Shadow people and the Hat Man
Dark human-shaped silhouettes seen at the edge of vision or by the bed, popularized by Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM radio show in 2001; the 'Hat Man' wears a brimmed hat.
2001 CE · 36.20, -116.03 · status: claim
The account
Shadowy figures appear in many traditions, but the modern idea took off after an April 2001 show broadcast from Bell's home studio in Pahrump, Nevada, and books by Heidi Hollis. The Hat Man, described from the late 2000s, is strongly linked to sleep paralysis and to overdoses of the antihistamine diphenhydramine.
The sceptical view
Sleep paralysis is common (8 to 50 percent of people have it at least once) and often brings a sense of a presence, a figure in the room and pressure on the chest; peripheral vision and drug-induced delirium explain much of the rest.
Connections in the atlas
- Black-eyed children
- ? What is the "Old Hag" that sits on sleepers’ chests?
- The 'Oz factor'