At Sinister Coffee and Creamery we know all about Coffee, Ice Cream, and paranormal experiences. We also know that a good story goes a long way. A global phenomenon of a demon-like creature who sits on your chest causing pain, fear and paralysis while you sleep sounds like a recipe for a long night… To help you stay awake, grab yourself a cup of our high caffeine light Roast “Clairvoyant” or choose from one of our other organic roasts.
The Nightmare
by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.
WHat is a night hag
The night hag (or old hag) refers to supernatural creatures that paralyzes a sleeping person. Upon wakening, people describe the feeling/vision of an entity sitting on their chest or at the foot of their bed. Many medical and scientific professionals relate this sensation to sleep paralysis. Some believe it is simply a bad dream. Others believe it is something else...
Nightmares
The word nightmare was used to describe this experience and other night terrors before the word received its modern, more general meaning. The inability to move was widely considered the work of demons, and more specifically incubi, which were thought to sit on the chests of sleepers. In Old English the name for these beings was mare, hence the name “nightmare”.
Legend has it
Night Hags
Have a long history of disrupting sleep
Folklore beliefs in places such Newfoundland and the US, describe a negative shadow figure of an old woman who enters their room and sits on the chest of her sleeping target. The victim usually wakes with a feeling of terror, difficulty breathing and paralysis. The person is forced to lay there unable to move until she releases them from her grip.
truth or belief
In other cultures it is believed that the hag is a demon, summoned by the black Magic’s of someone hurt or the actions of jealous person. It is also thought to be a punishment for one who has “wronged” another and are then terrified by their own reflections in their slumber.
Other speculations are that homes and places themselves are haunted by evil spirits that feed off of the energy of their living hosts. No matter what your beliefs are, there is a wide range of these types of experiences crossing continents and time.
Global phenomenon
In Brazil, there is a legend about a mythological being called the pisadeira ("she who steps"). She is described as a tall, skinny old woman, with long dirty nails, a long nose and glowing red eyes. Her story is that she lives over the roofs, waiting to step on the chest of those who sleep with a full stomach.
In Japan sleep paralysis is called “kanashibari.” The term is rooted in Buddhism; long ago it was believed that Buddhist monks could use magic to paralyze others. In China it has been labeled “ghost oppression.” Images depicting such experience date back as early as the 18th century and span across the globe.
“Sleep paralysis: The devil, the ghost & the Old Hag
-Thomas Heffron ”
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