26 Night Shift Workers Share Their Spookiest Paranormal Stories

1. The ghost children kept running around, making noise

“My mother used to work at a subacute center as a night shift nurse. She said one of the ladies kept calling her and told her to shut the kids up because they’re running around and being loud preventing her from falling asleep. Of course, there were no kids.

My mom just went along with it a few times and after working there for 10+ years, she says theres one wing in the building where the patients all see children running around and making noise keeping them up in the middle of the night every once in a while.” — notyouravgjane

2. Something yanked on the door and slammed it shut

“I work in a big old psychiatric hospital. One night, I was pulled upstairs to work on the detox unit half way through my shift. Someone on staff has to go room to room and check on all the patients every 15 minutes to make sure they’re breathing, not in distress, etc. I had just gotten on the unit and wasn’t sure off hand which rooms were occupied, so I just walked by all of them.

One room had the bedroom lights off, but the bathroom lights were on and the bathroom door was cracked open just slightly. I knocked and gripped the door knob to open it. Something yanked on the door and slammed it shut. I heard something banging on the bathroom wall, like someone was punching it. I opened the door and no one was in there. One of the techs who had been there for 20+ years said she knows at least one person died in that room a number of years ago.

I’m not in the least bit superstitious or prone to believing in supernatural forces, but Fuck. That. Floor.” — Twiddly_twat

3. I heard the toilets flush and the sink turn on — when no one was there

“I worked at this place a long time ago and id stay and clean up the main area every day… vacuum, take out trash, etc. I was usually the last one to leave. As I was vacuuming, I hear ones of the toilets flush, and then the sink. I waited and nobody came, I’m supposed to be the only one there. I went to check out the bathroom but there was nobody there. then it happened again, same thing. toilet flushed and water turned on.

One of many experiences there.” — valeceb

4. A blue misty figure walked around during the night

“Worked nightshift at a treatment center.

We had cameras around every corner, nothing was out of our vision.

Blue misty figure would walk the grounds every once in a while at night. I would go out there and there’d be nothing. But on camera, this motherfucker would just walk around all night. Nothing evil, bad, or anything, but this mother fucker would just walk around like he owned the god damn place.” –rastapasta9

5. We saw six sets of eyes hidden inside of the woods

“Used to do K9 security for many years. I don’t particularly believe in paranormal stuff, but I did get the heebie jeebies a couple of times.

There was one site I used to patrol with my dog a few nights a week. It was an old historical farm house. From the main road, there was about a kilometer walk down a beat up old dirt road with woods for a couple of hundred meters on either side. More of a path nowadays than a road. People talk of it being haunted if you believe in that kind of thing.

One night it was really dark out. Can’t remember if it was overcast or if there was no moon that night, but it was black. About two thirds of the way to the farmhouse my dog starts acting a little weird. I can feel him getting tense through the leash. He starts to let out really low growls every other step and I can see his ears are twitching as my light swings back and forth. It’s dark, but I’m sure his hackles are up.

Maybe 100 meters or so after I started noticing him wigging out, he surfs out in front of me, which he only does if there is a perceived threat. He stays about 2 meters in front of me for a little bit and then just stops and starts growling at the darkness. Of course I am scanning with my light, but can’t see anything. After years of working with Bru, I have learned to trust him like I trust no person.

During one of my scans I see about 6 sets of eyes reflecting my light in the woods. I am certain it was coyotes, but damned if I didn’t get the wicked shivers up and down. Bru and I retreated and went back to the car. Wrote it up as a clear patrol. Supernatural or not, I’m not letting my partner scrap it out with half a dozen ghost coyotes.” — Isthisinfectious

6. The elevator kept opening and slamming shut on its own

“I did night security in a very old grain exchange building that had been converted to mainly lawyers offices. A lot of the building was remodeled but the grain exchange floor and vaults had been preserved and at the end of one hallway behind the main lobby I was stationed in there was an elevator that was original to the building that nobody ever used.

