Nikolai Gogol's account of sleep paralysis in the tale "The Portrait".
Carolina Aguirre, Marcelo Miranda, Ambra Stefani
Sleep Medicine September 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2021.07.037 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Gogol Hallucinations Sleep paralysis “the portrait” |
| Key points | Argues that Gogol's 1833 tale "The portrait" contains the earliest known non-medical description of sleep paralysis, including motor paralysis, visual and auditory hallucinations, and autonomic manifestations. |
Abstract
Several classical writers had an impressive power of observation and often depicted medical conditions in their works long before medical literature did. Sleep paralysis is a common and frightening experience, in particular when occurring for the first time. Therefore, it is not surprising that it has been frequently described in the classical literature, eg by Dostoevsky, Kafka, Dickens, and Maupassant. In Nikolai Gogol's tale "The portrait" (1833) we could recognize an excellent description of a sleep paralysis, in which several components of this condition were depicted including motor paralysis, visual and auditory hallucinations, and autonomic manifestations. To the best of our knowledge, this account is the earliest description of a sleep paralysis in non-medical literature.