8 Horror Stories From R/NoSleep To Keep You Up At Night
Reddit’s R/NoSleep community is one of the most consistent hubs for original, entertaining, shit-your-pants long-form horror stories. Since launching in March 2010, the subreddit has consistently grown in followers and high-quality reads, becoming a destination for horror writers and readers alike.
R/NoSleep continues to go strong today, with almost 18 million subscribers as of late January 2024, making it the 41st largest page out of Reddit’s approximately 3.12 million subreddits. The success of the horror forum has spawned several supporting spinoffs, including a popular Discord, an OOC subreddit for horror discussion, a popular long-running podcast, and several purchased and adapted stories.
Creating a list of the scariest stories on R/NoSleep is always subjective. While I’ve dropped a few of my own recommendations down below, this list is mainly made using feedback from the R/NoSleep community over the past few years, providing you with a surface-level primer on the community before diving into the humongous iceberg that is R/NoSleep’s collection of stellar horror originals.
A Few of R/NoSleep’s Scariest Stories
If it were up to me, the best stories would mostly be about religious demons and undersea creatures, but that’s why I am not entirely curating this list. Using feedback from the R/NoSleep community and one of its current mods, these are some of the scariest stories you’ll find on R/NoSleep so far:
Top 3 UpVoted Stories on R/NoSleep
My Sugar Daddy Asks Me For Weird Favors (By u/EaPAtbp)
A broke college student accepting payments from a sugar daddy can lead to horrific situations in real life. But this tale ramps it up to a whole new level. As the tasks and happenings grow increasingly strange, you’ll be gripped to your screen, waiting to learn what happens next. “I’ve got goosebumps and [am] a bit creeped out right now,” said the top commenter on this story’s page.
My Wife Has Been Peeking At Me From Around Corners And Behind Furniture. It’s Gone From Weird To Terrifying (By u/Maliagirl1314)
Lynn, a typically serious wife, begins to exhibit increasingly strange behavior. A once seemingly loving home is transformed into an unending violent search by Lynn to reach her now fleeing husband. While many comments excellently summarize the terror in this story, a straightforward line from the tale may do the most justice: “I found you.”
Something Walks Whistling Past My House Every Night At 3:03 (By u/Grand_Theft_Motto)
Sometimes, when you’re advised not to look for something, you best heed the warning. That’s the case in this mostly ideal community, where life is good as long as you never look outside to see who or what’s whistling every night at precisely 3:03 in the morning. While terrifying as all get out, one Redditor left a Gremlins-esque question we should know before visiting the neighborhood: “Does the Whistler adhere to Daylight Savings?”
More Fan Favorites
Borrasca (By u/The_Dalek_Emperor)
Debuting nine years ago, this multi-part story has become one of R/NoSleep’s more successful entries. The saga, vaguely summarized as bad things happening on a mountain, vaulted author Rebecca Klingel (aka CK Walker) to stardom, earning writing credits for podcasts and TV, including Batman Unburied, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Borrasca has also been adapted into a two-season podcast starring Cole Sprouse. Heads up, while many love Borrasca, some have questioned if the series leaves horror and enters the realm of the horrible.
Forever, A Drug (By u/nmwrites)
Combining addiction with a fictional drug, this emotionally gripping story spans several lifetimes, detailing the dark destruction that often comes with it and the fight to get free. “This story doesn’t get old, no matter how many times I read it,” said one commenter. Meanwhile, author u/nmwrites calls this story “The most emotional writing experience of my life, and not at all the way writing normally goes for me.”
My Sleep Paralysis Demon is Actually A Pretty Chill Guy (By u/writechriswrite)
A tale of sleep paralysis, self-improvement, and eating souls, this story tells one woman’s journey into the depths of addiction. While the idea of an entity feeding on a person’s soul may seem like the primary source of horror, it is a much deeper story containing numerous layers. “This is terrifying and beautiful and mesmerizing. It brought a tear to my eye,” one top comment read.
The Dark Convoy (By u/cal_ness)
R/NoSleep moderator u/SirGrumpasaurus highlighted Calvin “Cal” Ness’ work on their eight-part series. The R/NoSleep mod praised Ness for creating a series that tied all their work into a single universe centered around a “shadowy supernatural organization.”
I’m A Deep Sea Diver. In Case You Missed It, Scientists Recently Released Audio Footage Of A ‘cavern Collapse’ Along The Ocean Floor. They’re Lying… (By u/lightingnations)
Thalassophobia, or the intense fear of deep bodies of water, has become a buzzworthy keyword for content creators in recent years. This story of a dive team tasked with detonating a charge hundreds of feet below sea level does an excellent job demonstrating why millions, if not billions, around the world fear what lies beneath. “It’s been said time and time before, but it still terrifies me how little we know of what goes on beneath our oceans than we do of whatever’s in space,” said one top comment.
Consider these eight stories a drop in the expansive sea that is R/NoSleep’s community of horror originals. Looking for a different theme or type of scare? Search R/NoSleep and R/NoSleepOOC for posts featuring topics, themes, and specific authors.
Submit Your Own Story to NoSleep
Be sure to visit R/NoSleep and R/NoSleepOOC before submitting your own horror original. While the rules are loose enough for authors to showcase their creativity, there are several guidelines you need to be aware of beforehand. Otherwise, your hard work will get deleted for violating community rules. Check out the pages’ submission guidelines FAQ to guarantee your story hits the mark. And if your work doesn’t fit R/NoSleep, there are alternate pages you could try as well, with many listed in the R/NoSleep FAQs.
Categorized:Editorials
