The Hatman is a tall, dark humanoid figure in a wide-brimmed hat that people report seeing during sleep paralysis and deliriant hallucinations, often grouped under the folklore of shadow people.

Where did The Hatman come from?

Timothy Brown started collecting sighting reports in 2001 and launched The Hat Man Project blog on June 1st, 2008, which is the earliest sustained online archive of the figure.

What does The Hatman mean?

In the folk framework of shadow people, the Hatman is read as a specific malevolent apparition that appears to witnesses in altered states of consciousness like sleep paralysis.

How do you use The Hatman?

People typically post short first-person sighting stories or jokes about Benadryl-induced visions, as seen in r/DPH threads and viral tweets like @bootleghinata's.

Is The Hatman still popular?

The figure stayed active in paranormal and drug-culture spaces through 2022, with Twitter posts about him gathering hundreds of thousands of likes that year.

The Hatman

2008folklore / urban legendclassic

Published October 26, 2026

The Hatman is a shadowy fedora-wearing figure that people report seeing during sleep paralysis episodes and Benadryl-induced hallucinations. Timothy Brown began logging firsthand accounts on The Hat Man Project blog in 20081, and by late 2021, tweets describing the apparition were gathering hundreds of thousands of likes5.

creepypasta memes horror memes cryptid memes sleep paralysis memes late 2000s memes

Overview

Accounts of the Hatman share a consistent template: a tall, pitch-black humanoid in a wide-brimmed hat or fedora, often spotted in a doorway or at the foot of a bed4. He never speaks, radiates dread, and vanishes once the witness fully wakes. Many people place him within the wider folk category of shadow people8, a group of dark apparitions reported across cultures.

A second strand of lore ties the Hatman to deliriant drug use. Users on r/DPH describe him as a recurring hallucination after taking antihistamines like Benadryl at doses high enough to trigger delirium2. In practice, Hatman posts tend to pair a creepy first-person retelling with the stock visual: hat, long coat, no face.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

WordPress blog (The Hat Man Project) / 4chan and Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2008

The Hat Man Project went live on June 1st, 2008, run by Timothy Brown, who had started collecting sighting reports in 20011. Brown's earliest surviving post dates to October 30th, 2009, and the oldest essay on the site describes the figure as part of the shadow people category8.

How It Spread

Scattered Reddit threads on r/AskReddit and r/NoSleep carried Hatman stories through the early 2010s4. On September 18th, 2014, the horror game The Hat Man: Shadow Ward launched on Steam, drawing directly on the sleep paralysis legend6. A /x/ thread on November 25th, 2016, posted an image called 'hatman.jpg' with a first-person account, and anons argued over whether the figure was a ghost, a sleep paralysis demon, or a Benadryl hallucination7.

Quartz uploaded a mini-documentary about the Hatman on March 15th, 2019, which gathered over 400,000 views in three years3. The subreddit r/DPH logged repeated Hatman sightings from Benadryl users through 2022, including a thread simply titled 'the hatman'2. On November 24th, 2021, @bootleghinata posted a screenshot of a Benadryl-abuse discussion name-checking the figure, which topped 300,000 likes5. Two months later, @LuhChance's tweet about encountering the Hatman reached more than 200,000 likes9.

Timeline

2008-06-01

Timothy Brown launches The Hat Man Project blog on WordPress to archive firsthand sighting accounts[1].

2009-10-30

The earliest surviving post goes up on The Hat Man Project[1].

2014-09-18

The Hat Man: Shadow Ward releases on Steam, a horror game based on the sleep paralysis legend[6].

2016-11-25

A 4chan /x/ thread circulates 'hatman.jpg' alongside a first-person sighting story[7].

2019-03-15

Quartz publishes a YouTube mini-documentary about the Hatman that later tops 400,000 views[3].

2021-11-24

@bootleghinata's tweet about Benadryl abuse and the Hatman passes 300,000 likes[5].

2022-01-19

@LuhChance posts a viral Hatman tweet that reaches over 200,000 likes[9].

How to Use This Meme

Hatman posts typically take the form of a short first-person sighting story, often set during a sleep paralysis episode or a Benadryl trip, with the figure described as a tall silhouette wearing a brimmed hat. A common convention is to drop the article (as in 'saw Hatman last night') to signal familiarity with the folklore.