Nikolai Gogol's account of sleep paralysis in the tale "The Portrait"

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.

Keywords: Gogol; Hallucinations; Sleep; Sleep paralysis; “The portrait”.