I've dealt with night terrors and sleep paralysis for many years, now.

I think sleep weirdness in general runs in my family. My mom talks in her sleep, and used to sleepwalk. I've been a bit of an insomniac for my entire life, and tend to fall into night owl behavior no matter how much I've tried to adjust to a 'normal' circadian rhythm.

I think one of the weirdest experiences I've had with all of this, though, is the sleep paralysis.

This phenomenon is pretty well known now, but I wasn't familiar with it when it first happened to me. The 'thing' I saw has also become a bit of a meme, but it still freaks me out in retrospect.

Basically, back in 2014 or 2015, I saw the Hat Man. I was having a relatively normal dream, at first. Then, it shifted and I saw a window with an unusual red light coming out of it. There was a silhouette of a man in a wide brimmed hat. He was completely obscured and in shadow, but I could tell he was facing to the left. As I saw him, I watched his head turn, and I knew he was looking right at me.

I was gripped by an unusual terror when this happened, and it jolted me awake. Naturally, I woke up and was completely unable to move.

My door was closed and locked, and I watched as the shadowy and somewhat amorphous figure of The Hat Man slid through my door and into my room. He moved very slowly, and the physical experience was extremely uncomfortable and jarring. Its like I could feel physical malice coming off of him in waves. My body felt numb and my ears were ringing. I would close my eyes, open them again, and he would be a bit closer. I got the distinct impression that this thing in the hat wanted to hurt me.

He reached my bed, eventually. I slept in a bunk bed at this time, so I now imagine that he must have been a very tall creature, considering the fact that he was able to lean over me. His eyes were red like glowing LEDs, but very small and circular. I think they were about the size and shape of dimes. His face didn't seem to have any other features beyond that. He tried to talk to me, I think. His voice was very deep, but distorted. He only made one sound, like half of a syllable cut off. "O-"

He reached out to touch me, after that. One finger, right in the middle of my forehead. I closed my eyes as he started to reach toward me, and didn't get a very good look at them. I think they were more or less shaped like human hands.

My vision turned into TV static after that, and my ears wouldn't stop ringing for a few minutes after I woke up. I was completely terrified and shaken by the entire experience. I was used to vivid and realistic dreams and nightmares, but this was completely new and alien to me. I couldn't sleep for several nights afterword.

I did some reading up on all of it, and eventually figured out more or less what was going on. The amount of paranormal speculation really didn't help with my nerves, however, and I had to block out and intentionally avoid any talk of conspiracy theories or implications that I had encountered some sort of a "real" entity. The thought still makes me uncomfortable when I think too long about it.

(And, as an aside, I've met one or two people who insisted that I had actually 'astral projected' by mistake, and encouraged me to explore it further, insisting that I had attracted a 'curious' entity who wished me no harm. I don't personally prescribe to spiritualism or the occult, but the number of varying beliefs about the same phenomenon can be pretty interesting.)

Ignoring any paranormal explanations, I do find the phenomenon of "The Hat Man" pretty fascinating. I've met other friends who've explained seeing similar creatures during their own hallucinations, and it always makes me feel a bit uneasy. The same goes for the number of people who've encountered similar visions during their own bouts of sleep paralysis and nightmares.

I often encounter the visual trope of the shadowy man in the wide brimmed hat in things like noir media, or the logos for neighborhood watches. It works as a visual shorthand for "mysterious and potentially villainous." I do wonder how and why this came to be the case, but its outside the scope of this little writeup.

Finally, it was very funny when "taking benadryl to see the hat man" became a meme. The number of people who thought this 'thing' had been made up for the sake of the meme was really amusing to me. Like "wait, I KNOW him. What are these people talking about?"

Congrats to my sleep paralysis demon for becoming a minor internet celebrity and cryptid. I hope he enjoys his long and fruitful career terrorizing other people around the world.

I'd like to leave with word of advice in case anyone else happens to deal with sleep paralysis, or unexpectedly has it happen to them.

Do not open your eyes, and do not panic. Focus on moving your extremeties, and you should be able to move again after a moment or two. It can be very frightening the first time it happens, but you should be able to get yourself out of it very quickly if you know the trick. If you're more adventurous, you might also be able to have a little bit of fun in this state, too. It's not my cup of tea after my issues with it, but some people intentionally trick their bodies into entering that state, and are able to trigger lucid dreams and/or vivid out of body/astral projecting experiences with it. The brain is able to do some interesting things.