'The devil lay upon her and held her down'. Hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis described by the Dutch physician Isbrand van Diemerbroeck (1609-1674) in 1664.
Journal of Sleep Research December 1, 2008 E J O Kompanje
A 1664 case report by Dutch physician Isbrand Van Diemerbroeck describes a 50-year-old woman's nightly experiences that match modern criteria for sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnagogic hallucinations. This is the earliest detailed account of sleep paralysis associated with hypnagogic illusions and the first observation that these phenomena occur more often when the body is in a supine position.