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The insomnia of Franz Kafka
Accepted Manuscript The Insomnia Of Franz Kafka A. Iranzo, A. Stefani, B. Högl, J. Santamaria PII:
S1389-9457(18)30217-X
DOI:
10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.024
Reference:
SLEEP 3717
To appear in:
Sleep Medicine
Received Date: 19 March 2018 Revised Date:
17 May 2018
Accepted Date: 22 May 2018
Please cite this article as: Iranzo A, Stefani A, Högl B, Santamaria J, on behalf of SINBAR, The Insomnia Of Franz Kafka, Sleep Medicine (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.024. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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THE INSOMNIA OF FRANZ KAFKA
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Iranzo Aa*, Stefani Ab*, Högl Bb, Santamaria Ja on behalf of SINBAR *Both authors contributed equally to this work
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a. Neurology Service, Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERNED, Barcelona, Spain
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b. Department of Neurology, Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
(*)Adress for correspondence
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Alex Iranzo,
Neurology Service,
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Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
Fax number: 3493-227-5783, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract
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Objective: To characterize the insomnia suffered by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century.
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Methods: We read Kafka’s diaries and private correspondence to his fiancée, friends, editors and relatives looking for references to his insomnia.
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Results: We found 292 references to insomnia indicating that Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder that originated from and was maintained by the following predisposing and precipitating factors: 1) a complex personality predisposing to an increased arousal level, 2) intrusive thoughts and ruminations at bedtime, 3) excessive worrying about sleep loss and its daytime consequences, and 4) an extraordinary intolerance to noise. Since he could not sleep at night and felt the necessity to compose his literary works in an absolutely quiet environment, Kafka deliberately changed his sleep-wake schedule so he could write at night and nap in the afternoon. These maladaptive sleep habits perpetuated his insomnia and led to chronic sleep deprivation resulting in fatigue, lack of concentration and sleep-related auditory, tactile and visual hallucinations. Kafka sought help in alternative medicine however this was ineffective in improving his insomnia.
Conclusions: Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder and had inadequate sleep hygiene resulting in chronic sleep deprivation. These sleep problems impaired Kafka’s quality of life.
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Introduction
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The German-language writer Franz Kafka (Prague - Czech Republic - 1883, Kierling – Austria - 1924) is one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century and the author of masterpieces such as The Metamorphosis [1]. Written with elegant prose, his enigmatic works introduced ordinary men who unexpectedly found themselves in bizarre and absurd (Kafkaesque) labyrinths fighting against a confusing world. Kafka lived in Prague (Figures 1-3) and had a complex personality characterized by shyness, introversion, insecurity, uneasiness, perfectionism, a constant sense of guilt, and an inability to fulfill his sentimental and literary expectations [1-6]. This is reflected in the oppressive, enigmatic and bizarre atmosphere of his literary works [7-29]. He suffered from anxiety [29], nervous breakdowns [29], depressive mood[29], suicidal thoughts [24-29] and hypochondria [29]. He experienced multiple psychosomatic symptoms such as stomach ache [29], constipation [20], pruritus [20], chronic tooth ache without abnormal dental findings [29], fainting spells [29], palpitations [29], chest pain [24], and headache [20,29]. Like other great novelists, including Dickens [30], Dostoevsky [31] and Proust [32], Kafka suffered from insomnia [33-35].
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We were interested in analyzing Kafka’s insomnia and its influence in his life. Thus, we read his diaries and epistolary correspondence looking for references to his insomnia and sleep habits.
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Methods
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We read Kafka’s diaries and large epistolary correspondence [20-29].Although private and not meant to be published these became available after his death, originally in German and then translated into many other languages, including English. These writings are an invaluable source of information and provide important insights into many aspects of Kafka’s life, including his insomnia and sleep habits. His diaries and letters can be found in the following books.
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Diaries [20]. Kafka kept a diary from 1909 to 1923, the year before his death. This was published in 1937 by Max Brod, his closest friend and literary executor.
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Letters to Felice [24]. In 1912, Kafka met Felice Bauer, a woman from Berlin to whom he was engaged twice but never married. Kafka lived in Prague and Felice in Berlin and between 1912 and 1917 he wrote to her almost daily, sometimes twice or even three times a day. More than 500 of these letters were acquired by Schocken Books from Felice in 1955 and published in 1967. The book also contains the letters that Kafka wrote Felice’s close friend, Grete Bloch.
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Letters to Milena [26]. In 1920, Franz Kafka met Milena Jesenská, a woman from Vienna who had translated his works from German to Czech. They fell in love and between 1920 and 1923 Kafka wrote her more than 200 letters. Milena died in 1944 and the letters were published in 1952. Letter to the Father [22]. Written over three days in November 1919 while taking sick leave at the Pension Stüdl in Schelesen (Bohemia), this 76 page letter is a furious and brutal indictment of Franz’s father, Hermann Kafka. Kafka gave the letter to his mother to hand over to his father, but she could not bring herself to deliver it. The letter was part of a bundle of writings that Max Brod obtained from Kafka’s parents after his death and was first published by Brod in 1953 when Kafka’s parents were no longer living.
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Letters to Ottla and the Family [28]. This book collects more than 100 of Kafka's letters to his beloved sister Ottla and other relatives. These were written between 1909 and 1924. Ottla died in 1943 but the letters were preserved by her children and published in 1974.
