The Bogeyman
Late one night, you’re having trouble falling asleep. It’s been storming all night, and the lightning has made it nearly impossible to lay your head down. The room is pitch black, save for the streak of moonlight streaming in through the curtains. All of a sudden, you hear something scratching at the window. You shrug it off, as it must just be a branch from the tree right outside. The sound of something shuffle around in your closet begins to echo in the room. You realize you’re standing straight up. Were you really that afraid? You lay back down, and realize you’re being an idiot. You close your eyes, annoyed at how little sleep you were going to get. You get comfy, and are finally ready to get to sleep. Gently, you roll over onto your other side. You feel breathe of warm air in your face. Your eyes pop open. A monster stands right before your eyes. Before you get the chance to scream, you’re knocked out. The bogeyman has arrived, and he’s come to put you to sleep.
For centuries, adults and children alike have been afraid to go to bed at night. The
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reason: The Bogeyman. In almost any culture across the globe, a darkness lurking monster has been created. Said to hide in the shadows and under the bed, this monster’s intended purpose is primarily to scare children out of bad behavior. Whether he be called The Bogeyman, Butzemann (German), El Coco (Spain), or simply the Sack Man, this monster will come and get you if you aren’t on your best behavior. The Bogeyman is often described as many things.
In some countries, he is seen as a man with a sack on his back, the sack being used to carry naughty, troublesome children away. European countries usually seem him as a tall, lanky man in a heavy black coat, with a hide that hides his face. Most commonly, his features are dependent on the fears of the person being frightened. In English culture, he is seen as a dark mist or fog that can take the form of anything it pleases. Overall, the true image of the bogeyman is up to your own interpretation.
The Bogeyman does not have a set origin or home. He is a universal creature, used in every country. A bogeyman-like entity can be found just about anywhere. His folklore is not bound to place, as every culture in the world has one unifying problem: misbehaving kids. Wherever there are children that refuse to go to bed, there will be a Bogeyman, ready to
help. Just as he has no set location or appearance, he also doesn’t have an official name. In most Spanish-speaking countries, he is seen as El Coco/El Cuco. This creature is said to either have a pumpkin head, or is supposedly a small humanoid with glowing red eyes. In Germany, he is the Butzemann, a dark figure who hides in the dark corners and crevices of a child’s room. The eastern Mediterranean has Babau, who is said to come after kids who do not follow their parent’s orders. The origin of the name Bogeyman, according to Mother Nature Network, is the following “The roots of the word might ultimately derive from the Middle English bugge, meaning a "frightening spectre". Similar derivations include boggart, bogy, bugbear, the Welsh bwg and the German bögge, all referring to goblins or frightening creatures. "Bogey" may also come from the Scottish bogle, meaning "ghost", dating to around 1505 and popularized in English literature around the 19th century through the works of Scottish poets like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.” Even though bogeymen go by many names, none are officially confirmed. Most stories say that he eats small children. Bella Terreno: Mystical Mythology states “The Bogeyman takes the shape and form of a child’s worst fear in order to feed on them”. Children are threatened that if they do not do as their parents tell them to, then the Bogeyman will find them and devour them. Some people believe that the monster gets energy from the fear he creates in the children, like how the monsters in Monster Inc. obtained their energy. In some stories, the Bogeyman is just a dark cloud of mist, so he doesn’t eat anything. Although the bogeyman is very vague, and almost entirely up to your own interpretation, he is still a monstrous being who is ready to devour. No matter where you live, this monster will always be lurking in your closets and corners. Do as your parents say or the Bogeyman will come and get you.
“I had a dream…a gunman…placed his gun on my forehead. I immediately woke up from my dream…I stayed up all night and couldn’t sleep for a week” (147).
What happens first is you can’t sleep. What happens then is there’s a gun in your mouth. And what happens next is you meet Tyler Durden. Let me tell you about Tyler. He had a plan, too.
The Metell company made a toy called “Goodbye Fears Monsters”, the toy is designed to listen and respond to young children who have trouble falling asleep at night. The toy will interact with young children by allowing them to share their fears with them, that they might not feel comfortable sharing with anyone else, the GFM then assures them their fears will be eaten. The GFM will then record what the child shares and the recordings will be sent directly to the child’s parents via an app. The Metell company also promises to share the recordings, at no cost with child psychology researchers. This invention was developed in order for children and parents to sleep better at night, a lot of young children have trouble falling asleep at night because
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Fisher, C.J., Byrne, A., Edwards, and Kahn, E. (1970) REM and NREM nightmares. In E. Hartman (ed), Sleep and Dreaming. Boston : Little Brown
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You are lying in bed taking a much-needed nap. You have had a long day and this little refresher is just what you need. You are slowly becoming awake and aware of what is going around you. You can hear someone in the kitchen cooking and through the open window by your bed you can hear the sounds of the kids of the neighborhood jumping rope and playing hand games. You can even hear Old Mrs. Jones yelling at Little Johnny for running all over her flowers. You have been sleeping for about an hour and you feel that it is about time to get up. So you open your eyes, or at least you think you do. For reason some they are not open. So you think to yourself, "That is odd, I thought I mentally told my eyes to open?" So you try again, and this time you hear your voice in your head say, "Eyes open;" but again nothing happens. Now you think maybe you are really out of it, and that you must be extremely tired and just need to rub your eyes a little to get them moving. So next you try to move your arm, only it is stuck. Then you realize that your entire body is stuck. You think that this situation has to be unreal. You are awake; you have to be. You can obviously think to yourself, and you can hear everything that is going on inside and outside, but why are you not moving? You try to open your mouth and call for help, but you cannot do that either. You are completely paralyzed! Then you start to think this that is some sort of nightmare-and it is, except it is very much real. You are experiencing sleep paralysis.
The Bogeyman does not have a distinctive characteristic or form. Everyone that has “seen” the Bogeyman may have something different to say about their experience. He may be described as a dark figure of the night, hides in closets, lurks around corners,
Sleep and dreams have defined eras, cultures, and individuals. Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of dreams revolutionized twentieth-century thought. Historical archives record famous short sleepers and notable insomniacs—some accounts reliable, some not. When Benjamin Franklin counseled, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” he was using sleep habits to symbolize his pragmatism.
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Sleep and Sleep Disorders. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 July 2013. Web. 7 May 2014. .
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