Shadow People & Dark Entities

Shadow people are dark, human-shaped silhouettes reported at the edge of vision or standing beside the bed – sometimes in a brimmed hat, the so-called Hat Man, sometimes hooded or crouching. The phrase spread through American late-night radio in 2001, but the experience is ancient: the “Old Hag” of Newfoundland, Japanese kanashibari and Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting The Nightmare all describe the same terrifying visitor. This category also includes modern legends of dark visitors, such as the black-eyed children who knock at the door asking to be let in.

Science has a strong candidate explanation for many of these reports: sleep paralysis, in which the mind wakes while the body is still paralysed by REM sleep. A 2011 review of 35 studies estimated that about 7.6 percent of people experience it at least once, and research by the psychologist J. Allan Cheyne found that a sensed, threatening “intruder” – often a shadowy figure – is its most common hallucination. In 2006 neuroscientists in Switzerland even induced the feeling of a shadowy person behind a patient by stimulating one spot in her brain.

Glimpses in daylight have other explanations: peripheral vision is poor at detail and good at detecting movement, and the brain readily sees people in shadows. Sleep deprivation and some drugs are also known triggers. If you experience frequent episodes, a doctor can help – sleep paralysis is common, harmless in itself and treatable.