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Letters to Friends, Family and Editors [29]. A book with more than 300 letters, written between 1910 and 1924, that were collected and published by Max Brod in 1958.
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Results
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After reading the works mentioned above, we found a total of 292 references to Kafka’s insomnia and sleep habits.
Kafka´s insomnia
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The first references to Kafka’s insomnia date from 1911 when he was 27 [20]. Kafka’s insomnia persisted until his death due to lung and laryngeal tuberculosis at the age of 41 [1, 36]. It was noted that his father also had insomnia, particularly when worried about his business [20].
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Franz Kafka’s personality traits (perfectionism, insecurity, exaggerated self-criticism, low self-esteem and internalization of conflicts) made him vulnerable to the development of insomnia [1, 3, 4]. A number of diary entries and letters show that Kafka’s insomnia included difficulties in sleep initiation, poor sleep maintenance and early awakenings. In some instances he perceived that he experienced nights of complete sleep loss.
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In his diary entry of October 2, 1911, he noted: Sleepless night. The third in a row. I fall asleep soundly, but after an hour I wake up (…). I am completely awake, have the feeling I have not slept at all [20].
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In a letter to his fiancée Felice Bauer, on November 11, 1912, he described one of his sleepless night: Honestly, I didn’t fail to count a single stroke of the clock as it struck each quarter-hour [24]. On July 12, 1922, he wrote a postcard to his friend Max Brod from Planá, a village in southern Bohemia close to Prague where he was resting in a summer house rented by his sister Ottla: And when I lie down at night in peace and hope, I am awakened at half past three and don’t fall asleep again [29].
Kafka’s insomnia was chronic and long-lasting and was aggravated by worries and an extraordinary intolerance to noise.
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT On February 25, 1912, he wrote in his diary about the anxiety provoked by having to give an introductory lecture about the Yiddish language in the Jewish Town Hall in Prague [1]: Excitements: About the lecture, one night twisted up in bed, hot and sleepless.20
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In a letter to Felice on December 7, 1912, he wrote: Last night I did not get to bed till four, but stayed there awake till 11.30. Once again your letter was responsible [24].
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Similarly, in Letter to the Father he wrote: From the moment I make up my mind to marry I can no longer sleep, my head burns night and day, life can be no longer called life [22].
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In May/June 1921 he wrote to Max Brod from a sanatorium in Matliary (High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia), where he took an eight month rest cure for tuberculosis: I cannot sleep anymore because I am too distraught [29]. On June 26, 1922, from his summer place in Planá, he commented to his close friend Robert Klopstock: There is also noise here which blasts sleep and shatters the head [29].
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Kafka slept well during those periods in his life when he was happy and confident, such as the days he spent with Felice Bauer and Milena Jesenskà, that were probably the happiest days of his life [1]. Kafka and Felice spent six days at the Castle Balmoral hotel in Marienbad (a luxurious health resort in western Bohemia) in July 1916 [2]. After Felice’s departure Kafka stayed on for another eight days where his insomnia and headaches, from which he had suffered terribly before the trip, disappeared. In a letter that Milena wrote to Max Brod in 1921 she explained that she saw Kafka very happy, eating well and sleeping like a log during the four days they spent together in Vienna [26].
His sleepless nights, however, were a torture for him. On August 6, 1913, he commented to Felice: In my helplessness in the middle of the night I virtually suffered an attack of madness [24].
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT In November 1920, Kafka writes to Milena: That whole sleepless night I spent almost writhing with torture [26]. In January 1921, he wrote to Max Brod from Matliary: What you see in my bed is much worse than an execution, yes, even than a torturing [29].
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Moreover, he had excessive worries and thoughts about his inability to sleep and intense fears of the consequences of insomnia.
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On June 16, 1914, he anticipated his next sleepless night to Grete Bloch, one of the best friends of Felice Bauer: Tonight I shall sleep as light as a feather for two or three hours, start up now and again, then wake up for good, perhaps half lose consciousness for brief moments, but never go to sleep again, and promptly, each time the tower clock strikes, be reminded me that time passes, that after the dreadful night the dreadful day will dawn, etc [24].
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This is the only sentence that he inscribed in his diary entry of October 18, 1917: Afraid of the night, afraid of the night [21].
Kafka, however, could sleep easily in settings outside his bedroom (such as when travelling by train), and then be unable to fall asleep upon going back to his own rooms.
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On July 28, 1917, he wrote a postcard to his sister Ottla from Prague: Above all I slept enough, as I always do when traveling by train, and also for a few days in Prague, but now I once more am getting so little sleep that it verges on the impossible [28].
During most of his sleepless nights Kafka laid awake in bed tossing and turning, tortured by intrusive and ruminative thoughts. When he was desperate he started to write and occasionally he went out for a walk, ate or read. On November 14, 1912, he commented to Felice: I was lying in bed and it occurred to me one single terrible sentence which I felt would kill me if I did not write it down. Then, I started writing [24].
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT One gets, instead of sleep at night, the best ideas. Today for instance it occurred to me that you could spend the summer with your friend Stasa, Kafka wrote to Milena on June 11, 1920 [26].
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Kafka´s sleep habits
commented to his sister one of the very worst (…) ate greedy, and dozed for was over [28].
