Why Only Some People Can See the Hat Man | Monstrum

Countless people claim to have seen the Hat Man—a shadowy figure in a wide-brimmed hat—while experiencing sleep paralysis, bringing on an overwhelming sense of dread. Why do so many people, throughout time and across different cultures, report the same eerie encounter? Is it a neurological glitch or something more?

For audio descriptions, go to Settings - Audio Track - English Descriptive.

*****

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateStoried

*****

Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Executive Producer: Dr. Emily Zarka
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor/Animator: Ben Harrison
Illustrator: Samuel Allan
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music

Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program

Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

Follow us on Instagram:
  / monstrumpbs  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography
Adler, Shelley R. Sleep Paralysis: Night-Mares, Nocebos, and the Mind-Body Connection, Rutgers University Press, 2011.

Emery, Andrew. "'A dark presence squats on my chest': the waking nightmare of sleep paralysis; In the new documentary The Nightmare, viewers witness the horror of sleep paralysis -- a terrifying, hallucinatory disorder that torments around 10% of the population." Guardian, 11 Oct. 2015.

Herrero, Nerea L., et al. “Spontaneous and Induced Out‐of‐body Experiences during Sleep Paralysis: Emotions, ‘AURA’ Recognition, and Clinical Implications.” Journal of Sleep Research, vol. 32, no. 1, 2023, pp. 1-9.

Jalal, Baland. “How to Make the Ghosts in My Bedroom Disappear? Focused-Attention Meditation Combined with Muscle Relaxation (MR Therapy)-a Direct Treatment Intervention for Sleep Paralysis.” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 28–28.

Jalal, Baland. “‘Men Fear Most What They Cannot See.’ Sleep Paralysis ‘Ghost Intruders’ and Faceless ‘Shadow-People’—The Role of the Right Hemisphere and Economizing Nature of Vision.” Medical Hypotheses, vol. 148, 2021, pp. 110521–110521.

Keetley, Dawn. “Sleep and the Reign of the Uncanny in Postrecession Horror Film.” Journal of Popular Culture 52, no. 5 (2019): 1017–35.

Klee, Miles. “How the ‘Hat Man’ Went From Benadryl Joke to TikTok Horror Villain.” Rolling Stone, 2 Nov. 2022.

Malinowski, Josie. “Extraordinary Dreams: Lucid Dreams, Precognitive Dreams, and Sleep Paralysis Nightmares.” In The Psychology of Dreaming, 1st ed., 99–120. United Kingdom: Malinowski, Josie. “Extraordinary Dreams: Lucid Dreams, Precognitive Dreams, and Sleep Paralysis Nightmares.” In The Psychology of Dreaming, 2021, pp. 99–120.

Sharpless, Brian A., and Karl Doghramji. Sleep Paralysis: Historical, Psychological, and Medical Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Tucker, Libby. “Shadow People.” Voices (New York Folklore Society), vol. 43, no. 3–4, 2017, pp. 16–16.