"All The Other Nurses Turn White": 39 Unexplainable Things These Night Shift Workers Experienced

I worked the opening shift (started at 4am) in a busy coffee shop. While we set up, we kept the overhead lights off because otherwise people would try to get in before we opened the doors at 5. There was enough light from the back room and a few accent lights to work peacefully.

One of my coworkers had been targeted by a mentally ill man who stalked her. She eventually left the area entirely, and he was so distraught that he ended his own life. The week after that, I was setting up a bakery case and through the glass, I saw him sitting in his usually chair, staring toward the counter as he used to. I stood up and he was gone. It happened several times. One day I wasn’t there and a coworker saw him and freaked out! My next shift I walked over to that chair and said kindly but firmly, “Xxxx isn’t here any more, she’s fine but she’s moved on and isn’t coming back, and you should too.” He never appeared again.

This happened well over a decade ago, I used to be a nurse aid in a locked dementia ward. One morning, I was getting ready to do my end of shift bed checks and there was this old woman who was in our unit who was mildly senile but she was nowhere near the advanced stages of dementia.

As I approached her room, I heard her saying very clearly “no stop you are hurting me. Stop doing that. I do not want to play with you.” I thought maybe she was having some sort of dispute with the other lady who lived in her room, so I went to the rear of the room to expect to find her awake, but she was sound asleep in her bed. Before I could turn around and assess what it happened, I heard a little girl giggling.

The man who was my boss at the time came in to help me care for the women in that room. He was very lighthearted in general and had worked in the facility for nearly 10 years. When we walked out of the room, I told him about what happened and what I had heard and before, I could even finish my sentence, he physically pulled me aside and in a very, very serious tone said, “We do not talk about the little girl.”

And that was that .

I had a contract in a city a couple of hours away and a colleague and me would drive there around 8pm for the start of the night's work then head back around 3am, getting home around 5-5.30

One night we finished our shift as usual at 3 and started the drive home. Once out of the city and into the country it was incredibly foggy, to the extent where you could barely see in front of the truck. This meant we were driving very very slowly and we were cursing the fact that it was going to be well after 6am when we got in. One thing weird, was that it seemed we were constantly driving uphill even though the route was overall relatively flat.

He dropped me off at home and I went into the kitchen to grab a glass of water where I glanced at the clock.

It read 4.30.

I looked at my phone. 4.30.

Just then I got a text from my colleague who'd just arrived home asking "How the f**k is it only 4.30?!!"

A drive that would, in good conditions, have taken 2 - 2½ hours to complete had somehow, in thick fog, driving at ⅓ of our regular speed, taken only 1½ hours.

I used to work in an ER as a Tech. One night I had to transport a baby to the pediatric unit. Her room was at the end of the hall. I get the baby and mom all settled in and get to ready to leave. There are these double doors with the windows. As I leave, the doors start shaking. When I look, there is a lady motioning me to let her in. I tell her one minute, I have to get the head nurse. You cannot just let anyone into those units. So I go to the charge nurse and tell her. The charge nurse and all the other nurses turn white. She tells me that no one can get it thru that way anymore. I laugh and tell them nice one. I go back to the ER and tell my charge nurse what happened. My charge nurse get all alarmed and say that is part of the old hospital that has been sealed off, there is absolutely no way no one get enter. I told them then they had a ghost that really wanted in the pediatric department.

I used to work night shift in a mortuary. Not a single night went by without something happening 🤣 to the point I got completely unfazed by it and could even figure out which ghost it was. One particularly hilarious one used to close the fridge door behind me but got bored when they figured out there was an emergency release. Another used to turn my embalming machine off and on. The creepiest was when I collected a deceased child with my colleague and we kept seeing her running around and her reflection in windows and mirrors laughing at us. Loved that shift.

We work in a very spooky hotel at the moment that I had worked in for the previous owner over 30 years ago that we believe is haunted by her. My son and daughter also work there now and my son when he was night porter saw her several times. The reataurant and bar are a completely different layout to as they were when she was alive but my son said he was always aware of her standing staring at him from behind the bar when he was mopping the floors. Occasionally a strong smell of cigarettes, she was a chain smoker and there would be regular foot steps walking over the wooden floors and even tippy taps of her dogs following her. We had two mediums stay once who told us the previous owner was furious with what they had done to her home and more especially her private lounge being made into a small cinema. There are lots of things that go wrong regularly and things breakdown, so we believe its her curse.

