An instance of sleep paralysis in Moby-Dick.
It is suggested that picturesque medical conditions can, at times, be encountered in literary works composed prior to their clinical delineation. This is true of sleep paralysis, of which the first scientific description was given by Silas Weir Mitchell in 1876. A quarter of a century earlier, Herman Melville, in Moby-Dick, gave a precise account of a case, including the predisposing factors and sexual connotations, all in accord with modern theory. The details of Ishmael's attack of sleep paralysis, the stresses leading up to it, and the associations causing him to recall the experience are given here.
Herman
J
J
D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009123:Muscle Hypotonia; D010243:Paralysis; D012890:Sleep