It's just after 2 am, and David Spezo is suddenly wide awake.
He knows it's 2 am because he can see the clock on his nightstand out of the corner
of his left eye, but to his alarm, he can't physically turn his head to look.
In fact, he realizes that he can't move at all.
And out of the corner of his other eye, he sees that he isn't alone.
The figure is there, standing just outside his bedroom door.
David always sleeps with his bedroom door closed in order to keep his roommate's cat
out at night.
But now the door is wide open, and someone is standing right outside it.
David strains as hard as he can to crane his neck, to move his legs and get out of bed...
to scream for help, but he's completely paralyzed.
The best he can manage is a hoarse whimper.
The figure suddenly disappears and reappears, now inside his room.
It's in the closest corner to the open door, and as the figure seems to lift its head up
to look at him, David can see more details.
It seems to be a man, standing just over six feet tall and dressed head to toe in black-
though it's hard to tell if he's actually wearing any clothing at all, as the shadows
in the room almost seem to be attracted to him, wrapping around him.
What he can tell for sure is the figure is wearing a hat, something from a few decades
ago, with a wide brim.
Then the figure seems to open its eyes, blazing red coals in its pitch black face.
David can't breathe, horrible pressure weighs down on him.
He gasps for air, trying to scream once more.
Suddenly, the spell is broken and David has full control of his body.
He throws himself off the bed on the opposite side of the Hat Man, scrambling to get away.
But as he picks himself up off the floor, the Hat Man is gone.
The only evidence anyone was ever there is the still open bedroom door.
Someone will go on to tell him that he simply suffered a bout of sleep paralysis, an unsettling
phenomenon that can lead to the exact same paralysis and vivid hallucinations David experienced.
But David knows that the Hat Man was still there when the paralysis faded, and he knows
that he always sleeps with the door closed.
David's story is unsettling, but it's hardly unique.
Shadow people have long been reported throughout human history, and with the proliferation
of video cameras and recording devices throughout our modern world, photos and images of shadow
people have popped up with increasing regularity.
What's new in the Shadowpeople phenomenon may be its most disturbing evolution however,
or possibly a hint that shadowpeople are more than ghosts or figments of people's imagination...
China.
Mexico.
The United States.
Europe.
The places are different, but the descriptions are always the same.
A tall man, dressed all in black, and always wearing a hat of some kind.
Sometimes he appears alone, other times he appears with other shadowperson cohorts.
When he appears in a group it's clear that he's in charge.
The encounters vary.
Sometimes the victim will wake up and realize that the Hat Man is standing there, watching
over them.
He's described as featureless, though at times he's been reported to have blazing red eyes.
Other times the Hat Man is accompanied by a group of shadow people, whom he seems to
almost 'let loose' on his victim.
Sufferers have reported having to fight off these wispy, wraith-like beings, before finally
disappearing.
But real scratches and bruises are left behind.
Victims typically remain paralyzed for the entire encounter though, and these physical
altercations appear to be the extreme minority.
Some sufferers have described feeling as if the hat man was draining them of their vitality,
feeding on their life force like some kind of ghostly vampire.
Others were sure that the hat man was after their very soul.
One victim described waking up to find the hat man standing at the foot of her bed, looking
down upon her with his featureless, black face.
She could feel pure evil emanating from the creature, washing over her and almost suffocating
her.
Try as she might she couldn't move her body or scream for help though.
Then, she started praying to God and asking for protection, when suddenly the hat man
disappeared, vanishing into thin air.
Instantly she was freed from his paralytic grasp.
Other victims however have described more physical encounters, with them waking up to
discover the hat man physically standing over them, his feet on their chest.
Other times he'll be straddling their chest, pushing down on them and making it difficult
to breathe.
Still others have seen him simply hovering over them, some sort of force being projected
down onto them to keep them in place.
One woman from east Asia was sure that the hat man was after her very soul.
Medical doctors will point to sleep paralysis as an explanation for hat man apparitions.
While sleep paralysis does go a long way towards explaining the hat man phenomenon, it doesn't
quite fill in all the details.
It's estimated that something like 40% of all people will experience sleep paralysis
at least once in their lives- so if you haven't experienced it yet, get ready because odds
are good that it's coming.
An estimated 8% of people experience the phenomenon repeatedly.
Caused by the brain being caught between a dreaming state and wakefulness, sleep paralysis
happens when your brain has paralyzed your muscles to keep you from hurting yourself
during dreams, and believing it's still in a dream state, hasn't quite yet released your
body for duty.
The close proximity to this dream state can explain the powerful hallucinations experienced
by sufferers, with the most common described being humanoid figures and insects crawling
on walls or objects around the person.
Typically lasting only a few seconds, the brain eventually realizes it's actually awake
and releases your muscles from their dream-time paralysis.
It's a good explanation, but it's missing two key points in the attempt to explain the
hat man phenomenon.
First, sleep paralysis doesn't explain the fact that sufferers all over the world are
reporting a nearly identical figure during their episodes.
How could individuals from vastly different cultures and with no direct link to each other
all be describing the same individual- always around six feet tall, cloaked in black, no
visible features, and always a hat of some kind?
If the phenomenon were simply the cause of sleep paralysis, then surely hat man would
take on forms more appropriate for each individual culture.
Yet this isn't the case, and sleep paralysis doesn't account for the physical evidence.
A minority of sufferers experience very physical encounters with the hat man, although interestingly
it seems that it's never him who is the attacker, but rather other shadow people that accompany
him.
These individuals report that they are attacked and forced to fend off one or more shadow
people while the hat man watches, and this happens long after the sleep paralysis has
worn off.
After each encounter, a victim might find scratches or bruises on their body.
But that isn't the only physical evidence of the hat man phenomenon.
Often hat man will be described as manipulating objects in the environment around him.
He's been known to open doors and closets, sometimes even push aside objects on a night
stand.
Like in our opening account, the hat man will sometimes open a sleeper's door when they
have had a lifelong habit of sleeping with their door closed.
Sleep paralysis clearly doesn't not explain these physical events.
So what does the hat man want?
Opinions are divided on the identity of the hat man.
Some believe he is an alien observer, an otherwordly visitor using advanced technology to cloak
himself and manipulate his victims.
Most however are convinced that hat man is purely paranormal, an evil entity that is
not of this- or any other world.
Perhaps he is feeding on his victim's fears, as clearly if he wished to physically hurt
or kill his paralyzed victims he'd be able to freely do so while they were paralyzed.
This would put hat man more in line with demonic entities, which are well known to cultivate
and feed on fear, becoming more powerful the more their victim is afraid of them.
Whatever hat man's intentions are, one thing is for sure- he isn't done.
As he continues to be reported around the world, the next hat man visit just might be
in your bedroom tonight.
Now go watch shadowpeople, the terrifying mystery explained- or click this other video
instead!