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On September 26, 1923 he Ottla: The night before had been I got up and got myself Foligan, a quarter of an hour; but then it
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Kafka worked in the mornings at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague [1]. Since his passion was writing and he needed absolute silence for this activity, Kafka decided to write at home at night and therefore he deliberately changed his sleep-wake schedule. In a letter to Max Brod, on July 5, 1922, he wrote: Perhaps there are other forms of writing, but I know only this kind; at night, when fear keeps me from sleeping. I know only this kind [29].
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In one of his first letters to Felice, on November, 1, 1912, while he was living at his parents’ house in Niklastrasse 16, Prague, he commented: My mode of life is devised solely for writing (…). For the past six weeks (…), my timetable has been as follows: from 8 to 2 or 2.30 in the office, then lunch till 3 or 3.30, after that sleep in bed till 7.30, then ten minutes of exercises, naked at the open window, then an hour’s walk (…), then dinner with my family (…). Then at 10.30 I sit down to write, and I go on, depending on my strength, inclination and luck until 1, 2, or 3 o’clock, once even till 6 in the morning. Then again exercises and go to bed (…). Then every imaginable effort to get to sleep- i.e., to achieve the impossible, for one cannot sleep (…). Thus the night consists of two parts: one wakeful, the other sleepless [24]. In a late October-early November 1914 letter to Felice, he mentioned his timetable during a two-week leave of absence while he stayed in her eldest sister’s apartment in Nerudagasse street, Prague, devoting himself entirely to writing his novels The Trial, America and the excellent short story In the Penal Colony: On average I sat at my
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In one of his most famous diary entries, on September 23, 1912, he wrote: This story, “The Judgement”, I wrote at one sitting during the night of the 22nd-23rd, from ten o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. I was hardly able to pull my legs out from under the desk, they had got so stiff from sitting. The fearful strain and joy, how the story developed before me (…). At two I looked at the clock for the last time. As the maid walked through the ante-room for the first time I wrote the last sentence (…). The appearance of the undisturbed bed, as though it had just been brought in [20].
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These habits only aggravated his insomnia. Moreover, he spent copious amounts of time awake in bed during the weekends, worsening his sleep quality. Sometimes on the weekdays he was even unable to sleep during his scheduled afternoon naps.
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The rain has deprived me of my Sunday walk; spent half the day in bed, the best place for sadness and reflection, Kafka wrote to Felice on October, 27, 1912 [24].
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On December 20, 1912, he noted to Felice: It is evening again after a sleepless afternoon (sleepless afternoon sounds worse than sleepless night) [24].
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As a consequence of sleep deprivation, Kafka felt fatigue, was unable to concentrate and in few instances experienced sleep-related hallucinations at sleep onset and upon awakening in the middle of the night. In a letter to Felice written on June 27, 1913, he stated: I am so miserable (…). I can neither eat nor sleep; every day at the office there is exasperation and disapproval, and I am invariably to blame [24]. On February 11, 1914, he wrote to Grete Bloch: I did sleep on and off, but for the last two days hardly at all (…). There are moments in the office while talking or dictating when my sleep is more real than when I am asleep [24].
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT An example of both visual and tactile hallucinations is found in his diary entry from November 16, 1911: No sleep for three nights (…). This noon, before falling asleep, but I did not fall asleep, the upper part of the body of a wax woman lay on top of me. Her face was bent back over mine, her left forearm pressed against my breast [20].
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A visual hallucination was described in his diary entry from December 16, 1911: Before falling asleep yesterday I had an image of a drawing in which a group of people were isolated like a mountain in the air [20].
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On February 1, 1919, while Kafka was recovering from tuberculosis in a pension in Schelesen (German city of Bohemia), he experienced an auditory hallucination where he “heard” the voice of his sister Ottla, who at that time was living in Friedland (Czech Republic city of northern Bohemia). The next day after the event Kafka wrote to Ottla: Last night, I woke up at about five and heard you at the door of the room calling “Franz” softly but I heard it distinctly. I answered at once but nothing more happened. What did you want? [28, 29]
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Kafka’s concept of sleep and search for therapy
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Kafka was aware of how important a restorative sleep was, particularly when he had something very important to do the next day.
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Two days before meeting Felice in Berlin, on March 23, 1913, he stated: But before appearing before you I must have a proper sleep. How little sleep I have had again this week! (…) If only I have had enough sleep when I meet you! So long as my knees don’t shake! [24] In a letter to Grete Bloch on May 24, 1914, he stated: Insomnia is also somewhat degrading. If I could show someone the present state of my head, a legacy from the past night, he would wring his hands [24].
Kafka sought therapy to mitigate his insomnia. Influenced by Berta Fanta (an intellectual figure who ran a literary and philosophical salon in Prague that Kafka attended regularly) and by a summer vacation he took at the
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I slept all night with the window wide open, the snow blowing into my face while I slept, Kafka wrote to Felice on November 26, 1912 [24].
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Although Kafka was against conventional medicine, on a few nights he tried valerian tea, bromide and Veronal (diethyl-barbituric acid) [24, 28]. However, he mainly tried behavioral remedies such as not taking walks before bedtime [24], drinking milK [29] or beer [28] at bedtime, sleeping in complete darkness [24, sleeping on hard surfaces and placing the mattress on the floor [1], using cold compresses around the head [24, avoiding tea [24 and coffee [24, using Ohrophax earplugs that he ordered from Berlin in 1915 (and used them at least until 1922) [24, and adopting strange postures in bed [20].