I was sitting at the desk one night around 3am when I heard the ding from down the hall that meant someone had called the elevator. There wasn’t suppose to be anyone in the building except me so I switched to that camera feed and the elevator doors were wide open which is only suppose to happen if the call button has been pushed. I wait a few minutes being pretty freaked out but the doors stay open and I never see anybody. The doors are suppose to close on their own shortly and these ones are stuck open. I start to think that someone is in the building and holding the door open button from within where I can’t see on the feed so I have to walk down there to check it out.

As soon as I get near the end of the hallway where I have a clear view of the elevator the doors close. I just kind of stand there feeling really uneasy and decide to head back to the desk and leave a note for the maintenance crew. About 10 minutes after I get back to the desk it happens again. Ding and then the doors roll open. Except I had the feed up so I know that nobody was there to press the call button. I wait and again the doors stay open. So I walk back down there and as soon as I walk into view they close.

There’s still a chance someone is hiding inside pressing the buttons so I go and press the call button myself. And nothing happens. The elevator doesn’t move and the doors don’t open. I press it again and still nothing so not really wanting to deal with that I start walking back to the desk. Get to the end of the hallway and Ding the doors open. I just stood there not really knowing what to do but then I figure since I’m closer maybe I will make it this time so I take off running for the doors before they close and as soon as I get close they close. I don’t think it would be in anyway possible for someone pressing a button inside to be able to time that without me seeing them peeking out so I decide I am done and go back to the desk. Again the ding and the doors open and stay that way but I just ignore it and switch to a different feed.

All is well for about an hour when suddenly there is a loud crash and a rattle and another crash and a rattle again and again. I am absolutely terrified and have no idea what is happening. I start flipping through feeds and get to the one outside the elevator, the doors are slamming shut and opening and slamming shut again and again. It’s like it knows it has my attention again and then the doors slowly reopen and stay there again like it’s tempting me to try and get there before they close again. I do not do that and instead call our patrol officer who is out driving between locations so I have proof of this with someone else. He gets there within 5 min and the doors are still open so once I fill him in we head down together and sure enough as soon as we get close the doors close. He goes and presses the call button and nothing. He’s pretty freaked out too now but we decide to just stay there outside the doors because if it’s just a perfectly timed malfunction it will open again. We stand there for almost a half hour and they never open but he gets a call come in so has to take off. We get halfway back to the desk and hear the doors open behind us. He tells me to go to the desk and watch the feed while he walks down there. Once I’m in place I tell him to go and same thing as soon as he enters the frame the doors close. He starts kicking the doors and pressing the buttons but it doesn’t do any good. He has to leave so he wishes me luck and tells me to just stay away from it. I have about an hour left in my shift when the doors start doing the slamming and opening again. I just stood at the far end of the hallway listening but it didn’t stop.

Took off as soon as the shift ended and left a report for maintenance about the issue. Next shift I worked I showed up early before they had taken off but they said when they got there it was working fine and they didn’t notice anything wrong. That night was quiet and in the rest of the time I worked there only 1 more night did those doors open but I just ignored it and after awhile they closed again and that was that.” –GrowTallInTheTrees

7. A ghost boy appeared inside of our museum

“I worked in a museum that was housed in an old building downtown. It was once a vaudeville theater, a used car lot then it sat in disrepair for years before it was bought and remodeled. We had a lot of weird occurrences there. I’m a total skeptic but there were some things I just couldn’t find good explanations for. After closing the museum for the evening we would be in the lobby, counting down the cash drawers, closing the gift shop, etc., and many times we’d hear running footsteps on the floor above us and it was certain there was no one up there. We’d close for the night, come in the next morning to open, go around and unlock exhibits, etc and things would be displaced; clothes strewn all over, things knocked over, doors opened that shouldn’t have been. I know they weren’t like that the night before because I would be the one who went around closing up. The place was just kind of creepy. We all felt it. There were times where you just felt uneasy for no good reason. The elevator was very active, traveling between levels with no one in it which could have been electrical but still added to the creepiness factor especially when it was dark and you could hear it going from floor to floor… ‘ding ding’.