Working at a warehouse environment closing one night. This was after the store had closed, around 11 pm. I was bringing in merchandise to pack down with a forklift. I saw a heavy (75 lb or so) box slowly move forward an inch at a time until it fell off the shelf. Forklift was stopped at the time and I was unpacking about 10 feet away and watched it just kinda slowly go off the edge. Coworkers have told me they've seen shadows walking around the area, long after everyone that was working out there had left.

I used to work as a highway patroller. One night the section of highway that I was covering had an area that was not lit at all and only light source were my trucks headlights. Idk if I was just tired or what but it was around 2:30ish am and I saw a black shapeless mass dart from one end of the highway to the other before “jumping” over the wall on the highway and disappearing. No it wasn’t an animal because it did not have legs or a head at all. Think of a black cloud moving from one end of the highway to the other in the middle of the night and I was going about 60mph. I cant explain what it was but it freaked me the f**k out lol.

I used to work at a bar. The bar had a restaurant right next door. I knew one of the cooks and we'd shoot the s**t now and then. One night I was closing down the bar and he was having a drink. He told me that while closing the restaurant the previous night he heard voices in the restaurant. When he went to check them out he couldn't find anyone, but then he heard the voices coming from the other end of the restaurant. It was a small place so there really wasn't anywhere to hide. He was freaked out and asked me what it could be. I just stared at him for a second and said, "You heard them too?" See, I'd had the EXACT same experience in the bar a few nights prior. I chalk it up to some kind of weird sympathetic vibration coming through the A/C, but here's the thing: I'd been working there for 7 years and I'd never experienced anything like that. Neither had any other staff member.

Used to work the night shift at an old building, it was just me and my coworker at night. We had the security cameras in our work room so we would known if anybody else was in the building. It was a safety device business so we would be there to answer calls if the device was triggered for night workers.

The building is in an older area of the city. One night around 2 am i looked at the side and saw through the window a shadow man with a hat walking along the corridor. I did a double take and he disappeared. I wasn’t freaked out i don’t know why but I didn’t feel scared. I told my coworker and she had also seen him on a previous occasion.

Then another time an orb started appearing in one of the security cameras and my coworker went to check there and saw nothing.

The building used to be a mill back in the day. I did some research found pictures of dudes wearing the same hats.

I was the manager at a Spirit Halloween store, and one night, I went to help another store close because they were short-staffed.

After everyone else left, I stayed with the assistant manager to finish closing up and deal with paperwork. While walking to the back of the store to put away the money in the safe, I saw a quick white figure dart across the break room/storage area, where the office was. I thought I was imagining it and decided to ignore it.

When I reached that area to sort the paperwork and money, the door behind me slammed shut. This was unusual since it’s a lightweight door. I called for my coworker, thinking she had done it, but she didn’t answer. I then used my walkie-talkie to contact her. She was at the front by the registers and had also heard the door slam. At that point, the room got colder, and I started to hurry.

Just as I was about to leave, a box of donation stickers for St. Jude's tipped over and fell to the floor. The box was nowhere near the edge of the table. I thought, "Forget this," and ran fast to set the alarm. I told my coworker it was time to leave. The scariest part? She said, “You saw it too, huh?”

It was kind of funny that it happened at a Halloween store.

I work at a retail pharmacy and I’m a closer. I had to stay an hour and a half after closing so our pharmacist could finish inventory. So just two of us. We’re known to have two ghosts in our stores. So I’m alone and sitting at the register just waiting. I heard our first ghost, a woman, who always just says “excuse me!” Then I saw on another night an older gentlemen in a blue polo-like shirt and khaki shorts. After I saw him, champagne bottles (I think 5?) opened and sprayed everywhere.

I’ve had a lot of paranormal experiences, but I had one on an evening when I stayed late at work. I work at a hospital & the HR office is in a remodeled space that previously held the morgue. I was there alone & heard continuous tapping on a keyboard in one of the cubicles & the rustling of papers. At one point, I decided to see if someone was there & when I said, “Is anyone here?” a light went on & off in an adjacent office.

Not my story, my coworker was an ER nurse at one of the oldest hospitals in Denver, one that had the original hospital incorporated into its design.

She said pretty early on, it became apparent when a patient was about to go critical, they would mention a little girl in the hallway in a nice, red dress. As time went on she realized these were people who were about to code, so she started getting the cart ready anytime someone started talking about the little girl in the red dress.

Normally I’d call BS, but she would elaborate a few times when people would cross over and back (after CPR or with a defibrillator) how strong the pull was to the other side. They often describe another world in vivid detail, before they had to inevitably leave. Not sure if there’s any symbolism to a girl in a red dress, but she never gave me any occasion to doubt her either.

