Nightmares and the supernatural encounter
December 6, 2019 Stephen Gordon
This chapter argues that medieval accounts of nocturnal assaults by ghosts, revenants, and demons can be understood through the modern medical concept of 'nightmares'—sleep paralysis combined with REM hallucinations. Modern sociological research treats the nightmare as a universal bodily function whose symptoms are interpreted according to the sufferer's mental schemas. The chapter first discusses the value of using modern social-scientific data on nightmares as an interpretive tool, then examines how medieval writers interpreted nocturnal assaults through classical dream theories and humoural medicine.