The word Incubus comes from the Latin derivatives of “ incubo“, which refers to a nightmare brought on by a demon, and “ incubare“, which means “to lie upon”. Succubus is the female spirit demon counterpart to Incubus, who will look for sexual encounters with men.

Incubus is a male spirit demon that, as legend goes, looks for sexual encounters with women while they are asleep, sometimes producing a baby. The folklore suggests wiggling one’s toes or biting one’s thumb when they know a Batibat has come for them. It can even result in one having waking nightmares throughout the day. If a person sleeps too near it, it takes its true form and haunts the person’s dreamscape, suffocates, and paralyses them. The Batibat inhabits this remnant of the tree, or that which it has been transformed into. This is especially true when Batibat’s tree, or part of it, is made into a wooden support post for a house. It is believed that they come forth when a tree in which they had been residing is cut down and they are made homeless. The Batibat is part of the Llocano folklore and known as the Bangungot in Tagalog folklore – both in the Philippines -, and refers to a mythical creature that takes the form of a grotesque, ancient, obese, female spirit that dwells in the trees.

Sleep brings solace and serenity, yet there are those who will tell us how we may not be alone every time we go to sleep! Meet the Sleep Monsters from around the World!Ĭultures around the world have had theories, folk beliefs, and conjectures about why we are sometimes interrupted in our sleep in the nighttime: sleep monsters in the dark! These supernatural and mythical creatures visit us when we sleep, and there might be some parallels in how the human imagination has depicted them across the various cultures! The Batibat or Bangungot in the Phillipines This image shows the demon spirit of Batibat next to the tree she resides in. It is enjoyable too, like slipping softly onto a comfortable cloud to close off the day. Sleep regenerates the body and the rest it provides preserves its vitality. On average, humans sleep 8 hours a night, which translates to 229,961 hours in a lifetime, or more simply – a third of our lives.

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