This was 20 years ago. I worked at a small movie theater. We were pretty aware the place was haunted, but it was mostly phantom footsteps in the projection booth, & employees' names being called when no one was there, & a creepy feeling from the shadows by projector #8.

One night, about 11p or 12a, I was alone in the building, closing up. Part of that was partially rethreading the projectors for the morning shift. To this day, I vividly remember, I'd just finished with projector #5 & was walking to projector #4 when I heard whistling right being me. Like someone was whistling a little tune. I froze, then said out loud "I did not hear that" & finished closing up.

It wasn't until like 15 minutes later, I was in my car & leaving, that it hit me how strange that moment was.

Was on a night shift with two other carers my colleagues.
One of the clients an old lady was on end of care.
I had to sit with her in her room for the whole night shift.
I was sitting in the room with her before she took her last breath.
I saw her soul leave her body and she passed on.
The other carers were scared to come into the room and witness that indeed she had passed on.
I had to check her pulse and call the doctor to certifiy her death.
As we all stood in silence I was next to her and the other two colleagues were by the door afraid to come in.
Her buzzer started bleeding not in the bedroom but where she sat in the lounge area.
It was 2 am noone else was in the lounge all the clients were asleep the lights were off but her buzzer was beeping in red.
My colleagues were scared, they hadn't seen a death before it was new to them.
They started screaming in fear.
I only said she was visiting her last place she sat at in the lounge.
She is saying goodbye.
My colleagues were terrified they stood by the lounge door I went to switch it off and she was gone.
I have experienced plenty more stories like in care and nursing homes.

Earlier this year my factory trialed late shifts for the first time ever. It was basically me and one other person in an 125 year old factory until 10pm. Spooky stuff always happens in the factory; it became more obvious when I was basically alone but the sound of footsteps when no one’s there or a toilet door being locked when I’m the only person in there doesn’t affect me much.

However, one night was very off putting. All the power went off, not completely out of the ordinary but it’ll usually come back on within a second or two, this time it would not come back on. Called the engineer out and he explained the factory was on a time clock and it should have been turning off every night. Couldn’t explain why it had stayed on every other night unless someone had gotten a ladder and changed it within the last day.

Later that night I was in the loading bay which has a massive metal delivery door. I work on a machine down there frequently so I’m very used to being next to the door and know the normal sounds it makes. Out of nowhere there were 2 really loud bangs against the delivery door. It was so loud that boss in her office 100 feet away came running over thinking I’d hurt myself or something. Once I had explained to her that it wasn’t me and we stopped freaking out we went to the window to check if anyone was there and… nothing. Still can’t explain it.

I work over night at an empty warehouse as a security guard it’s just me from 10 pm to 6 am when the workers start coming in.. I’m required to do a few “patrols” a night which is essentially just me taking a walk around the inside of the building, through the offices and inside the warehouse just making sure everything is in order. One night I was walking through just like any other night when I hear a very clear knock on the inside of one of the offices in the building.. I never open these doors as I said I just do I a quick walkthrough I don’t check every room. The first thing that came to mind was someone either got stuck in there and couldn’t get out maybe someone had snuck in so I walked over and said “hello” then another knock, three times right there in front of my face someone was knocking on the door from the other side. I prepare to fight as I slowly turn the k**b and open the door only to see an empty room. I never ran through a patrol so fast in my life.

I worked at CVS while I was in college and it was a 24 hour store. I picked up an overnight shift. It was probably around 3am and I was stocking shelves and I see a black hooded figure. I blinked my eyes and it was gone. I thought, “oh maybe it’s late and I’m seeing things.” No one was in the store at the time.

Then I noticed items would fall and move on their own. Again. I chalked it up to late night I’m tired.

The overnighters had mentioned it being haunted. I took it with a grain of salt until that night.

Apparently, the store I worked at was built on an Indian burial ground.

Years ago I worked graveyard at a group home. One night, I did bed checks at 3am (all clients were asleep) then sat down in the living room and started scrolling on my phone. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of heavy boots (not work boots but more like cowboy boots) coming down the hallway. The steps were slow and heavy. I thought one of the clients was about to AWOL. So I got up but then I heard nothing. I went to the hallway (10 steps away) and didn't see anyone. I did bed checks again and all clients were still sound asleep.

I was so scared shitless. I got chills and began to pray. I shared my experience with my family and some of them suggested that I was sleep deprived and hallucinating. I was wide awake and I know what I heard. 😬🫣.