night-hag

A child wakes up from a bad dream, feeling as if a night-hag had visited.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A female demon or evil spirit believed to cause nightmares: "night-hag" refers to a supernatural creature, often depicted as an old woman or witch, that is thought to torment sleeping people by sitting on their chests and inducing terrifying dreams.
   • A nightmare or oppressive dream: By extension, the word can also mean a particularly frightening or distressing nightmare.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • In folklore, the night-hag was blamed for the suffocating feeling people experienced during sleep paralysis. (A female demon causing nightmares.)
  • He woke up in a cold sweat, convinced a night-hag had visited him. (A nightmare or oppressive dream.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be visited by the night-hag": to experience a nightmare or sleep paralysis attributed to a supernatural entity.
  • Many cultures have stories of people being visited by the night-hag, a creature that presses down on the sleeper's chest. (To have a nightmare linked to folklore.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hag (n): an ugly old woman, often with connotations of witchcraft or malice; also a female demon.
  • The old woman was called a hag by the villagers. (An ugly, witch-like figure.)
• Nightmare (n): a frightening or unpleasant dream; also a feeling of oppression during sleep.
  • She had a terrible nightmare about being chased. (A bad dream.)

Synonyms

• Succubus: a female demon that preys on sleeping men, often in sexual contexts.
• Incubus: a male demon that preys on sleeping women.
• Mare: an archaic term for a demon or goblin that causes nightmares (e.g., "nightmare" literally means "night-mare").

Related Idioms

• "Hag-ridden": afflicted by nightmares or oppressive worries; troubled by a feeling of being haunted.
  • He felt hag-ridden after weeks of sleepless nights. (Troubled by nightmares or anxiety.)

Cultural Note

• The concept of the night-hag is closely related to the medical condition known as sleep paralysis, where a person is conscious but unable to move, often experiencing hallucinations of a threatening presence. In various cultures, this phenomenon is attributed to creatures like the night-hag, the Old Hag (in Newfoundland folklore), or the Kanashibari (in Japanese folklore).