Three in the morning became historically known as the witching hour because the Catholic Church established canonical hours for prayer, and the middle of the night was considered…

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Three in the morning became historically known as the witching hour because the Catholic Church established canonical hours for prayer, and the middle of the night was considered the time when monks were asleep and demonic forces could roam entirely unchecked. European folklore aggressively ran with this concept, claiming it was the exact moment when black magic was most potent, ghosts were most active, and witches were out performing their darkest rituals in the woods. In reality, waking up at 3 AM with a sense of impending dread isn't a sign of an encroaching supernatural entity, but rather just your circadian rhythm dropping your core body temperature while your brain suddenly remembers an incredibly embarrassing thing you said at a party five years ago. We essentially spent centuries blaming the devil for the very natural human experience of mild nocturnal insomnia and existential dread