If you're experiencing long periods without ghost activity, check if you've got a shade first - they're extremely shy and won't do much when players are nearby. A quick way to test this is having everyone leave the ghost room and watch for increased activity.

Keep in mind that incenses will force inactivity periods - spirits stay quiet for 180 seconds, while most others only pause for 90. Demons bounce back fastest at 60 seconds, which is worth remembering during tougher investigations.

Your team's behavior heavily impacts ghost interactions too. If everyone's clustered together in well-lit areas, or staying far from the ghost room, don't expect much activity. High sanity levels also keep things quiet since most ghosts need below 50% average team sanity to start hunting, except for demons who can hunt anytime. Shades specifically need below 35% and still won't do anything with people around, so if nothing's happening after a long time with low sanity, that's another good sign you've got a shade.