The biggest thing that happened, which I still struggle with because I have a hard time believing it. If I had been alone I would have written it off as imagining things but I wasn’t alone and they saw it too. We were standing on the 2nd floor landing in front a stairs that led up to the 3rd floor. The museum was closed, all visitors were gone. As we were standing there chatting this little boy in a red shirt came running around the corner (where the elevator was) and ran up the stairs to the 3rd floor. It was one of those ‘uh, did you see that?’ ‘Yes… did YOU see that?’. We agreed we had both seen it and our first thought was we had maybe missed a visitor. It wasn’t a big place and it was 30 min after doors were locked. There was only one was up to 3rd floor and one way down. If there was someone there we couldn’t have missed him. We went up to look and of course, there was no one there. From then on whenever weird things happened we’d say ‘it was the boy in the red shirt.'” — Gaia227

8. The ghost of a little girl appeared in our bakery

“I work in a restaurant and all the bakery people who stay late talk about the ghost of a little girl but I didn’t know this when I started. It was the middle of the day but we were slow so I was doing prep work by myself in the kitchen. I was at the prep table, kinda zoning out, listening to the distant music when I feel someone right next to me. Like a sudden presence. Then I swear to god I heard, in a little girl’s voice, the most innocent ‘Hi Josh! (My name) How are you?’ I even felt her breath. It was so so real and vivid but when I turned around there was no one there. I started telling people about it and found out lots of coworkers heard the same voice. From everyone’s stories she (the ghost girl) seems really nice but it still sent chills down my spine.” — bnksy420

9. Someone left a mysterious message on our bathroom mirror

“I work at night from home, I’m gonna share my only ‘I have no clue how this happened’ story cause I want to! Not really scary but I have no explanation. The locations are changed to keep me a mystery.

So, this was about ten years ago. My wife and I moved into our brand new condo in July of 05. We were new to the area, and knew no one besides my dad. Fast forward to April 07. We had some ‘weird’ things, such as the tv turning on in the middle of the night and a few glasses shattered on their own when no one was in the room. Strange… but we just explained it as new construction/wiring and perhaps the glasses were weakened by the move/age.

We joke about it, and in a week I’m due to drive back to Chicago to do my oral defense for my Masters Degree. I take showers daily, as does my wife. Don’t remember the actual dates, but lets say Monday my wife and I take our showers, no worries. Tuesday, I take a shower and get out. Our bathroom has a full wall mirror over the dual sinks. In the steam, at the VERY VERY top is written, ‘Chicago.’ I’m like, ‘Uh… that’s odd.’ Call to my wife and ask her, ‘Why did you write that?’ She is just waking up and comes in, is confused as fuck and starts to get mad at me cause SHE didn’t write it. I quickly write in the steam below it without thinking… as does she. The writing doesn’t match either of us. Plus, it is written at the TOP of the mirror. We have ten foot ceilings. Both of us would have had to have gotten on the counter and stood to reach it.

I run through the condo (its not very big) everything is locked. We had no people over in between the daily showers, and hadn’t had anyone over in weeks (still didn’t know many people here). My wife is not a prankster, she has never pranked me in in the two decades I’ve known her. I sure as shit didn’t write it.

The kicker, the next night I had an incredibly realistic dream of my grandma who passed in 05. She was on my bed, rested her hand on my leg and said, ‘Don’t worry Hyperion, that bastard is gone. ‘Nothing weird happened after that. I can explain away everything except that writing though. Who the fuck knows!” –HyperionWinsAgain

10. Call bells went off inside of empty rooms

“I work nights in the locked unit of our nursing home. This is where the worse off people in the facility are (dementia, behavioral problems, mental illness etc) so pretty much I’m locked alone in a long dark hallway and check in on everyone throughout the night. Its a very large 3 story building and this wing is an isolated half of the top floor. Nobody likes working back there especially at night because the patients are harder to take care of and lets be real.. it does get spooky back there. Being locked it has this claustrophobic feel that creeps you out anyway so when something happens it’s enough to really scare the crap out of you. Here’s some of my stories:

1) I hear a man shout “hey, come over here” from the dead end of a hallway. No men on that hall and all patients asleep. No tv’s on, no radios, no logical explanation. Found out when I told someone the story there was a patient who died right before I started that would come to the door and call for help just like that. They even described voice the patient had and it matched what I heard.

