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Witching hour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Witching hour (disambiguation) .
Witches' Sabbath
13th-century CE portrayal of an unclean spirit

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 time between 3:00   am and 4:00   am. The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour to more superstitious phenomena such as luck.

Origins [ edit ]

The phrase "witching hour" began at least as early as 1775, in the poem "Night, an Ode." by Rev. Matthew West, [1] though its origins may go further back to 1535 when the Catholic Church prohibited activities during the 3:00 am and 4:00 am timeframe due to emerging fears about witchcraft in Europe . [2] [ dubious – discuss ]

In the Western Christian tradition, the hour between 3:00 am and 4:00 am was considered a period of peak supernatural activity?this time is also referred to as the "Devil's hour" due to it being a mocking inversion of the time in which Jesus supposedly died, which was at 3:00 pm. [3] [ dubious – discuss ]

Time [ edit ]

There are multiple times that can be considered the witching hour. Some claim the time is between 12:00 am and 1:00 am, while others claim there is increased supernatural activity between sunset and sunrise. The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary identifies midnight as the time when witches are supposedly active. [4]

During the time in which this term originated, many people had sleeping schedules that meant they were awake during the middle of the night. [3] 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 [ edit ]

A 19th-century version of Fussli '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 reduced, breathing pattern and blood pressure irregular. [6] Sudden awakening from REM sleep could cause agitation , fear and disorientation in an individual. [2]

Also, during REM sleep, which usually occurs within the witching hour, unpleasant and frightful sleep disturbances such as parasomnias can be experienced, which include nightmares , rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder , night terrors , sleepwalking , homicidal sleepwalking and sleep paralysis . [7]

Moreover, during the night and well into the witching hour, symptoms of illnesses and conditions such as lung disease , asthma , flu and common cold seem to exacerbate because there is less cortisol in the blood late at night and especially during sleep. [8] As such, the immune system becomes very active and white blood cells fight infections in the body during sleep, and this would thereby worsen the symptoms of fever , nasal congestion , cough, chills and sweating. [9] [10]

Colloquial usage [ edit ]

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. [11] [12]

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. [13]

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 unwieldy with no known cause. [14]

To reduce gun violence , curfew hours in Washington D.C. have been in force between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am to lower juvenile gunfire incidents. Influenced by the idea of "witching hour", this occurs between 11:00 pm and 11:59 pm on weekdays and is referred to as the "switching hour". [15] Furthermore, violent crimes like rape and sexual assault would peak at midnight on average and DUI police incidents would usually tend to occur at around 2:00 am. [16] [17]

See also [ edit ]

Look up witching hour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ West, Matthew. "Poems, &c. on several occasions. By Matthew West, A.M. Curate Assistant of St. Mary's, Donnybrook, and Chaplain to the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Cork" . Spencerians . Retrieved 4 December 2020 .
  2. ^ a b "What is the Witching Hour? Should You Be Afraid?" . Tuft and Needle . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  3. ^ a b Sedgwick, Icy (3 March 2019). "What time is the witching hour and does it even exist" . Icy Sedgwick . Retrieved 14 November 2020 .
  4. ^ Kennedy, Graeme D.; Deverson, Tony (2005). The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary . New Zealand Dictionary Centre. p. 1298. ISBN   0195584511 .
  5. ^ Luke, David P.; Zychowicz, Karolina (2014). "Working the graveyard shift at the witching hour: Further exploration of dreams, psi and circadian rhythms" (PDF) . International Journal of Dream Research . 7 (2): 105?112. doi : 10.11588/ijodr.2014.2.12000 . Retrieved 2017-10-06 .
  6. ^ "Is there really a witching hour, like 3 a.m.?" . Lifestyle.INQ . 2020-06-01 . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  7. ^ Brains that go bump in the night: Stanford biologist talks about parasomnias by Erica Seigneur from Stanford Medicine . October 30, 2015
  8. ^ "Why do we feel sicker at night?" . The Irish Times . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  9. ^ "Here's Why You Always Feel Sicker at Night" . TIME . 2019-02-06 . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  10. ^ Beck, Melinda. "Your Body's Witching Hours" . WSJ . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  11. ^ Manning-Schaffel, Vivian. "Cry, Cry, Cry: The latest (not entirely reassuring) research on colic" . Babble.com.
  12. ^ Little, Ken. "Beware of Stock's Witching Hour" . About.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04 . Retrieved 2017-10-13 .
  13. ^ "Witching Hour Definition" . Investopedia . Retrieved 2011-10-01 .
  14. ^ "Age-by-age guide to surviving witching hour" . Today's Parent . 2020-10-26 . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  15. ^ Keep the Kids Inside? Juvenile Curfews and Urban Gun Violence by Jillian B. Carr and Jennifer L. Doleac from CATO Institute . March 16, 2016
  16. ^ "Murder, Robbery and Driving While Impaired Happen At Night | 2019-06-14 | Security Magazine" . www.securitymagazine.com . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
  17. ^ "Crimes that Happen While You Sleep" . Best Mattress Review . 2019-06-04 . Retrieved 2024-02-12 .
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