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In his diary entry from October 3, 1911, he noted: To make myself as heavy as possible, which I consider good for falling asleep, I had crossed my arms and laid my hands on my shoulders, so that I lay there like a soldier with his pack [20].
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Kafka was fully aware that his bizarre habits needed to be corrected to improve his sleep quality but he never tried to change them because he wanted to write at night.
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On May 24, 1914, he wrote to Felice: One could still do a great deal about insomnia and much that would be effective, for instance go to bed early at regular hours, but this I do not do. It is my fault and I have to put up with it [24].
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Discussion
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Available data from his diaries and correspondence indicate that Franz Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder [37]. His insomnia started in his third decade and lasted about 15 years until he died from tuberculosis. Kafka’s insomnia was mainly characterized by difficulties in maintaining sleep and early awakenings. He had the perception of spending some nights completely awake, probably a sleep state misperception, which is a typical feature of psychophysiological insomnia. Kafka had heightened arousal, learned sleep preventing associations, an excessive focus on sleep, and difficulty sleeping at home but not in a novel sleep setting such as a train [37]. His insomnia was associated with daytime fatigue and lack of concentration and attention.
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Kafka’s insomnia originated from and was maintained by a vicious cycle of predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors that played crucial roles [37-41]. Predisposing factors that made him vulnerable to insomnia were his personality traits (insecurity, exaggerated selfcriticism, tendency to over-respond to frustrations) and an increased arousal level associated with being in bed. His constant worries over his inability to sleep at night and its daytime consequences led to anxiety at bedtime, further delaying sleep onset and maintenance. Precipitating factors were excessive worries (particularly focused on his difficult sentimental relationships with Felice and Milena, and his literary career) and finding himself in new sleep settings with excessive noise (as when he moved to new apartments or spent time in sanatorioums for rest cures) [1]. His insomnia was perpetuated by maladaptive habits such as spending excessive time awake in bed during weekends and holidays (which probably led to an undesirable conditioning of the bed with wakefulness). Kafka deliberately chose to write at night because he needed absolute silence to achieve this task in addition to his nighttime insomnia. Since he was obliged to work as a clerk from 8 AM to 2 PM to earn his living, he developed a precise schedule of naps in the late afternoon, writing
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT during the first half of the night and trying to sleep during the second part, which was often unsuccessful and frustrating. This bizarre sleep-wake schedule worsened his sleep quality.
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Besides being an insomniac, Kafka was an “evening chronotype”. It can be speculated that he had a delayed sleep phase syndrome because his sleep onset and wake times were delayed when he was on vacation or on sick leave. For example, when he took a two-week leave of absence in 1914 he stayed alone in his apartment and wrote his literay works until five in the morning, went to sleep after writing and woke up at 1 or 2 P.M. [24]. However, when Kafka had to arrive at work at 8 A.M. he did not show other typical features of the delayed sleep phase syndrome such as having great difficulties in waking up in the mornings, arriving very late at work, experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness or sleep inertia episodes, and performing poorly at work. In fact, despite his complaints about fatigue and lack of concentration at work, his job performance as a clerk was considered highly succesfull by his collegues [1].
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His inadequate sleep hygiene resulted in a state of chronic sleep deprivation, and he consequently experienced sleep-related hallucinations at sleep onset and upon awakening in the middle of the night. One may even speculate that after five years of having persistent insomnia and maladaptive sleep habits, his chronic sleep deprivation impaired his immune system and contributed to the development of tuberculosis in 1917 [1].
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Sleep medicine was not yet developed at the beginning of the 20th century, and physicians treated insomnia with sleep promoting substances such as bromides and barbiturates, and advised sleep hygiene and hydrotherapy [38, 40]. Kafka did not entirely trust physicians or medications and very rarely took valerian tea and bromides. In 1916 he visited a neurologist who diagnosed him with “cardiac neurosis” and prescribed “electrical treatment” which Kafka refused [1]. He relied on alternative medicine therapies (mainly naturopathy) which were ineffective in ameliorating his insomnia. He was reluctant to change his habits since he needed the silence and solitude of the night to write. After eleven years of experiencing
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insomnia, he wrote to Max Brod: Perhaps there are other forms of writing, but I know only this kind; at night, when fear keeps me from sleeping.29 His refusal to change his sleep habits and the lack of effective therapy for insomnia ended in a vicious cycle making his sleep disorder a chronic condition.
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In conclusion, Franz Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder. As a result of nocturnal insomnia and his need to write in the absence of noise, Kafka deliberately changed his sleep-wake habits so he could write at night. This inadequate sleep hygiene aggravated and perpetuated his insomnia resulting in daytime consequences and a negative impact on his quality of life.
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Figure legends
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Figure 1. Selection of the buildings in Prague related to Kafka’s life. A. Kafka House, Nàm. Franze Kafky 1, Prague. Franz Kafkas’ birthplace. A commemorative plaque marks where the writer was born on July 3, 1883.
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B. The House at the Minute (Minuta-Haus), Staroměstské náměstí 2 (Altstädter Ring 2), Prague. Franz Kafka and his parents lived in this Reinassance style house in the heart of Prague’s Old Town from July 1889 to September 1896. His three sisters Elli, Valli and Ottla were born here.
