Sleep paralysis and visits from The Night Hag

Its when Hilary Clinton suddenly appears on top of you in bed and has her way with you. Her breathe paralyzes you. All the victim can do is submit and obey.

Yes. Happened to me the other day. I could see myself on the couch but couldn't get up then a few minutes later I woke up. We referred to it as getting Hagged when I was younger.

I put this on my thread watcher and it disappeared until I was clearing it this morning (anyone else have threads disappear from watcher?)

Yes, I've had them recurring for periods since my twenties (59 now). They coincided with unusually stressful times. It was awful when it first happened because they're so freaky and there's no escape. They take place in the room you're sleeping in (because you're in a state of partial consciousness) and your muscles are still paralyzed since you're also in REM stage sleep.

I've never had a "hag" or demonic figure on my bed, but either saw a shadowy figure in the corner or felt an evil presence in the room or nearby. You can't escape because your muscles are paralyzed and the fear doesn't abate until you wake up. Sometimes I could scream, but usually not. Luckily since they occur at the end of the sleep cycle, they don't last too long.

Most freakish: I fell asleep on the living room sofa and there was an evil Danny DeVito as the Penguin lurking in the trees outside. It kept trying to get through the windows and succeeded. By that point I was familiar with the phenomenon and could wake myself up, but I couldn't this time. It seemed to go on forever.

That's Bryan Singer's Halloween costume.

About a week ago I was asleep on the sofa and clearly “woke up” and saw a shadowy figure entering my house from the garage door. I screamed and woke up. It was so real I went room to room hunting for the intruder. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t there.

Several years ago I was drifting off to sleep and startled myself awake to see a medieval pope hovering next to my bed and staring at me with big googly eyes. Scared the crap out of me and I slept with the light on for 3 nights.

It happened to me. I saw a creature very similar to the painting.

Never heard of this until now. I thought sleep paralysis meant you try to wake yourself up because you know you need to wake up, but can’t. Never heard of some demon/ghost thing.

I got many episodes of sleep paralysis when I was partying too hard with stimulants and missing nights of sleep but I never got to meet the hag. I had mostly auditory hallucinations for me and it sounded like my whole apartment was crowded by devilish entities I couldn't quite see, slamming the doors of my kitchen cabinets. The light in the room was unreal, maybe the kind of light you only see when you're rolling and colors are much more saturated, vibrating, shimmering, you almost feel they have a life of their own. But you're too scared to notice it in this setting and you can only move your eyeballs. Thank God I knew what this was before my first episode occurred but knowing the theory and then experiencing it first-hand are two very different things: it was still quite uncomfortable.

That ain't no Night Hag. It's just Muriel shaking a tin can at you for $1.99.

Funny OP that you would mention it today because two days ago I was sleeping and then opened my eyes and the old hag was there, looking me straight in to the eyes. But then I realized I was in my old bedroom at my parents' house and that Madonna poster was still pinned on the wall across the room from the bed.

Time travel, r11. Impressive!

I used to suffer from sleep paralysis a lot, but in the last few years it's almost completely stopped.

I used to get my worst episodes when I was over tired. Weirdly even though I was exhausted I'd find that I'd get it when I started to drift off to sleep. I used to find it terrifying (I used to think "what if this lasts for hours and I can't move for that whole time?") but the more I had it, the less scary it got. It generally only lasted 30 seconds or so.

I never saw 'the night hag', but I did experience auditory hallucinations - usually loud non-descript sounds. But, again, as I got used to them I learnt to work out what sounds weren't real.

I probably haven't had an episode for a couple of years now.

I definitely suffer from sleep paralysis — usually if I fall asleep during the day or attempt an afternoon nap.

Years ago I was on a CPAP machine — I haven’t for a good ten years, but probably should get back to using one. When I was using the machine I had so much more energy.

My hag Never visits me at night and when she visits in the day she always calls first.

Interestingly, the Old Hag was the figure most people saw up until the mid 60s. After Barney and Betty Hill brought being abducted by a UFO into to the popular consciousness, most people started seeing aliens.

The Night Hag was my nickname for Deb before we separated

I had episodes of sleep paralysis when I was young, but they mercifully stopped in my early thirties. I never had the visual or auditory hallucinations some experience. All the same, they were very frightening. It's hard to explain the mental panic they would cause.

Yup, and I nipped that crap in the bud as soon as I could!

Sleep paralysis is a terrible terrible thing. I experienced this a few years ago. I was studying for my PHD and working late hours at a part time job- most days s getting home at 12 am, then waking up 6 am next day. Well, I started having extremely weird , what I thought were dreams, e.g one night I woke up convinced that there was someone inside the house, went to check, nothing. I usually would fall asleep with my ipad/ laptop , books surrounding me all across the bed. I woke up one night and hurled an iPad at the wall because visions in my dreams(?) led me to believe there was a monster on the wall.

This scares the hell out of me. I believe there’s something supernatural to some of these visits. I’ve never had a hag visit. Once when I was 19 or 20 I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a shadow sitting at the end of my dead. I was definitely awake I used to sleep with the tv on and I remember before I saw them realizing the show that was on and kind of paying attention. I didn’t feel threatened at all and fell back to sleep. I remember the next morning thinking how insane that was because I really should have felt scared and not been able to go back to sleep.

