issue 31// vol 45

Image via 'The Hat Man' Facebook page

arts // no. 9

  

‘The Nightmare’ by Henry Fuseli

Sleep paralysis: A muse for centuries

» Artistic works inspired by sleep paralysis

Sonam Kaloti
Arts Editor

 

leep paralysis is an experience that many

people have at least once or twice in
their lives. For some, it can be amuch more
regular experience. Sleep paralysis is being
conscious but unable to speak or move.
It occurs when your body stays paralyzed
during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
(so you do not act out your dreams) while
your brain is awake. The experience can be
rather frightening, but rest assured, it is not
actually harmful and typically only lasts a
few seconds or minutes.

During sleep paralysis you may be able
to move your eyes; find it hard to breathe
as though your chest is being crushed or
restricted; hear, feel, or see things that
aren't there; and/or feel an evil presence in
the room.

There’s been a common thread of
similar hallucinations experienced by
people throughout time and across many
different cultures: Whether it be curious
shadowy figures watching you from across
the room, Hat Man who lingers in your
doorway, the Old Hag who crushes your

  

chest, or a demon who has sex with you.

IT once had a little girl in my room
who slowly crept up to me between blinks
and distorted into a piranha-like monster,
proceeding to scream two inches from my
face. Also, I’ve experienced some auditory
hallucinations (my friend speaking in a
spooky voice about his bad acid trip where
his girlfriend’s face melted off) paired with
a loud buzzing sound. I made a Flipnote of
it on my DSi to ¢ry to explain what the hell
happened, but professional artists capture
the experience to a far better extent.

A classic oil painting by Henry
Fuseli, The Nightmare is thought by some
researchers and psychologists to be an early
artistic representation of the condition.
It shows a woman asleep with a demonic
incubus perched atop her chest. The
painting itself is elegant, with the woman
dressed in a loose white gown and her
arms dangling. The room is decorated with
red drapery, a nightstand, and the head
of a ferocious horse peeking through the
curtains.

In Shakespeare's translated Romeo and
Juliet Mercutio says, “Mab is the old hag
who gives false sex dreams to virgins and

Photo by Nicolas Bruno

teaches them how to hold a lover and bear
achild.” Romeo and Juliet was published
around 1595, and witch hunts in Europe
and North America were still occurring
into the late 1600s. Back then, people

who had episodes of sleep paralysis were
labelled as being visited by ghosts, witches,
and demons, or accused of being witches
themselves. Nowadays, due to lack of
research and awareness many people who
experience sleep paralysis claim that they
were abducted by aliens.

Photographer Nicolas Bruno is one
of the few who has dealt with consistent
sleep paralysis episodes throughout
his life. Eventually occurring daily, his
disorder became detrimental to his mental
health and everyday life. According to
interviews with Fstoppers and Yatzer,
he began surrealism photography in
order to materialize his terrors so he
could confront them more easily. Bruno’s
work often contains images of faceless
figures terrorizing him. The colours in his
works are neutral and subdued, adding
a dreamlike quality. The quiet of the
backgrounds provides an eerie calmness to
what is clearly a violent scene. Most of the

characters look helpless and trapped, just
as one feels during an episode. Despite the
dark meanings and symbolism to his work,
the pictures are aesthetically pleasing.

Filmmaker Carla MacKinnon posted
a seven-minute short film on YouTube in
2014 titled Devil in the Room. The video is a
multi-media creation featuring voiceovers
of different people recounting their sleep
paralysis experiences atop jarring real-life
videos with added effects and animation.
The film discusses both myths and the
psychological side to the disorder. There’s
a bit of a back and forth between speakers
due to the way they approach the subject.
Near the end, one speaker says, “It’s a
physiological effect [...] it’s not real,”
followed by a menacing tone that says, “It
doesn’t matter if it’s real because it feels
real, and that’s what matters isn’t it?”

Sleep paralysis still lacks a lot of
research and it remains an uncommon
phenomenon, thus artistic expressions like
these are the closest most people can come
to understanding this unfortunate terror.
Luckily, we are past burning witches, lest
anyone claiming alien abductions finds
themselves at a stake.