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C. Kinsky Palace, Staroměstské náměstí 2, Prague. At the end of the 19th century there was a German grammar school in the palace located in the Altstädter Ring, the main square in the heart of Prague. Franz Kafka studied here from 1893 to 1901.
Figure 2. The K statue outside the Franz Kafka Museum.
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The K statue, outside the Franz Kafka Museum, located in Cihelná 635/2b, Prague, is a tribute to the writer and also refers to the protagonists of Kafka’s novel The Trial (Joseph K), and The Castle (K).
Figure 3. Statue of Franz Kafka. Made by Jaroslav Róna in 2003, this statue is located in Vězeňská street in Prague. The black bronze sculpture represents a headless male figure in a suit with a smaller figure of Kafka sitting on his shoulders. Róna found inspiration in Kafka’s early short story Description of a Struggle (1904-1909), where the image of a young man riding on the shoulders of another while roaming the night streets of Prague appears. The statue is surreal and strange, in other words, Kafkaesque.
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Acknowledgment
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We thank Dr. Myrna Rosenfeld for kindly proofreading the text.
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41. Morin CM, Bootzin RR, Buysse DJ, Edinger JC, Espie CA, Lichstein KL: Psychologicaland behavioral treatment of insomnia: update of the recent evidence (1998-2014). Sleep 2006;29:1398-1414.
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S1389-9457(18)30217-X
DOI:
10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.024
Reference:
SLEEP 3717
To appear in:
Sleep Medicine
Received Date: 19 March 2018 Revised Date:
17 May 2018
Accepted Date: 22 May 2018
Please cite this article as: Iranzo A, Stefani A, Högl B, Santamaria J, on behalf of SINBAR, The Insomnia Of Franz Kafka, Sleep Medicine (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.024. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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THE INSOMNIA OF FRANZ KAFKA
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Iranzo Aa*, Stefani Ab*, Högl Bb, Santamaria Ja on behalf of SINBAR *Both authors contributed equally to this work
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a. Neurology Service, Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERNED, Barcelona, Spain
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b. Department of Neurology, Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
(*)Adress for correspondence
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Alex Iranzo,
Neurology Service,
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Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
Fax number: 3493-227-5783, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract
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Objective: To characterize the insomnia suffered by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century.
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Methods: We read Kafka’s diaries and private correspondence to his fiancée, friends, editors and relatives looking for references to his insomnia.
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Results: We found 292 references to insomnia indicating that Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder that originated from and was maintained by the following predisposing and precipitating factors: 1) a complex personality predisposing to an increased arousal level, 2) intrusive thoughts and ruminations at bedtime, 3) excessive worrying about sleep loss and its daytime consequences, and 4) an extraordinary intolerance to noise. Since he could not sleep at night and felt the necessity to compose his literary works in an absolutely quiet environment, Kafka deliberately changed his sleep-wake schedule so he could write at night and nap in the afternoon. These maladaptive sleep habits perpetuated his insomnia and led to chronic sleep deprivation resulting in fatigue, lack of concentration and sleep-related auditory, tactile and visual hallucinations. Kafka sought help in alternative medicine however this was ineffective in improving his insomnia.
Conclusions: Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder and had inadequate sleep hygiene resulting in chronic sleep deprivation. These sleep problems impaired Kafka’s quality of life.
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Introduction
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The German-language writer Franz Kafka (Prague - Czech Republic - 1883, Kierling – Austria - 1924) is one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century and the author of masterpieces such as The Metamorphosis [1]. Written with elegant prose, his enigmatic works introduced ordinary men who unexpectedly found themselves in bizarre and absurd (Kafkaesque) labyrinths fighting against a confusing world. Kafka lived in Prague (Figures 1-3) and had a complex personality characterized by shyness, introversion, insecurity, uneasiness, perfectionism, a constant sense of guilt, and an inability to fulfill his sentimental and literary expectations [1-6]. This is reflected in the oppressive, enigmatic and bizarre atmosphere of his literary works [7-29]. He suffered from anxiety [29], nervous breakdowns [29], depressive mood[29], suicidal thoughts [24-29] and hypochondria [29]. He experienced multiple psychosomatic symptoms such as stomach ache [29], constipation [20], pruritus [20], chronic tooth ache without abnormal dental findings [29], fainting spells [29], palpitations [29], chest pain [24], and headache [20,29]. Like other great novelists, including Dickens [30], Dostoevsky [31] and Proust [32], Kafka suffered from insomnia [33-35].
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We were interested in analyzing Kafka’s insomnia and its influence in his life. Thus, we read his diaries and epistolary correspondence looking for references to his insomnia and sleep habits.
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Methods
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We read Kafka’s diaries and large epistolary correspondence [20-29].Although private and not meant to be published these became available after his death, originally in German and then translated into many other languages, including English. These writings are an invaluable source of information and provide important insights into many aspects of Kafka’s life, including his insomnia and sleep habits. His diaries and letters can be found in the following books.
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Diaries [20]. Kafka kept a diary from 1909 to 1923, the year before his death. This was published in 1937 by Max Brod, his closest friend and literary executor.
