What causes the imaginary sounds (bangs, crashes) or sensations (touch) that wake us from sleep?
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They are hallucinations. Now don’t worry, it is not related to any sort of mental disorder whatsoever. Hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations. They are quite common and in some cases can be quite terrifying (people can see ghosts, old hags, someone sitting on their chest but only briefly). This includes hearing crashes, voices etc too. The reason this happens when going to sleep or when waking is thought to be related to part of the brain waking while part is still asleep. So in a sense, dreaming while awake. For most people who don’t have sleep disorders like narcolepsy they are usually brief as the rest of the brain fully wakes up the images, sounds whatever disappear. I myself had a quite impressive, and terrifying one once. Very scary, but also not real. So if you see a ghost, or feel someone touch you that is not there, and you are waking, or falling asleep, nothing supernatural, just a hallucination.
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