2) Had a patient die that was very rude and always telling people what to do back there kind of bossing around the other patients. Would tell people to speak louder or shut up etc etc. My husband (works in a separate unit of the same building) and I were talking in the hall outside of her old room and I our conversation is interrupted by a loud SHUSH! That sounded exactly like when she would hush up other residents. Sounded like it was right next to us. Again nobody in the hall but us, patients asleep.

3) Had a patient moved into a shared room. The woman she moved in with wasn’t always friendly to her (swing on her if she took food from the others plate etc). Not long after moving into the shared room she passed away in there. Suddenly her less-than-friendly room mate was TERRIFIED to sleep in that room. She lived in there alone before, hadn’t seen the death and was probably too far gone dementia wise to even remember she had a room mate..but was still TERRIFIED of that room at night. Refused to go to bed (which used to be hard to get her out of) and if you did get her to lay down she would scream “don’t turn off the lights! Don’t turn off the lights!”. She would spend most of the night trying to get out of the room and stay out and this was all nuts because she was someone who liked to be in bed and left alone in her room most of the time. One night she made it all the way out into the hall walking without her wheel chair, almost falling over but determined to get out of that room struggling the whole way and putting up a fight when I tried to turn her around to go back into the room to sit down. She was out of breath and there was pure fear in her eyes like I’ve never seen. I took her to watch tv and she slept in a recliner in the tv room with me no problems. This lasted about a month after her room mate died and didn’t stop until she moved rooms. The general theory is that her departed room mate was getting revenge.

4) People DO see their family and loved ones when they’re about to die. When they start seeing and talking to family/talking to things not there that’s how you know it’s about to happen.

5) Call bells DO go off in empty rooms, even the kind you have to physically pull down to sound and push back up to turn off, and even in locked rooms.

6) This scares me the most..there’s something back there that bothers my residents at night. I have a greek woman who doesn’t speak English at the far end of my hall. She’ll be talking up a storm (no idea what she’s saying) but it’ll be loud enough to hear all the way down the hall. When I go down to check on her she stops talking and pretends to sleep, starting back when I walk away. This will continue for a while and she’ll stop talking and go to sleep…a few minutes later the woman in the next room will start talking to something. When she stops the woman across the hall will start talking to something. They aren’t just mumbling either it’s a conversation. Talk then pause to listen then talk again. And no two are doing it at the same time and they’re all in separate rooms with various levels of dementia so it’s not like they discuss it or know what’s going on in the other rooms. Its literally like someone (or something) is going down the hall room to room waking people up to talk until they fall asleep then going to the next. They also all always talk about “that man”. “That man was in my room”. “That man is standing in the corner behind you” “That man told me to”. Again, all saying the same thing without knowing the others are seeing the same. Happens on a very regular basis and never stops being creepy. I wonder what “he” says to them.

Sorry so long. As creepy as my job is I couldn’t pick just one. Any who now that I’ve written this all down… anybody know of any good job openings?” — Jenesaisquoi4

11. I went to the hospital for a concussion that a ghost gave me

“I used to work the night shift at a 24 hour breakfast joint. Every night, I would hear one of the toilets in the women’s restroom flush periodically, when no one was in there. They weren’t​ automatic, either. Another time, there was a rack of silverware on top of the chemical cage, pushed all the way back to the wall. I walked past it, and it was like it got shoved away from the wall, over the raised edge of the chemical cage, and onto my head. I had to go to the hospital for a concussion. The security footage creeped out the DM.” — 12lawliet12

12. A clothing rack fell to the floor during the strangest moment

“I was doing a floor set at a large retail store. A friend and I were discussing favorite horror movies. The song from nightmare on elm street came to mind and we both started singing it. As soon as we got to ‘9-10 never sleep again’ a whole rail of clothing that was hanging on the wall fell to the floor. We weren’t even near it nor had we touched it or messed with it that whole night

Really damn creepy. We always said that store had a ghost because there was other creepy shit that’s happened there. We named it Toby.” — ZedbraZ

13. My coworker randomly went missing

“I’m the first guy to come in the morning and make sure the nightshift guy didn’t get kidnapped/die/ etc. one day I come in and his car is there, but he is not there. I check the cameras, here is the creepy part. at 11:26 he sat bolt upright, started crying really badly, and bolted out of the store. He had worked that position for 2 years so there is nothing to scare him. He is still missing. Scares me to this day.” — Rude_magic_8_ball

14. I heard my colleague’s voice at the exact moment she died

“I was working nightshift at UPS unload as a manager there I had radio with me to co-ordinate with the incoming trucks. The basic process just, so there is a little context to my story is that when a truck comes in I have to say which bay they came in through so the monitors can track the package’s next destination.

