This has been occurring for several months. All the obvious explanations have been ruled out.

Has anyone come up with a reasonable explanation?

[HDesiato]

I have exactly the same problem. My bed intermittently subtly vibrates for about ten seconds. This occurs very sporadically. It can happen several times in a day or not happen for several days. This has been occurring for several months. All the obvious explanations have been ruled out.

Has anyone come up with a reasonable explanation?

Here's my post from years ago:

It's not an easy subject to nail down. I experience this feeling the same way, it seems. I tried it intentionally one night after viewing lucid dream techniques described online (youtube I think). They say to ask yourself: "am I awake or am I asleep?" repeatedly while maintaining a sense of focused awareness of any change in perception, which would signal the bodies shift into dream. You are to expect a physical sensation, a vibration, sinking or shift, explained as the bodies natural paralysis kicking in to keep you from acting out your dream scenarios. This, I believe, is the feeling we are experiencing. I felt a slight full vibration for one or two seconds, found the feeling remarkable because I expected it but was surprised to be able to (seemingly) have some control. Again I focused and found a kind of simultaneous lifting and sinking for a brief second then actually drifted off, (didn't successfully dream with lucidity though, lol).

Excerpt from: In Bootzen, R. R., Kihlstrom, J.F. & Schacter, D.L., (Eds.) Sleep and Cognition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1990 (pp. 109-126). [source: The Lucidity Institute] Lucid Dreaming: Psychophysiological Studies of Consciousness during REM Sleep

by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D.

"Implications for Research on Sleep and Cognition

The fact of lucid dreaming presents conceptual difficulties for certain traditional beliefs about "sleep" and presumed limitations of dream mentation. In a certain sense, the anomalous appearance of lucid dreaming parallels that of the state that has been called "paradoxical sleep." The discovery of REM sleep required the expansion of our concept of sleep. The evidence associating lucid dreaming with REM sleep reviewed above would seem to require a similar expansion of our concept of dreaming, and a clarification of our concept of sleep.

Fenwick et al. (1984) showed that a subject was able to perceive and respond to environmental stimuli (electrical shocks) without awakening from his lucid dream. This result raises a theoretical issue: if we take perception of the external world to be the essential criterion for wakefulness (LaBerge et al., 1981a; see above) then it would seem that Worsley must have been at least partially awake. On the other hand, when environmental stimuli are incorporated into dreams without producing any subjective or physiological indications of arousal, it appears reasonable to speak of the perception as having occurred during sleep.

Furthermore, it may be possible, as LaBerge (1980c) has suggested, for one sense to remain functional and 'awake' while others fall 'asleep.' Similarly, Antrobus, Antrobus and Fisher (1965) argued "...that the question -- awake or asleep -- is not a particularly useful one. Even though we have two discrete words -- sleep and wakefulness -- this does not mean that the behavior associated with the words can be forced into two discrete categories. ... not only do sleeping and waking shade gradually into one another but there is only limited agreement among the various physiological and subjective operations that discriminate between sleeping and waking. At any given moment, all systems of the organism are not necessarily equally asleep or awake." (pp. 398-399)

As long as we continue to consider wakefulness and sleep as a simple dichotomy, we will lie in a Procrustean bed that is bound at times to be most uncomfortable. There must be degrees of being awake just as there are degrees of being asleep (i.e. the conventional sleep stages). Before finding our way out of this muddle, we will probably need to characterize a wider variety of states of consciousness than those few currently distinguished (e.g. 'dreaming,' 'sleeping,' 'waking,' and so on)."

Edited August 5, 2013 by HDesiato

[KNash]

That's weird. You're right about the dreams. They're probably due to the feeling of the bed shaking. Maybe you could put something like a glass of water on the bed when the bed seems to be shaking to see if it distrubs the surface of the water at all. Maybe that would at least prove if it's really the bed or your imagination. But then again, you may just end up with a wet bed that way

[Crabby Kitten]

The title of this thread gave me shivers when I remember my bed doing that years ago.

[Masonchild]

To those of you who know that your vibrating bed is NOT psychosymatic, or personally physiological, know that the reports are coming in globally. I feel privileged to have had 3 years of this same experience with the paranormal. Paranormal does not equate to evil or demonic...there is more to life out there!