Sleep Paralysis, Somnambulism and the Uncanny

Internationally renowned art critic Richard Dyer critically analyzes the video works of the London based artist Clement Page. Taking somnambulism as the central point of his artistic discourse Clement Page has been working on video based art projects for the last four years.

When we are in the REM stage of sleep, 1 that stage associated with the most vivid and visually oriented dreams; there is a complete loss of muscle tone in the major muscle groups of the body.  We are effectively paralyzed.  The accepted theory behind this natural and universal phenomenon is that a state of paralysis is induced in the body so that we cannot act out the content of our dreams- consequently exposing ourselves to danger and damage.  If this physiological mechanism did not exist, everyone would sleepwalk every time they dreamt.  The mind, being fully involved in the dreamworld, is not normally aware of the phenomenon of nocturnal paralysis.  However, in a small percentage of individuals, perhaps ten to fifteen percent, a disturbing psychophysical syndrome occurs:  Isolated Sleep Paralysis (ISP), 2, commonly known as “Petit-Mal” in the West.  In this instance, the sleeper gains consciousness while the body is still in a state of paralysis.  Not only is this terrifying because the subject believes themselves to be truly paralysed, generally engaging in desperate but usually futile attempts to move, or “awaken”, but the brain is still partially dreaming, such that dream imagery and hallucinations, both visual and tactile, are experienced as real.  A common hallucination is of a being crouching on the subjects chest, an “incubus” or succubus”, or the subjects arms or legs being pulled or touched by unseen hands, the room filling with daemons and preternatural light.  Jorg Conessa has suggested that this terrifying occurrence may be turned into a positive experience by transforming it into a lucid dream – that is, a dream where the dreamer is conscious that they are dreaming and can exert a certain degree of control over the content and progress of the dream-however, this requires diligent training and may not work for all “sufferers” of the condition.  3 Clement Page’s 16mm film, entitled Tiny Pain (2005), 4, is a filmic evocation of this naturally occurring “uncanny” psycho physical state.  Based on the reports of a real-life sufferer from Sleep Paralysis, this short film intensely echoes the claustrophobic atmosphere of cloying dread and steadily increasing panic as the paralysis spreads and the hallucinations intensify.

 
What are the elements of this phenomenon that equate it with Freud’s notion of the uncanny?  Freud saw the uncanny as a blurring of the boundaries between reality and the imaginary. This is exactly what occurs during Sleep Paralysis.  Dream content literally “leaks” from the unconscious into reality, the hallucinations appear to be projected into the three dimensional space of the real, disrupting the stability of the subjects perception of reality and thus causing an intense sensation of the uncanny. 

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