Have you ever been so sleep deprived you have had auditory halucinations?

Question

I had a long stay in hospital before and after I had my baby & consequently had no sleep in over a week.

On about the 5th day I started hearing things! Specifically the Somalien family in the bed next to me were talking to each other (in Somalien) but to me, they were having an animated discussion in plain English about Dave Gorman's Googlewhack adventure.

Quite possibly the most random thing ever!

Answer 1

Yep! I'm pretty much an insomniac and once after no sleep for three days I heard my dead grandma talking about bracelets...then I went to sleep.

Answer 2

I'd write a book about that.

Answer 3

Only after tripping the whole weekend.

Answer 4

This has happened to me numerous times.  I have insomnia, and before I found the right medication to treat it, I'd get hallucenations related to sleep depravation before.  The auditory hallucenations are the first to come on... after that, you'll start to get visual hallucenations that get worse and worse until you are finally able to go into R.E.M. sleep.  

For example, I'd be sitting alone in my apartment and hear a steady sound like a fan running, or wind outside, and swear I'm listening to a news report on my tv in the background, or distant murmurs can sound to me like clear music.  I mean, I could vividly hear a song, sing along, and it's as real as anything... only to realize my mp3 player is off and doesn't have an music in it.

Sleep deprivation can cause serious problems, and mimic the symptoms of being drunk as well as bring on hallucenations later.

(People from Somalia speak Somali, by the way.  My fiance is from there.)