Now that being said, at that time a colleague of mine used to bring breakfast. When she arrived, she would announce it on the radio so that we could all come down and partake in the feast.

So as one of my trucks was coming into the bay I heard it loud and clear that there was food, so I started to make my way down to the break room to get myself something to eat. But when I arrived there was no one there, I got on the radio to ask about my colleague and there was no answer. I called her on her cell phone and there was no answer. At this point I am thinking I am about to be the butt of someones joke.

Fast forward the story to the following and I found out that she had died in a car accident the same time I heard the announcement. That news when it hit me really started to scratch my head to what I heard. I am 100% sure I heard her voice on the radio that day, and not matter how many times I think about I am sure that it was her voice I heard.

I am believe there are things out there that we as humans are not meant to understand or will never understand. But this is something really interesting to me.” — Howzer_663

15. We spotted an actual UFO

“Worked at the bakery and went outside to chill for a minute and saw a honest to god UFO. Like the alien one.

It was a circular very bright light the size of 1/8 of full moon hovering at unknown height. My jaw immediately dropped to the floor and then I shit you not the thing noticed me and just started to get smaller and smaller. It didn’t get less bright just smaller in diameter until it was like a star on the sky and then just disappeared. The whole process took about 15-20 seconds.” –_realitycheck_

16. The car vanished into thin air

“I was working at a gas station at like 3 AM one night. A car pulled in to the pump, guy got out and started pumping, and then the car and dude just… vanished. I was looking right at it, and it just popped out of existence. I told my boss the next day and she turned white as a sheet. She’d seen the same thing, same exact description, same car, same pump, same guy.” –roytoy1678

17. I heard a little girl’s ghost laughing

“I used to work nights in a domestic violence shelter. The shelter was originally a school. One night I heard a little girl laughing outside of the office. I got up and the girl turned around and ran down the hall. I really thought that she was one of the resident’s; from the back she looked just like her. Except she was wearing a strange layered nightgown. She ran past the room I assumed she was going to, into a living room space. I went in right behind and there was nobody in there.” — chicknlil

18. Shadow people appeared on our beach

“Worked overnights doing valet at a large hotel on the beach. 3rd floor always had ‘Shadow people.’ I guess there where even a few suicides in the parking garage even, which added an extra dose of creepy.” — ThatsA104

19. The electricity went haywire

“When I was in high school I worked at a Tim Hortons. The store didn’t open until 5 am, therefore someone had to come in at 4 am to bake all the donuts and muffins.

One weekend morning I went in at 4 and start doing my regular work, next thing I know the television and radio cut off so it’s complete silence, then the lights start blinking. I figured the power was being sketchy then I realized all my ovens and everything were still working. This continued for a good 10 minutes before everything came back on and went to normal (besides the contents of my pants lol)

The manager came in a few hours later and I told him all about it so we go to watch the security cameras to see if anything suspicious happened and not a thing could be seen besides the lights flashing and me screaming.” — brickleberries

20. A man was covered in blood from head to toe

“Not me but my wife. She was driving home one night through farmland (cow pastures) and to this day she swears she saw a man lit up with her headlights that was covered head to toe in blood. It made her scream and turn the car around.” –AmericanKamikaze