We have visits from The Night Fag.

I haven't read this whole thread but based on the title I'm here to share a bit of wisdom. Always sleep with a vessel of water beside you because it keeps a witch from riding your back. Trust me on this.

Mine was a blonde dude. Could never see the face. Stopped in my 30s

R22, eww, is that Frankie Grande?

Yes, it’s happened to me. She usually appears when she needs help shopping for clothes.

R8 That’s exactly what I thought it was as well.

My experiences are less defined when I have them. Usually happens when I fall asleep on the sofa with the lights on. I am unable to move but vaguely sense something/see some sort of movement in the periphery of my field of vision. I know it is someone who has broken into the house and is trying to harm/kill me. Try to move and scream but I am unable to do so. I never actually have a full view of the person before waking up with a feeling of panic.

I was fascinated by stories of my father's experience of "The Old Hag" when he was growing up. He described several nights being woken up by her sitting on his chest and making it difficult for him to breathe. Afterwards, he imagined her at the foot of the stairs on the first floor of my grandparents' house, and any time he moved an inch in his bed, she would take one step closer. He'd lie awake at night for hours, absolutely still, paralyzed with fear until the sun rose.

My father told me he saw the old hag in daytime as a kid. He was in his 50s at the time and was really serious when he told me. He lived in an apartment building up on the 4th or 3rd floor and she was down on the street. Nobody else seemed to notice her out there and he said his family never sawhorses. she’d point up at him and laugh and make creepy faces.

I don’t know if this is a hag, but this is what I see at the foot of my bed during sleep paralysis:

The Hag doesn't walk around in the street. That may have been a spectre.

It happened to me a few nights ago. I tried to force myself awake but couldn't. There was a figure in my hallway looking into my bedroom.

This has happened to me MANY times in my life but the last experience was completely terrifying. A friend told me he has it when he lays on his back as he sleeps so it may be related to sleep apnea. Nothing mystical about it.

When this happens to me, I don’t hallucinate a menacing presence, but I do find myself stricken with the thought that if someone or something were to come get me, I wouldn’t be able to respond. Which is just as terrifying.

I think if someone was actually in the room with you, though, you would wake up.

I also have reason to believe that while these episodes seem to go on forever, in reality they only last a split second or two.

[quote] My father told me he saw the old hag in daytime as a kid.

That was just his crazy lesbian great aunt no one in the family would talk about.

I could go for a night shag with a night fag. Oh yes i could.

I love a good scare and part of me would like a hag or demon visit just once

I don't know about that.

I've never had true sleep paralysis that I know of, but I used to get what are called hypnic jerks, where your brain thinks your body is actually falling down as you're entering into sleep, and then hits you with an extremely exaggerated startle response so you can "catch" yourself before you hit the ground. They would mess me up something awful.. And that's without the visual component.

Is this the hag you folks are seeing?

No r39 this is her

[QUOTE]hypnic jerks, where your brain thinks your body is actually falling down as you're entering into sleep,

So that's what they're called! Thanks, VOTN, for providing the medical perspective (and social context re UFOs). This is rabbit hole material for me. I've had those since adolescence, at least. Sometimes, mine have a visual component: I'm walking down stairs and fall or I'm waking across a carpet that slips out from under me.

Has anyone here seen the dreaded hat man?

Fortunately, this only happened to me once in my twenties. In the dream, I could see myself sleeping from an overhead point of view. I could also see a man dressed in black sneaking around my apartment and heading to my bedroom. I don't think I could see his face. As he was getting closer to me, I was screaming in my head trying to wake myself up. Hopefully, I wasn't screaming in real life. The neighbours would have loved that. In a weird, kind of homoerotic twist, the man in black climbed into bed with me and I woke up. I've never been so scared in my life. Despite all the logical inconsistencies, I at first thought that everything in the dream had actually happened. I didn't want to go to sleep after that.

These hallucinations can happen if you’re partially conscious during the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle of sleep. In that state, you’re looking at the real world but also dreaming — the prefect recipe for seeing things that aren’t really there.

Get tested for sleep apnea folks. It's one of the most under diagnosed conditions and causes a lot of sleep hallucinations.

Yes, but never saw a hag. Couldn't move. Was deciding I'd attempt to just fall out if the bed but couldn't event do that. Last one lasted for a few minutes and I remember trying to devise a plan to snap out of it. I was so aware of what it was and though scared, I was trying to help myself..tried to shout but the most i could get out was a gurgle. One time i do recall during the paralysis something say on the end of my bed, i wasnt facing that way so didnt see it but the feeling of the mattress being sat on my a person was as real as it gets..that made me feel incredibly vulnerable being unable to move.

I have occasionally heard a doorbell ring or loud door knocking usually while dozing/napping and coming out of it. Anyone else have this happen?

r44, as r3 pointed out...

I’ve been woken up by hearing yelling all of a sudden in my sleep. Once when this happened I woke up and my cat was sitting there staring at me.

I started getting SP when I was about 18…then had frequent bought of it for decades. Only once did I actually have the dark thing, creature, demon over me during an episode.

I finally learned that if I only slept on my side or stomach it wouldn’t happen..I hated that feeling and the night terror thing