When things go bump in the night: how our brains trick us into hearing things that aren’t there

By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol

It’s three in the morning. You’ve woken from a dead sleep because you’ve heard a thud in the darkness or a floorboard creaking downstairs. Or perhaps you’ve woken because you have the unmistakable sensation you’re not alone.

During daylight, these phenomena might be dismissed as the heating, your neighbours or the sounds of an old house settling. But in the middle of the night they can feel a tad more sinister.

Your mind might immediately start reeling, jumping to the worst case scenario – wondering if you’ve been broken into, or if you’re being haunted by some supernatural…

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