The Batibat is the nightmare-demon of Philippine folklore, especially of the Ilocano people: a huge, fat, tree-dwelling female spirit who, when her tree is cut down and made into a house-post, takes revenge by suffocating the sleepers — the cause of the nightmare and of death in one’s sleep. She is the dread that sits upon the chest of the dreamer.
The Fat Tree-Spirit
The batibat (also bangungot in connection with the death it causes) is described as an enormous, obese female demon or spirit who dwells in trees, particularly old trees with hollows. She is bound to her tree, dwelling within it peacefully — until the tree is felled and its wood is used to build a house, especially when a portion of the trunk becomes a post or pillar within the home, with the batibat’s dwelling-hole still in it. Then the displaced and angered spirit, trapped in the house-post, takes her revenge upon the people who sleep nearby.
The Suffocator of Sleepers
The batibat’s revenge is terrible: at night, she emerges from her post and moves to a person sleeping near it, transforms into her huge, heavy form, and sits upon the sleeper’s chest or face, suffocating them — pressing down with her great weight so that the victim cannot breathe, cannot move, and may die in their sleep. This is the folk-explanation of bangungot — the phenomenon of sudden death during sleep (and of sleep paralysis and nightmares), in which a seemingly healthy person dies in the night, or wakes in terror unable to move or breathe, feeling a crushing weight upon them. The batibat is the demon who causes it.
Escaping the Nightmare
The traditional ways to escape the batibat draw on waking the body from its paralysis: a person who feels the crushing weight and cannot move or breathe should try to wiggle their toes or their thumb, or bite their thumb, to rouse themselves and break the demon’s hold. To avoid her, one should not sleep near a house-post (especially one made from a felled tree), and should ask the spirit’s pardon. A creature of the nightmare and the night-death, the batibat gives a dread face to sleep paralysis and sudden nocturnal death. In the Batibat, Filipino folklore gave form to the nightmare and the death in sleep — the huge, fat tree-demon who, displaced from her felled tree into a house-post, takes revenge by sitting upon the chest of the sleeper to suffocate them, the dread weight of the nightmare made a demon.