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Letters to Felice [24]. In 1912, Kafka met Felice Bauer, a woman from Berlin to whom he was engaged twice but never married. Kafka lived in Prague and Felice in Berlin and between 1912 and 1917 he wrote to her almost daily, sometimes twice or even three times a day. More than 500 of these letters were acquired by Schocken Books from Felice in 1955 and published in 1967. The book also contains the letters that Kafka wrote Felice’s close friend, Grete Bloch.
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Letters to Milena [26]. In 1920, Franz Kafka met Milena Jesenská, a woman from Vienna who had translated his works from German to Czech. They fell in love and between 1920 and 1923 Kafka wrote her more than 200 letters. Milena died in 1944 and the letters were published in 1952. Letter to the Father [22]. Written over three days in November 1919 while taking sick leave at the Pension Stüdl in Schelesen (Bohemia), this 76 page letter is a furious and brutal indictment of Franz’s father, Hermann Kafka. Kafka gave the letter to his mother to hand over to his father, but she could not bring herself to deliver it. The letter was part of a bundle of writings that Max Brod obtained from Kafka’s parents after his death and was first published by Brod in 1953 when Kafka’s parents were no longer living.
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Letters to Ottla and the Family [28]. This book collects more than 100 of Kafka's letters to his beloved sister Ottla and other relatives. These were written between 1909 and 1924. Ottla died in 1943 but the letters were preserved by her children and published in 1974.
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Letters to Friends, Family and Editors [29]. A book with more than 300 letters, written between 1910 and 1924, that were collected and published by Max Brod in 1958.
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Results
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After reading the works mentioned above, we found a total of 292 references to Kafka’s insomnia and sleep habits.
Kafka´s insomnia
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The first references to Kafka’s insomnia date from 1911 when he was 27 [20]. Kafka’s insomnia persisted until his death due to lung and laryngeal tuberculosis at the age of 41 [1, 36]. It was noted that his father also had insomnia, particularly when worried about his business [20].
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Franz Kafka’s personality traits (perfectionism, insecurity, exaggerated self-criticism, low self-esteem and internalization of conflicts) made him vulnerable to the development of insomnia [1, 3, 4]. A number of diary entries and letters show that Kafka’s insomnia included difficulties in sleep initiation, poor sleep maintenance and early awakenings. In some instances he perceived that he experienced nights of complete sleep loss.
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In his diary entry of October 2, 1911, he noted: Sleepless night. The third in a row. I fall asleep soundly, but after an hour I wake up (…). I am completely awake, have the feeling I have not slept at all [20].
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In a letter to his fiancée Felice Bauer, on November 11, 1912, he described one of his sleepless night: Honestly, I didn’t fail to count a single stroke of the clock as it struck each quarter-hour [24]. On July 12, 1922, he wrote a postcard to his friend Max Brod from Planá, a village in southern Bohemia close to Prague where he was resting in a summer house rented by his sister Ottla: And when I lie down at night in peace and hope, I am awakened at half past three and don’t fall asleep again [29].
Kafka’s insomnia was chronic and long-lasting and was aggravated by worries and an extraordinary intolerance to noise.
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT On February 25, 1912, he wrote in his diary about the anxiety provoked by having to give an introductory lecture about the Yiddish language in the Jewish Town Hall in Prague [1]: Excitements: About the lecture, one night twisted up in bed, hot and sleepless.20
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In a letter to Felice on December 7, 1912, he wrote: Last night I did not get to bed till four, but stayed there awake till 11.30. Once again your letter was responsible [24].
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Similarly, in Letter to the Father he wrote: From the moment I make up my mind to marry I can no longer sleep, my head burns night and day, life can be no longer called life [22].
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In May/June 1921 he wrote to Max Brod from a sanatorium in Matliary (High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia), where he took an eight month rest cure for tuberculosis: I cannot sleep anymore because I am too distraught [29]. On June 26, 1922, from his summer place in Planá, he commented to his close friend Robert Klopstock: There is also noise here which blasts sleep and shatters the head [29].
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Kafka slept well during those periods in his life when he was happy and confident, such as the days he spent with Felice Bauer and Milena Jesenskà, that were probably the happiest days of his life [1]. Kafka and Felice spent six days at the Castle Balmoral hotel in Marienbad (a luxurious health resort in western Bohemia) in July 1916 [2]. After Felice’s departure Kafka stayed on for another eight days where his insomnia and headaches, from which he had suffered terribly before the trip, disappeared. In a letter that Milena wrote to Max Brod in 1921 she explained that she saw Kafka very happy, eating well and sleeping like a log during the four days they spent together in Vienna [26].
His sleepless nights, however, were a torture for him. On August 6, 1913, he commented to Felice: In my helplessness in the middle of the night I virtually suffered an attack of madness [24].
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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT In November 1920, Kafka writes to Milena: That whole sleepless night I spent almost writhing with torture [26]. In January 1921, he wrote to Max Brod from Matliary: What you see in my bed is much worse than an execution, yes, even than a torturing [29].
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Moreover, he had excessive worries and thoughts about his inability to sleep and intense fears of the consequences of insomnia.
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On June 16, 1914, he anticipated his next sleepless night to Grete Bloch, one of the best friends of Felice Bauer: Tonight I shall sleep as light as a feather for two or three hours, start up now and again, then wake up for good, perhaps half lose consciousness for brief moments, but never go to sleep again, and promptly, each time the tower clock strikes, be reminded me that time passes, that after the dreadful night the dreadful day will dawn, etc [24].
