5 Things You Need to Know About Hallucinations in the Elderly

A hallucination---sometimes called sensory hallucination---is the abnormal sensory perception, usually of auditory or visual nature, that happens when an individual is awake and conscious. There are no real triggers to these perceptions. In other words, a person is seeing and or hearing things that aren't there. These hallucinations can come as hearing voices even though no one has spoken, seeing lights and patterns or other beings that are not real, or even feeling a crawling sensation on the skin. Hallucinations involving taste and smell are rare.

Mature woman looking out of a window. (Image: DragonImages/iStock/Getty Images)

A hallucination---sometimes called sensory hallucination---is the abnormal sensory perception, usually of auditory or visual nature, that happens when an individual is awake and conscious. There are no real triggers to these perceptions. In other words, a person is seeing and or hearing things that aren't there. These hallucinations can come as hearing voices even though no one has spoken, seeing lights and patterns or other beings that are not real, or even feeling a crawling sensation on the skin. Hallucinations involving taste and smell are rare.