Wikipedia

Witching hour

In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons, and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight, and the period from 3:00 am to 4:00 am.[1] The designation of 3:00 am as the "devil's hour" is often attributed to a mocking inversion of the time when Jesus Christ was believed to have died, which is traditionally calculated as 3:00 pm.[1] The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour, as well as superstitious phenomena such as luck.

Witches' Sabbath, illustrated by Émile Bayard, 1870
Medieval portrayal of an unclean spirit

Origins

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The phrase "witching hour" began at least as early as 1762, when it appeared in Elizabeth Carolina Keene's Miscellaneous Poems. It alludes to Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Prince Hamlet declares: "Tis now the very witching time of night, / When Churchyards yawne, and hell it selfe breakes out / Contagion to this world."[2][1]

Time

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There are multiple times that can be considered the witching hour. Some beliefs set the period from midnight to 1:00 am,[1] while others claim there is increased supernatural activity from dusk to dawn. The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary identifies midnight as the time when witches are supposedly active.[3] The significance of midnight in folklore is often tied to the concept of liminality; as the exact transitional point between one day and the next, it is considered a threshold time when the "veil" between the living and the spirit world is at its thinnest, allowing for heightened supernatural activity and magic.[1]

Another commonly cited window is the period between 3:00 am and 4:00 am, which is frequently specified as the "devil's hour".[1] This specific timeframe is widely attributed to a mocking inversion of the time when Jesus Christ was believed to have died, traditionally calculated as 3:00 pm.[1] Furthermore, in Western Christian traditions, the hours between 3:00 am and 4:00 am historically fell into a gap between the continuous night canonical hours of prayer, leading to superstitious fears that the world was temporarily without the protection of prayer and therefore vulnerable to witches, demons, and dark rituals.

During the time in which this term originated, many people had sleeping schedules that meant they were awake during the middle of the night.[4] Nonetheless, there is psychological literature suggesting that apparitional experiences and sensed presences are most common between the hours of 2:00 am and 4:00 am, corresponding with a 3:00 am peak in the amount of melatonin in the body.[5]

Physiology

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A 19th-century version of Henry Füssli's The Nightmare (1781)

The idea of the witching hour may stem from the human sleep cycle and circadian rhythm—the body is going through REM sleep at that time, where the heart rate is slower, body temperature is reduced, and breathing patterns and blood pressure are irregular.[6] Sudden awakening from REM sleep could cause agitation, fear, and disorientation in an individual.[7]

During REM sleep, which usually occurs within the witching hour, unpleasant and frightful sleep disturbances such as parasomnias can be experienced; these include nightmares, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, night terrors, sleepwalking, homicidal sleepwalking, and sleep paralysis.[8]

During the night and well into the witching hour, symptoms of illnesses and conditions such as lung disease, asthma, flu, and the common cold seem to exacerbate because there is less cortisol in the blood late at night and especially during sleep.[9] As a result, the immune system becomes highly active and white blood cells fight infections during sleep, which can thereby worsen the symptoms of fever, nasal congestion, cough, chills, and sweating.[10][11]

Colloquial usage

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The term may be used colloquially to refer to any period of bad luck, or in which something bad is seen as having a greater likelihood of occurring.[12][13]

In investing, it is the last hour of stock trading between 3:00 pm (when the U.S. bond market closes) and 4:00 pm EST (when the U.S. stock market closes), a period of above-average volatility.[14]

The term can also refer to a phenomenon where infants or young children cry for an extended period of time during the hour (or two) before their bedtime, becoming irritable and fussy with no known cause.[15]

To reduce gun violence, curfew hours in Washington, D.C., have been in force between 11:00 pm and midnight to lower juvenile gunfire incidents. Influenced by the idea of the "witching hour", this occurs between 11:00 pm and 11:59 pm on weekdays and is referred to as the "switching hour".[16] Furthermore, violent crimes like rape and sexual assault peak at midnight on average, and DUI police incidents tend to occur at around 2:00 am.[17][18]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ostberg, René. "witching hour". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2026.
  2. ↑ "witching hour". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/1210591770.
  3. ↑ Kennedy, Graeme D.; Deverson, Tony (2005). The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. New Zealand Dictionary Centre. p. 1298. ISBN 0195584511.
  4. ↑ Sedgwick, Icy (3 March 2019). "What time is the witching hour and does it even exist?". Icy Sedgwick. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  5. ↑ Luke, David P.; Zychowicz, Karolina (2014). "Working the graveyard shift at the witching hour: Further exploration of dreams, psi and circadian rhythms". International Journal of Dream Research. 7 (2): 105–112. doi:10.11588/ijodr.2014.2.12000.
  6. ↑ "Is there really a witching hour, like 3 a.m.?". Philippine Daily Inquirer. 1 June 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  7. ↑ "What is the Witching Hour? Should You Be Afraid?". Tuft and Needle. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Seigneur, Erica (30 October 2015). "Brains that go bump in the night: Stanford biologist talks about parasomnias". Stanford Medicine.
  9. ↑ "Why do we feel sicker at night?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  10. ↑ "Here's Why You Always Feel Sicker at Night". Time. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Beck, Melinda. "Your Body's Witching Hours". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  12. ↑ Manning-Schaffel, Vivian. "Cry, Cry, Cry: The latest (not entirely reassuring) research on colic". Babble.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "the witching hour". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
  14. ↑ "Witching Hour Definition". Investopedia. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  15. ↑ "Age-by-age guide to surviving witching hour". Today's Parent. 26 October 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  16. ↑ Carr, Jillian B.; Doleac, Jennifer L. (16 March 2016). "Keep the Kids Inside? Juvenile Curfews and Urban Gun Violence". Cato Institute.
  17. ↑ "Murder, Robbery and Driving While Impaired Happen At Night". Security Magazine. 14 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  18. ↑ "Crimes that Happen While You Sleep". Best Mattress Review. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
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