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Life

The Best Of Reddit’s No Sleep Stories

a subreddit for spooky tales

by Hayden Manders

There exists a place on the Internet where spooky stories come to live, breathe, and be interacted with. It’s called No Sleep and it’s one of Reddit’s most captivating subreddits. Users upload stories that, for better or worse, are true. (Its rule page stresses how important suspension of disbelief is here and that stories are “usually not” true. "Don’t be a jerk in the movie theater hee-hawing because monkey’s [sic] don’t fly,” it adds.) They’re completely original and, for the most part, bone-chillingly good. The umbrella of treating all entries as true is a means of adding suspense. And it works. Man, does it work.

See for yourself in the following five entries.

Please note that some of the material might be considered not safe for work and disturbing to some. We advise clicking through at your own risk. With that said, let’s go…

A Story To Scare My Son

Reddit user FancyMancis hit the nail on the head. This is how trust issues are born!

My Dead Girlfriend Keeps Messaging Me On Facebook

Hear us out, here: This is pretty long, but captivating in a way that makes r/ No Sleep so good. Whether it’s true or not is besides the point. What’s important here is how real this situation could be. It’s a story of mourning and terror, and not something to read before you want to sleep.

Room 773

College is scary. Apartment living is scary. Living in a haunted dorm is even scarier, and this here story is enough to convince you to never, ever dorm. (And makes these freshman year horror stories seem like a cake walk.)

If You’re Reading This…

What happens to a war veteran who returns home to find he’s an insomniac? Apparently this. M. Night Shyamalan, eat your heart out.

I’m A 911 Operator. Just Had The Most Terrifying Call…

Honestly, the fear of walking past one of your home windows and finding someone staring inside is absolutely terrifying. This story takes that fear and amps it up to a gnarly 10. Good luck shutting down your house later.