Sightings of a featureless shadow figure in a wide-brimmed hat known as the Hat Man have been linked to sleep paralysis and the overuse of Benadryl, but those who have seen the eerie entity think he may be something much more menacing.
Cryptid WikiThe Hat Man is often described as a featureless shadow person who simply watches his victims as they sleep.
If you spend enough time on the internet, you’re bound to come across any number of strange stories. Online forums have spawned a new wave of urban legends ranging from Slender Man to the ever-evolving lore of the SCP Foundation. But among these terrifying tales, one entity keeps coming up: a shadow person known as the Hat Man.
Unlike his fellow internet counterparts, however, the Hat Man may actually be real — or at least, he might not just be the stuff of virtual legend.
Countless threads on internet forums have asked the same question: “Has anyone else seen the Hat Man?” What many considered to be a one-off, isolated event has turned out to be a widespread phenomenon of people across the world experiencing similar incidents.
Hat Man witnesses all report seeing the same thing: a shadow being whose features are completely obscured except for the presence of a large, wide-brimmed hat. Generally, the experience aligns with instances of sleep paralysis, but many have found the similarities of the sightings eerie, to say the least. Of course, there are scientific explanations for the phenomenon — though some would argue that the Hat Man is something far darker.
Who Is The Hat Man?
RedditThe Hat Man as interpreted by a Reddit user.
The Hat Man is a mysterious figure who has been seen by people across the globe, often during episodes of sleep paralysis — a state when one is conscious but unable to move upon waking.
Since ancient times, people have seen shapes and odd figures during bouts of sleep paralysis. Often, they report a feeling of someone pressing down on their chest, sometimes claiming that an alien or goblin-like creature is holding them down or sitting atop them. It was once even believed that demons were responsible for the sensation.
However, the Hat Man doesn’t touch his victims. Typically described as a tall, shadowy humanoid donning a wide-brimmed hat and sometimes a long coat, the Hat Man is simply associated with intense feelings of fear and dread. While the phenomenon has gained traction online in recent years, sightings of the entity have been recorded since at least 2001.
That year, a man named Timothy M. Brown Jr. launched The Hatman Project, a site to “research the phenomenon that has come to be known as ‘The Hat Man.'”
Brown writes, “Reports of The Hat Man and other shadow beings have been on the rise within the last several decades. It was due to my own experience with this being, as well as my awareness of other people’s sightings of The Hat Man that I decided to begin this research project.”
The site features a form for visitors to submit their own experiences with the Hat Man, all of which have a shadowy figure with a wide-brimmed hat in common.
As with anything on the internet, much of the mystery surrounding the Hat Man has been turned into a meme, but those who encounter the haunting shadow person are left unnerved. The remarkable similarity of their accounts has led to numerous theories about who the Hat Man is — and why he appears.
Why Have So Many People Seen This Shadowy Entity?
RedditAn artist’s sketch of the Hat Man looking eerily similar to Slender Man.
One of the prevailing theories about the Hat Man is that he is a type of “shadow person,” a paranormal being that appears in the periphery of human vision. Shadow people are largely thought to be evil, although some see them more as guardian figures. The Hat Man’s unique appearance is the primary factor behind the idea that he is an interdimensional shadow being.
Humans have long been afraid of demons or aliens, but few people would cite “a man in a hat” as one of their top fears.
To try and understand where this imagery came from, forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland sat down for an interview with paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley for a piece in Psychology Today in 2013. Guiley, who had just published a book on jinn at the time — shape-shifting genies from Arabian mythology also known as djinn — spoke of her own experiences with shadow people.
“I noticed that many cases of persistent negative hauntings involved Shadow People, so I began probing for their true identity,” Guiley said. “I discovered that many Shadow People experiencers are also ET experiencers, especially abductees. Through a long process, I concluded that Shadow People are a shape-shifted form taken by Djinn.”
Guiley further explained that, according to old tales, Djinn often struggled to perfectly replicate the human form. They retained animalistic legs and feet that would expose them for what they truly were. Guiley also speculated that “Shadow People wear hats and cowls to cover up imperfect heads.” If the Hat Man is one of Guiley’s djinn, this could be an explanation for his wide-brimmed hat.
Of course, this explanation also requires a belief in djinn — and science has never proven they exist. However, there are some scientific reasons for why people see the Hat Man.
Scientific Explanations For Sleep Paralysis And The Hat Man
Public DomainHenry Fuseli’s The Nightmare depicts a demon sitting on a sleeping woman’s chest.
To understand why people see the Hat Man, we must also understand how sleep paralysis works.
Sleep paralysis is linked to the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the sleep cycle. REM is the stage in which most people experience vivid dreams and atonia — a temporary form of paralysis that prevents dreamers from flailing about in their sleep.
Typically, when a person wakes up, both the dreaming and the atonia come to an end. This is not always the case, though. When someone experiences sleep paralysis, their body is still unable to move even though their brain is mostly awake, and they can experience vivid hallucinations.
People who report seeing the Hat Man often say that he does not speak or attempt to touch them. Often, he simply lurks in a corner of the room. Because of this, science attributes his “appearance” to sleep paralysis.
As for why the specific imagery of the Hat Man is so commonplace, it’s difficult to say with any certainty why so many people share the same hallucination. Two decades ago, when Brown started The Hatman Project, it seemed to be a very strange, uncommon image.
However, in the years since, as more and more people became aware of the Hat Man, it makes sense that they began picturing him while experiencing sleep paralysis. Like Pennywise the clown, Dracula, or Frankenstein’s monster, the Hat Man has become a famous figure in his own right, instilling fear in people across the world. If you wake up in a panic, unable to move, why wouldn’t your mind conjure up the image of that terrifying thing you read about online?
Despite how scary the Hat Man is to many people, some thrill-seekers have tried to intentionally summon him in their dreams.
How Benadryl Plays A Role In Shadow Person Sightings
Over the years, a common denominator has popped up again and again in stories about the Hat Man. Many of the people who have reported seeing the shadow being took medication containing diphenhydramine before going to sleep the night he appeared to them. Diphenhydramine, or DPH, is the active ingredient in Benadryl.
RedditA humorous t-shirt about the Hat Man and Benadryl.
This purported connection became so widely circulated that it actually became dangerous. People started taking high doses of drugs containing diphenhydramine in hopes of seeing the Hat Man or other shadow people and then posting “trip reports” to detail their experiences.
To be clear, this can be highly unsafe. An NIH report highlighted some of the potential dangers of DPH, noting that it can lead to agitation, confusion, delirium, depression, drowsiness, hallucinations, and seizures.
DPH abuse is not the only way to see the Hat Man, however. It’s not entirely clear what causes the mysterious entity to appear, but some people have reported seeing him after drinking caffeine or alcohol, and others have simply spotted him during a random incident of sleep paralysis.
Like Bigfoot, until someone captures the Hat Man and proves his existence, it is safest to say he is nothing more than the result of a shared imagination and the power of storytelling.
After reading about the Hat Man, discover the stories of terrifying monsters from Native American folklore. Then, learn about some horrifying encounters with ghost ships.
