Old Hag Syndrome
You wake paralyzed. Something sits on your chest. An old woman's face hovers above. You can't breathe, can't scream. Every culture has this story. 8% of people experience it. Science calls it sleep paralysis.
The Old Hag is humanity’s universal nightmare.
The Experience
Victims wake from sleep to find they cannot move their body. They feel a heavy weight pressing on their chest, making breathing difficult, and sense a malevolent presence in the room with them.
The Hag
People consistently report seeing an old woman with a hideous face sitting on their chest. Sometimes she appears to be strangling them, and her appearance is invariably described as ancient and terrifying.
Global Names
Every culture has a name for this phenomenon. Known as Nightmare in its original meaning, Mara in Scandinavia, Kanashibari in Japan, Pisadeira in Brazil, and countless other names across different societies around the world.
Scientific View
Modern science explains this as sleep paralysis caused by REM atonia, where the brain wakes before the body can move again. The terrifying visions are classified as hypnopompic hallucinations. This explains the paralysis itself, but many wonder why the hallucinations are so remarkably consistent across cultures.
Supernatural View
Alternative theories propose that this is an actual entity rather than a hallucination. Some believe it to be a succubus or incubus, an astral attack, or a demon assault. The striking similarity of reports globally, even among isolated populations with no contact, suggests to some that something genuinely supernatural may be occurring.
The Question
The central mystery remains: why are the descriptions so consistent across time, across cultures, and among people with no contact with each other? What explains this universal human experience of the same terrifying entity?