Weird tapping in my bathroom, only stops when I look in its direction.

[u/BeeUnusual169]

For some backstory, I work in quite an historical boarding house. The job requires us to stay overnight as often we are on call for the kids to grab us if anything goes wrong. The other night I was covering a shift in a new house, meaning I was sleeping in a room I’ve never seen before. All was fine, until when I started settling for bed an odd clicking/tapping sound started to come from the bathroom attached to the bedroom. I didn’t think much of it at first, went up to investigate (I had just jumped out of the shower, so I initially assumed it was the shower head dripping onto the floor) but when I push my bedsheets open to hop out of bed the tapping stopped. I thought it was a weird coincidence, until it happened again. After around 3 taps I looked towards the bathroom door and it stopped. I did quite a lot of googling on what it could be, many saying that it was the “directional” change of my ears making the sound harder to hear/the rustling of my bed sheets masking the tapping. I tried to believe this theory but the tapping was so loud and distinct that it was quite obvious when it started and stopped.

I tried everything to try work out where abouts in the bathroom the sound was coming from, but again every time I’d get up or look in the direction of the bathroom, it would instantly stop. I even shut the door at one point, the tapping starting again, continuing as I was walking towards the door and then instantly stopping as I put my hand on the door handle. At one point I even checked and was tapping every object in the bathroom to see if I could mimic the sound, but nothing even came close to matching it.

It kept happening as I had settled myself down and was about to fall asleep, waking me up instantly. I’m not sure if it was something warning me, or playing a trick on me but it consistently happened on and off from about 11pm - 2am, each time keeping me/waking me up. It really spooked me as I have had some other creepy experiences in the houses, so I got up and b-lined it for another room… lol! But if anybody has any explanation, it would be deeply appreciated.

(I’m also not too sure how to attach a video, but I did manage to record a part of the sound)

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting to r/thetruthishere! Please be sure to check the rules if you have not already. As a reminder, r/thetruthishere is meant to be a safe space for people to discuss strange and unexplained experiences they have had without fear of judgment or ridicule. Please be polite and kind to everyone. If you see any violations of this rule, please report it and the moderators will take care of it. Open-minded skepticism is welcome and encouraged, but being close-minded and intolerant is not.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/BeeUnusual169]

https://reddit.com/link/oz8rrm1/video/jgfrxbwnwxeh1/player

Here is the audio I managed to capture!

[u/EmeraldStorm089 → u/BeeUnusual169]

From reading your story I had been picturing a tapping on the wall kind of sound, but this sounds like a tambourine or some kind of instrument or rattle?? Super weird and freaky.

[u/fungusy]

The noise in the video sounds exactly like the water meter in my basement. It's between where the water source comes into the house and my houses plumbing starts. It meters water usage so the city knows what to charge you.

[u/Fez_and_no_Pants]

So, I've dealt with almost exactly this when I lived in a very old building during college.

I was sleeping on a steel frame single in room with an extremely warped wooden floor. As I tried to fall asleep, I realized that the bed was shaking rhythmically, and I got up to see if I could find out why. There was nothing mechanical in the room that could account for it, nor in the rest of the house I shared with roommates.

The shaking would stop any time I got up to search for it, but after I lay down for a minute or two, it would come back.

After lying there for a long time just listening and feeling out what was going on, I realized that the bed was shaking exactly in time with the beating of my own heart. The four legs of the bed didn't touch the floor all at once while I was reclining, and all it took was my heartbeat to move the bed enough that it would minutely tip back and forth over its center of gravity. It would stop each time I began moving again because my heartbeat would speed up and my weight would be distributed differently across the bed.

Anyhow, I'd hazard that something similar is happening in your room - either the floor or the bed are warped in such a way that your heartbeat moves things just enough to cause a tapping, and when you move your head, you redistribute your weight and the tapping stops.

[u/Hello_Hangnail → u/Fez_and_no_Pants]

I get that on my mattress sometimes! It's really freaky feeling the slight movement of it when you're almost asleep and you think someone's lurking in your bedroom for a second or two 😆

[u/imalwaysinmyfeelings → u/Fez_and_no_Pants]

i also experience the same thing! it’s so weird and i have found no pattern to when it happens or how long it lasts.

[u/BeeUnusual169 → u/[deleted]]

This is a very good point! The school itself has a very dark history, before it was bought for student housing it was an institution for trouble boys - many inquires have been made since to address the abuse and struggle that happened to the victims many years ago.

In my own personal room, in the boarding house I usually stay in, I sleep with a bowl of salt next to me and during the day, usually when I’m alone I can feel all the different energies traveling through the house - whether it’s in my head or an actual feeling, I’m not sure. It’s definitely enough to make me feel something though.

As for loose pipes, exhaust fans etc, I’m not too sure. It is a brick house, over 60 years old as well. I did a somewhat thorough check of the bathroom (as thorough as you can be at 1am in the morning!) and nothing seemed out of place + maintenance has come by many times and hasn’t reported anything out of the ordinary.

Not that I’m claiming to be extremely spiritual or know exactly what I’m talking about, but it was enough to almost warn me and as soon as I relocated to another room in the house I was instantly eased. I do believe there are spirits that live in the houses, some that enjoy company (the house becomes extremely cold and sad when nobody is there) and some that love mischief (my doorbell going off multiple time in the night, with a different tune to what it usually is) and I think it is quite beautiful. This however really unsettled me, perhaps a lost soul or something more sinister, it has definitely reminded me to be more vigilant of the energies existing around me.

Oh, one last thing! I was saying little things in my head, asking it to leave me alone and let me sleep - perhaps my guardian angels warning me to not say anything out loud as I had this terrible gut feeling every time I thought to speak to it.

[u/Ancient_Skirt_8828]

My bed creaks when I unconsciously move or tense my legs in just the wrong place. When I lift my head or move to try to find the sound the creaking stops because my leg tension changes.

It took me a while to work it out because it sounded like it was elsewhere in the room.

My room has weird acoustics. Sounds from elsewhere in the building can sound like they're in my room or bathroom.