The Nightmare
Painting by Henry FuseliWikipedia
13
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7
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 7 episodes found for "The Nightmare".
Nov 4, 2026
SamanthaGUEST
Mm-hmm.
SaraHOST
And it actually influenced a very, very famous painting called The Nightmare.
SaraHOST
Again, if you are a viewer, I'm going to pop that painting on the screen right now.
SaraHOST
And if not, I'm going to explain what it looks like.
Jake NelsonHOST
This is Henry Fuseli.
Jake NelsonHOST
It's called The Nightmare.
Jake NelsonHOST
And you can see it there.
Jake NelsonHOST
There's a woman laying on the bed and there's something sitting on her chest.
Neil StanleyGUEST
And that is often thought of as a little devil, a little succubus is sitting on your chest.
Neil StanleyGUEST
And anybody who knows the Fuseli painting called The Nightmare, there's a beautiful blonde woman in a lovely white gown and she's lying there with this little devil on her chest.
Neil StanleyGUEST
and a nightmare, which is the horse nightmare behind the curtain.
Neil StanleyGUEST
So sleep paralysis persists.
7 MINS LATER
Neil StanleyGUEST
And you think, oh my God, this is horrific.
Neil StanleyGUEST
The child must be really suffering.
Neil StanleyGUEST
What are they going through? The problem is that whilst the nightmare is a bad dream, so it happens in this rapid eye moon sleep, a night terror happens during our deepest sleep.
Neil StanleyGUEST
So a night terror is linked to things like sleepwalking and sleep talking, which happens in our deepest sleep.
Shaun AllsoppHOST
Since humans have been writing stories and making art, they've been preoccupied with sleep.
Shaun AllsoppHOST
Stories like Rip Van Winkle and Sleeping Beauty, art like the 1781 oil painting The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli's depiction of a sleeping woman with a squatting incubus on her chest choking her dreams, and one of my favorite Beatles tracks, I'm So Tired.
Shaun AllsoppHOST
Now, some of us wake in the morning to our tech giving us sleep scores as we track our REM sleep and our deep sleep like scientists.
Shaun AllsoppHOST
Essentially, we're obsessed with sleep, so why can't we get it right? Now, I want to unlock its mysteries and maybe get a good night's sleep in the process.
AllyHOST
And for a very long time.
AllyHOST
So there's a famous painting by, I just looked this up before we started, Henry Fuseli called The Nightmare, and it was painted in 1781.
AllyHOST
It's literally a woman asleep and this little monster sitting on her chest.
AllyHOST
So sleep paralysis is not a new phenomenon.
Jason RekulakGUEST
And then with Will, the first engraved image he did, I think it was this one, which we were trying to copy the...
Jason RekulakGUEST
There's this famous painting called The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli.
David GwynHOST
Yeah.
Jason RekulakGUEST
I don't know if I'm saying his name correctly, but that painting's pretty similar to this.
Jennifer ProkopHOST
[laughs]
Sarah MacLeanHOST
And the reason why is because, and those of you who have read the Casino series will know this, because this painting is actually in the Casino series, is it is in The Fallen Angel.
Sarah MacLeanHOST
I'm dropping it into chat for Jen to look at so we can discuss it now.
Sarah MacLeanHOST
It is not sexy, but for some reason, this painting, I must've seen it when I was a child, and it's just imprinted on me.
Jennifer ProkopHOST
Oh, I love that.
Sarah MacLeanHOST
It's called The Nightmare.
Jennifer ProkopHOST
You'll be looking at it right now with us
Sarah MacLeanHOST
... put it on, on the, on the, uh, episode, so you can look down if, if your, your, um, your podcast catcher shows images.