The Lietuvēns, Who Sits on Your Chest
In Latvia, people who woke unable to move, with a crushing weight on their chest, said the lietuvēns had come for them in the night.
What was reported
In Latvian folklore, the lietuvēns is a nightmare spirit that comes at night and sits or lies on the chest of a sleeping person, pressing down so hard that they can't breathe or move. It could also torment horses, which would be found sweating and exhausted in the morning, their manes tangled.
Some said it was the restless spirit of someone who had died before their time. Protections included sleeping with a knife or an axe, or blocking the keyhole.
Explanations offered
The lietuvēns matches what we now call sleep paralysis: waking with the body still paralysed from dreaming, often with a feeling of pressure and a presence in the room. Similar spirits are found across Europe, like the mara of Scandinavia and the Old Hag of Newfoundland.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Latvia
- Witnesses
- Latvian folklore
- Status
- Folklore
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.