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This is the only sentence that he inscribed in his diary entry of October 18, 1917: Afraid of the night, afraid of the night [21].
Kafka, however, could sleep easily in settings outside his bedroom (such as when travelling by train), and then be unable to fall asleep upon going back to his own rooms.
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On July 28, 1917, he wrote a postcard to his sister Ottla from Prague: Above all I slept enough, as I always do when traveling by train, and also for a few days in Prague, but now I once more am getting so little sleep that it verges on the impossible [28].
During most of his sleepless nights Kafka laid awake in bed tossing and turning, tortured by intrusive and ruminative thoughts. When he was desperate he started to write and occasionally he went out for a walk, ate or read. On November 14, 1912, he commented to Felice: I was lying in bed and it occurred to me one single terrible sentence which I felt would kill me if I did not write it down. Then, I started writing [24].
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Kafka´s sleep habits
commented to his sister one of the very worst (…) ate greedy, and dozed for was over [28].
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On September 26, 1923 he Ottla: The night before had been I got up and got myself Foligan, a quarter of an hour; but then it
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Kafka worked in the mornings at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague [1]. Since his passion was writing and he needed absolute silence for this activity, Kafka decided to write at home at night and therefore he deliberately changed his sleep-wake schedule. In a letter to Max Brod, on July 5, 1922, he wrote: Perhaps there are other forms of writing, but I know only this kind; at night, when fear keeps me from sleeping. I know only this kind [29].
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In one of his first letters to Felice, on November, 1, 1912, while he was living at his parents’ house in Niklastrasse 16, Prague, he commented: My mode of life is devised solely for writing (…). For the past six weeks (…), my timetable has been as follows: from 8 to 2 or 2.30 in the office, then lunch till 3 or 3.30, after that sleep in bed till 7.30, then ten minutes of exercises, naked at the open window, then an hour’s walk (…), then dinner with my family (…). Then at 10.30 I sit down to write, and I go on, depending on my strength, inclination and luck until 1, 2, or 3 o’clock, once even till 6 in the morning. Then again exercises and go to bed (…). Then every imaginable effort to get to sleep- i.e., to achieve the impossible, for one cannot sleep (…). Thus the night consists of two parts: one wakeful, the other sleepless [24]. In a late October-early November 1914 letter to Felice, he mentioned his timetable during a two-week leave of absence while he stayed in her eldest sister’s apartment in Nerudagasse street, Prague, devoting himself entirely to writing his novels The Trial, America and the excellent short story In the Penal Colony: On average I sat at my
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In one of his most famous diary entries, on September 23, 1912, he wrote: This story, “The Judgement”, I wrote at one sitting during the night of the 22nd-23rd, from ten o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. I was hardly able to pull my legs out from under the desk, they had got so stiff from sitting. The fearful strain and joy, how the story developed before me (…). At two I looked at the clock for the last time. As the maid walked through the ante-room for the first time I wrote the last sentence (…). The appearance of the undisturbed bed, as though it had just been brought in [20].
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These habits only aggravated his insomnia. Moreover, he spent copious amounts of time awake in bed during the weekends, worsening his sleep quality. Sometimes on the weekdays he was even unable to sleep during his scheduled afternoon naps.
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The rain has deprived me of my Sunday walk; spent half the day in bed, the best place for sadness and reflection, Kafka wrote to Felice on October, 27, 1912 [24].
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On December 20, 1912, he noted to Felice: It is evening again after a sleepless afternoon (sleepless afternoon sounds worse than sleepless night) [24].
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As a consequence of sleep deprivation, Kafka felt fatigue, was unable to concentrate and in few instances experienced sleep-related hallucinations at sleep onset and upon awakening in the middle of the night. In a letter to Felice written on June 27, 1913, he stated: I am so miserable (…). I can neither eat nor sleep; every day at the office there is exasperation and disapproval, and I am invariably to blame [24]. On February 11, 1914, he wrote to Grete Bloch: I did sleep on and off, but for the last two days hardly at all (…). There are moments in the office while talking or dictating when my sleep is more real than when I am asleep [24].
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A visual hallucination was described in his diary entry from December 16, 1911: Before falling asleep yesterday I had an image of a drawing in which a group of people were isolated like a mountain in the air [20].
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On February 1, 1919, while Kafka was recovering from tuberculosis in a pension in Schelesen (German city of Bohemia), he experienced an auditory hallucination where he “heard” the voice of his sister Ottla, who at that time was living in Friedland (Czech Republic city of northern Bohemia). The next day after the event Kafka wrote to Ottla: Last night, I woke up at about five and heard you at the door of the room calling “Franz” softly but I heard it distinctly. I answered at once but nothing more happened. What did you want? [28, 29]
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Kafka’s concept of sleep and search for therapy
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Kafka was aware of how important a restorative sleep was, particularly when he had something very important to do the next day.
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Two days before meeting Felice in Berlin, on March 23, 1913, he stated: But before appearing before you I must have a proper sleep. How little sleep I have had again this week! (…) If only I have had enough sleep when I meet you! So long as my knees don’t shake! [24] In a letter to Grete Bloch on May 24, 1914, he stated: Insomnia is also somewhat degrading. If I could show someone the present state of my head, a legacy from the past night, he would wring his hands [24].