21. I heard a mop bucket slide across the floors

“I worked security at a youth “camp” that was closing down. Layout was exactly like a prison. Barbed wire fences around the whole grounds. Big double gates that only could be opened from the control booth. I would be the only one there set up in the control room on the 3-11pm shift. All I did was watch movies on my computer all night. Place was already creepy just at sight. The control room was an enclosed room with a huge steel door as the only way in. On many nights I would hear someone trying to open the door but the only way to open it was for me to buzz it open. Another night while zoning out to Clerks I heard one of the doors in the hall open, I got up to look to catch the door closing followed by a guys voice that sounded like “HEY” I just sat down and watched the movie. Not much I could do. The weirdest thing that happened was hearing what sounded like a mop bucket being rolled across the floor, when I’d get up…nothing. Happened a few more times until I went to check it out and at the end of the hall the mop bucket was sitting in the middle of the hall with the mop in it but was completely dry. I know for a fact it wasn’t there at the start of my shift. Other guards had some stories too. Place is now a manufacturing plant for medical marijuana.” — Keiths_skin_tag

22. They all saw a weird light in the train yard

“My husband works in a train yard at night and told me a story about a weird light several people saw one night in the wee hours. He said the light swiveled around like it was looking around and it moved like it was galloping (?) and went through a vast wooded area much faster than any person could run. One other guy working in the yard got close enough to it and said it was a guy on his phone but his description of the ‘guy’ matched his own self to an eerie degree. At one point the light moved fluidly under a train car to the other side.” — skullencats

23. I felt a cold and clammy hand on my head

“I had a TAPS period when we were teenagers. I had always heard to be careful that bad “spirits” could come home with you. Oddly enough I met with a real TAPS guy one time on the way to this place called the gates of hell and he said the cemetery right by my house was the most activity he had ever gotten. That’s where we used to always go. I had some minor strange occurrences happen to me but nothing too major. Then one night I was sleeping in my bed and something hit me on my head and woke me up. I assumed something had fallen from my headboard and it was still on my head. I reached up to remove it and grabbed what felt like a cold dead and clammy hand grabbing the top of my head and threw the arm off of me and it sounded like it made a thud on the ground. Before I knew it I felt like I had somehow jumped from laying on my back to my light switch across the room in one fluent motion. I think I may have awoken in a dream and then the fear actually woke me up for real.” — Elemento1991

24. Items in the store moved all on their own

“I worked at kohl’s for two year and right before Christmas, there would be a shit ton of new merchandise so they usually had a team of about 12 people stay over night one night and get the new Christmas merch out. I volunteered and we were winding down at about 2:30 am.

I’m in the back near the bedding which in my particular store was right beside the stock room in the back corner of the store. There’s an end cap with some picture frames that were on clearance to my left and I’m trying to stuff in some comforters a few aisles away. I get done and back up to look at my awful job and a picture from just tips over and crashes to the floor. No one was around me. Nothing even touched the picture frames.

I was too tired to care so I went to the back to grab a broom and dustpan from the housekeeping closet. This closet is in the way, way back of the stock room. And we have these conveyor belts that you hang clothes on and will take them around a track close to the ceiling so our stock room wouldn’t be packed with clothes. Housewares and stuff were on the shelves but the clothes hung in plastic bags from the conveyor belt at the ceiling. So I turn the corner to the closet and there’s one bag of women’s clothes just swinging away up above me. No other bags were swinging and this thing was loud. If anyone had just used it, I would have heard.

By now, I’m wide awake and freaked out. I grabbed the broom and ran outside to where the broken picture frame was. But it had been picked up. There was no glass, despite me hearing it shatter and I couldn’t get any of the other employees to admit they cleaned it up.

I never worked an overnight shift after that and I always got super creeped out using the conveyor belt.” — SmashleePimpson

25. Someone pulled the alarm in an empty building

“Sometime around midnight, the fire alarm was physically pulled within the building. It was locked and alarmed but somehow something pulled the alarm. There was no way to break in as the windows weren’t even large enough to get a leg through. It was really bizarre. Footsteps on the upper floor while the structure was empty were also common.” — DarthPun

26. I heard noises and saw shadows all night long

“I work night shift in psych. I have heard talking when everyone is asleep, footsteps, knocks on doors where nobody should even be, bathroom lights going off as I walk by (both patients were asleep), as well as seeing shadows every now and again. We had a nurse who was doing checks and felt something tug on her shirt.” — Umbra12