When I am stressed I am prone to see things that aren't there for a split second, like figures in the dark. For me it isn't too bothersome because I just say "not real, don't care" and be done with it lol. Do they freak you out because you believe they might be real or because you're worried about your mental state?

It sounds like minor hallucinations, I have them from CPTSD. However you can also experience them if you're very stressed and sleep deprived too. You might also want to check any environmental factors like new medications for side effects or gas leaks. There are a few tricks to help you if you find yourself thinking they're real, taking pictures of them should help as they wont usually show up in the picture and if they do you can send it to a trusted person who can tell you if its in the picture. Also if you wear glasses, hallucinations frequently stay clear and in focus when you take them off. There's a few other tips that I cant remember rn. Otherwise do your best to ignore it and try to get more sleep and destress best you can, if it doesn't get any better you should talk to a doctor.

There's a lot of things that can contribute to this. It can be hallucinations. Knowing a bit about the science of vision, light is not an even thing. It's a bunch of individual photons zooming around at different wavelengths which we perceive as different colors. This works great in bright light because we have a nice, even sample of photons. In very dark conditions, there is a much smaller sample of available photons and our eyes dilate to gather any faint light they can. But the light is not as even and our eyes get a poor sample. This is the same reason that photos taken in the dark can be very grainy - it's the chaos of those random light variations. And it's why long-exposure photos taken in the dark aren't grainy. By waiting longer, the sample of light is larger and more even. Now think about all of those chaotic light fluctuations hitting your eyes. Your brain is programmed to pick out shapes and colors in a very particular way. We WANT to see solid objects and our brain coerces us into seeing its best guess of what's there. And because of "confirmation bias" the more you look for figures in the dark, the more you'll think you saw something.

oh 100% this happens to me a lot. no idea how to get past it without knowing what exactly causes it but it happens because of visual hallucinations when I'm under a lot of stress or extremely tired, and I have kinda bad vision as well so I'm sure that plays some part in it as well ^^; I try to sleep whilst watching something on YouTube or a movie etc so my attention is fixed on that and whenever it happens I just sorta have to jolt up and check around that I'm just seeing things and attempt to go back to sleep or watching whatever. probably not the answer you were hoping for haha sorry!! this is all I've managed to do for myself though so maybe it helps you a little? wishing you luck that you manage to get some sleep soon too :)

Question 🙋‍♂️ do you see shapes with your eyes closed?