My initial research led me to the most famous and historic example of Sleep Paralysis, Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting “The Nightmare”. The painting portrays symptoms of sleep paralysis. The central figure is lying on her back with the demon sitting on her chest and some strange creatures in the background. The work is considered to be the greatest work of this artist. It is also believed that this is the first artistic impression of Sleep Paralysis.
In the history of Western medicine, Sleep Paralysis has been documented for at least 300 years. Several cases were found to support this argument including the Dutch, Persian and Greek. The Dutch case report (“Of the Night-Mare”) was documented back in 1664 from a physician Isbrand Van Diemerbroeck. The case describes …show more content…
(www.thesleepparalysisproject.org) These symptoms can be seen in Fuseli’s painting; the figure of a woman seems to be powerless with a strange creature sitting on her chest. One could argue that, the painting portrays these symptoms in rather poetic yet fearful approach. What I mean by this; the woman seems to be laying down in an elegant way and does not show any signs of fear, but at the same time, she is surrounded by strange creatures which appear to be evil. Because of this, we see signs of terror but it does not come directly from the victim. It could be suggested that, Fuseli’s painting was influenced by the fear and terror of Sleep Paralysis however now, most contemporary artists approach the same subject in a more positive sense. For instance, Nicholas Bruno is a contemporary artist who took his experiences as an