Sleeping patterns, effects of exhaustion, etc.

I was wondering if it could be implemented that if the player is sleeping in a bedroll in spooky places (Carter Hydro Dam, Quonset Gas station etc) that they have a rare chance of being woken by a nightmare.

This would be a 5%-10% chance when sleeping in a bedroll in the designated "Creepy" areas. The nightmare could even be a viewable cutscene, similar to a wolf attack, but more ghoulish and terrifying.

In addition to this, I think that as the character gets progressively more tired, they start hearing random auditory hallucinations, such as footsteps behind them, a distant cough, etc.

When the player is almost completely exhausted, they start hallucinating visually, just in the peripheral vision, such as seeing wolves in the distance that aren't there, and distant human figures. As night falls, dark areas will occasionally reveal a pacing phantasm of a wolf with red eyes (or something similar) that fades into non existence when looked at directly (this wouldn't be a constant thing, this would occur rarely).

In the carter hydro dam, as if fluffy wasn't enough of our concerns, you would hear the distant clattering of someone running along steps, corpses would start taking on a progressively more ghoulish cast, if the fire barrel is lit, and you walk away, and approach it again, you will sometimes see a twisted shadow of a person on the wall, etc.

These effects would never occur if your exhaustion bar is above 50%.

Just to make things a little more friendly, you would occasionally find notes and hear whispering voices that give you advice, such as the location of stashes (example "[hushed, distant voice] I remember leaving my rifle around here...")

and warnings about dangers ahead ("that wretched wolf... The bleeding, I can't stop the bleeding....")

These would be rare, unusual occurrences, as I don't want the game to become centered around the paranormal or anything (you could put it down to natural magnetic recordings due to the geomagnetic event or something)

but stuff like this would allow the player to engage more with the dead they find, rather than see them as "Ooooh, free loot! Sweet!".

If Hinterland were to go this route, i.e., reality-bending hallucinations, then it probably would be best not to tie it to exhaustion. This kind of mechanic would work best, in my view, with a morale bar wherein low morale turns you loopy. If you've played Don't Starve, you know exactly what I'm talking about (just less silly).

Perhaps bad morale could cause those nightmares which would, in turn, adversely affect your stamina.

Regardless, I like the idea of becoming Tom Hanks from Castaway.