Some people who experience nightmares claim an evil demon named The Night Hag would come to visit them and steal their breath, but is there a more scientific reasoning for this strange occurrence? In today's video we are looking at this scary demon and trying to see if sleep paralysis could have anything to do with this experience. | The Infographics Show

this is exactly where the word “nightmare” comes from. In old European folklore (Germanic, Norse, and Slavic traditions), a “mare” or “night hag” was believed to be a real spirit that sat on a person’s chest while they slept. People used this to explain terrifying dreams, the feeling of being unable to move, and the sense that something heavy was pressing on them at night — what we now call sleep paralysis. The mare was said to sneak into homes through cracks or keyholes, climb onto sleepers, an