What if a dream could kill you?

We revisit Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and the real-life sleep phenomena that inspired it. We explore how Freddy Krueger emerged from Craven’s own childhood fears and reports of mysterious deaths among Hmong refugees.

We also get into the strange science of sleep paralysis, the folklore of the “Old Hag,” the phenomenon of the Hat Man, and the viral mystery of This Man, a face reported in dreams around the world.

Shownotes