# I'm Afraid to go to Sleep Tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 23, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698 "2011-03-23T06:42:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/1 "2011-03-23T06:42:06Z")
When I was a wee child, from the ages of about six to eightish, I’d have these intense, very realistic nightmares. I’d awaken to a very tall man with wild hair, wearing a windbreaker standing over my bed. He’d be accompanied by a smell, not dissimilar to something that had half-way rotted and then dried out. I’d hide under the covers and close my eyes, and after a few minutes of cowering in fear, I’d fall asleep again. This would happen at least once a week, most weeks it was four or five times. It hasn’t happened for years, I even forgot about the whole thing until last night–when it happened again. I know it’s all in my head, but it’s still creepy and unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/2 "2011-03-23T07:23:13Z")
This is a very common experience, so common in fact that it even has a name: hagging. It can take different forms, but having the feeling of waking up in bed and having a scary-looking individual looking over you (usually accompanied by sleep paralysis) is nearly universal among mankind. I used to experience it too, as a kid. It hasn’t happened to me in a while. I don’t remember a smell, but sometimes there would be a low-frequency sustained noise. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/3 "2011-03-23T07:25:43Z")
Uhhhhg, WHY did I read this thread? This hasn’t happened to me in a long time and now I’m afraid it’s going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/4 "2011-03-23T07:28:45Z")
The best way to avoid it is to sleep on your side and not your back, and not eat anything right before bed. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/5 "2011-03-23T07:46:05Z")
You’re lucky. I’m so jaded I would probably interview the guy (within my dream) and try to poke his orifices. Horror films have made me so inured that I would actually welcome the opportunity to be truly scared again. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/6 "2011-03-23T12:24:37Z")
I never smell anything in my dreams. Actually they rarely have sound. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/7 "2011-03-23T12:35:34Z")
Sucker punch the sucker! Dream of shagging, not hagging, **TravisFromOr**. It’s just one sexy little letter away… Sleep tight. Don’t let the crazy scary frizzle-haired stinky anywhere near ya. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/8 "2011-03-23T13:03:42Z")
Weird, I’ve never heard the term “hagging” for it (and Googling produced the definition that I’d expected instead) but I think reading about the sensory experiences of [hypnagogia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia) might help you at least realize it’s pretty common and maybe help you seek out things that could improve it. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/9 "2011-03-23T13:57:34Z")
On the bright side, it’s good to know that [BOB](http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&tbs=isch:1&q=twin+peaks+bob&revid=721612465&sa=X&ei=ovuJTYzLOIautwe28djoDQ&ved=0CDMQ1QIoAA&biw=1366&bih=615) is still getting the job done… ---
**Author:** ![clarkstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@clarkstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clarkstar)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/10 "2011-03-23T14:46:08Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > This is a very common experience, so common in fact that it even has a name: hagging. > > It can take different forms, but having the feeling of waking up in bed and having a scary-looking individual looking over you (usually accompanied by sleep paralysis) is nearly universal among mankind. I used to experience it too, as a kid. > > It hasn’t happened to me in a while. I don’t remember a smell, but sometimes there would be a low-frequency sustained noise. i had it several times during the 90’s and was amazed when i read about it in carl sagans “demon haunted world”, he described my “ghost-like” or “demon visit” experiences to a “T” OP should read [his book](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World). mine mostly stopped after i read the book, and even when they happen, i now am no longer terrified ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/11 "2011-03-23T15:03:51Z")
A better (and more relevant) read would be David Hufford’s [The Terror That Comes in the Night](http://www.amazon.com/Terror-That-Comes-Night-Experience-Centered/dp/081221305X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300892104&sr=8-1), as the whole book is specifically about this phenomenon, with lots of data on folklore about it but ultimately from a medical perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/12 "2011-03-23T15:46:50Z")
Attack the character in your dream. It always works for me. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/13 "2011-03-23T15:58:14Z")
_Shhhhhh!_ Finally, he’s asleep… ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/14 "2011-03-23T16:13:25Z")
I used to wake up paralyzed every single morning (and frequently in the night) for a few years in my late teens / early 20s. Luckily the murdering psychopath only hovered over me every couple months or so. I eventually learned to concentrate every ounce of my willpower on wiggling the tip of one finger. Once I could get that going, I could move up to a whole finger, then my hand, and then my arm. Then I could throw my arm over and move my whole body, which would wake it up. It was awful. Looking back, I should’ve been beating down walls for a solution, but I just accepted it. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/15 "2011-03-23T16:22:24Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > maybe help you seek out things that could improve it. Improve it? [QUOTE=Invader Zim, 1.1] Zim: I put the fires out! Tallest Red: You made them worse. Zim: Worse… or BETTER? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/16 "2011-03-23T16:36:07Z")
> [@Darth\_Nader](#): > > On the bright side, it’s good to know that [BOB](http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&tbs=isch:1&q=twin+peaks+bob&revid=721612465&sa=X&ei=ovuJTYzLOIautwe28djoDQ&ved=0CDMQ1QIoAA&biw=1366&bih=615) is still getting the job done… Damn you! He is Bob, eager for fun. He wears a smile. Everybody RUN. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/17 "2011-03-23T16:48:36Z")
Oh, and it didn’t happen tonight. It might have just been a one-night reversion–hopefully. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/18 "2011-03-23T18:17:14Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I used to wake up paralyzed every single morning (and frequently in the night) for a few years in my late teens / early 20s. Luckily the murdering psychopath only hovered over me every couple months or so. I eventually learned to concentrate every ounce of my willpower on wiggling the tip of one finger. Once I could get that going, I could move up to a whole finger, then my hand, and then my arm. Then I could throw my arm over and move my whole body, which would wake it up. It was awful. Looking back, I should’ve been beating down walls for a solution, but I just accepted it. I tend to have nested dreams where I’m doing something and I think I’m actually doing it, but I’m just asleep. It’s kind of hard to define. I’ll dream that I’m masturbating in the bed where I’m sleeping, but I will think it’s actually happening and I’m actually doing it. Then I will wake up and realize oh, I wasn’t actually doing it but I’ll start now. Then I wake up and realize I wasn’t doing it, it was just a dream, and I wake up from that and try again… like 5 or 6 different layers of dreaming sometimes. Until finally I wake up and I have no idea if this is really fucking reality or not. fml I will also get sleep paralysis at least once a week where I’m being raped by a nightmare guy but can’t move. I will wake up and be paralyzed and it will feel like there is a person lying on top of me… BRAINS SUCK ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/19 "2011-03-23T18:24:02Z")
It happens to me a lot. At 11 I hallucinated that terrorists had put a bomb in the house, another time I hallucinated Jack Abbot coming to get me, and the Queen mother of all of them was when I had what is called Exploding Head Syndrome and hallucinated a thermonuclear war. Compared to that one, being visited by the Wicked Witch of the West and the Devil were only minor disturbances. And no, I don’t sleep very well. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698/20 "2011-03-23T18:26:02Z")
**Travis** , do you have any overdue library books? If so, I suggest you take them back pronto. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-afraid-to-go-to-sleep-tonight/575698.md?page=2)