Kafka sought therapy to mitigate his insomnia. Influenced by Berta Fanta (an intellectual figure who ran a literary and philosophical salon in Prague that Kafka attended regularly) and by a summer vacation he took at the
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I slept all night with the window wide open, the snow blowing into my face while I slept, Kafka wrote to Felice on November 26, 1912 [24].
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Although Kafka was against conventional medicine, on a few nights he tried valerian tea, bromide and Veronal (diethyl-barbituric acid) [24, 28]. However, he mainly tried behavioral remedies such as not taking walks before bedtime [24], drinking milK [29] or beer [28] at bedtime, sleeping in complete darkness [24, sleeping on hard surfaces and placing the mattress on the floor [1], using cold compresses around the head [24, avoiding tea [24 and coffee [24, using Ohrophax earplugs that he ordered from Berlin in 1915 (and used them at least until 1922) [24, and adopting strange postures in bed [20].
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In his diary entry from October 3, 1911, he noted: To make myself as heavy as possible, which I consider good for falling asleep, I had crossed my arms and laid my hands on my shoulders, so that I lay there like a soldier with his pack [20].
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Kafka was fully aware that his bizarre habits needed to be corrected to improve his sleep quality but he never tried to change them because he wanted to write at night.
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On May 24, 1914, he wrote to Felice: One could still do a great deal about insomnia and much that would be effective, for instance go to bed early at regular hours, but this I do not do. It is my fault and I have to put up with it [24].
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Discussion
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Available data from his diaries and correspondence indicate that Franz Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder [37]. His insomnia started in his third decade and lasted about 15 years until he died from tuberculosis. Kafka’s insomnia was mainly characterized by difficulties in maintaining sleep and early awakenings. He had the perception of spending some nights completely awake, probably a sleep state misperception, which is a typical feature of psychophysiological insomnia. Kafka had heightened arousal, learned sleep preventing associations, an excessive focus on sleep, and difficulty sleeping at home but not in a novel sleep setting such as a train [37]. His insomnia was associated with daytime fatigue and lack of concentration and attention.
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Kafka’s insomnia originated from and was maintained by a vicious cycle of predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors that played crucial roles [37-41]. Predisposing factors that made him vulnerable to insomnia were his personality traits (insecurity, exaggerated selfcriticism, tendency to over-respond to frustrations) and an increased arousal level associated with being in bed. His constant worries over his inability to sleep at night and its daytime consequences led to anxiety at bedtime, further delaying sleep onset and maintenance. Precipitating factors were excessive worries (particularly focused on his difficult sentimental relationships with Felice and Milena, and his literary career) and finding himself in new sleep settings with excessive noise (as when he moved to new apartments or spent time in sanatorioums for rest cures) [1]. His insomnia was perpetuated by maladaptive habits such as spending excessive time awake in bed during weekends and holidays (which probably led to an undesirable conditioning of the bed with wakefulness). Kafka deliberately chose to write at night because he needed absolute silence to achieve this task in addition to his nighttime insomnia. Since he was obliged to work as a clerk from 8 AM to 2 PM to earn his living, he developed a precise schedule of naps in the late afternoon, writing
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Besides being an insomniac, Kafka was an “evening chronotype”. It can be speculated that he had a delayed sleep phase syndrome because his sleep onset and wake times were delayed when he was on vacation or on sick leave. For example, when he took a two-week leave of absence in 1914 he stayed alone in his apartment and wrote his literay works until five in the morning, went to sleep after writing and woke up at 1 or 2 P.M. [24]. However, when Kafka had to arrive at work at 8 A.M. he did not show other typical features of the delayed sleep phase syndrome such as having great difficulties in waking up in the mornings, arriving very late at work, experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness or sleep inertia episodes, and performing poorly at work. In fact, despite his complaints about fatigue and lack of concentration at work, his job performance as a clerk was considered highly succesfull by his collegues [1].
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His inadequate sleep hygiene resulted in a state of chronic sleep deprivation, and he consequently experienced sleep-related hallucinations at sleep onset and upon awakening in the middle of the night. One may even speculate that after five years of having persistent insomnia and maladaptive sleep habits, his chronic sleep deprivation impaired his immune system and contributed to the development of tuberculosis in 1917 [1].
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Sleep medicine was not yet developed at the beginning of the 20th century, and physicians treated insomnia with sleep promoting substances such as bromides and barbiturates, and advised sleep hygiene and hydrotherapy [38, 40]. Kafka did not entirely trust physicians or medications and very rarely took valerian tea and bromides. In 1916 he visited a neurologist who diagnosed him with “cardiac neurosis” and prescribed “electrical treatment” which Kafka refused [1]. He relied on alternative medicine therapies (mainly naturopathy) which were ineffective in ameliorating his insomnia. He was reluctant to change his habits since he needed the silence and solitude of the night to write. After eleven years of experiencing
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insomnia, he wrote to Max Brod: Perhaps there are other forms of writing, but I know only this kind; at night, when fear keeps me from sleeping.29 His refusal to change his sleep habits and the lack of effective therapy for insomnia ended in a vicious cycle making his sleep disorder a chronic condition.
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In conclusion, Franz Kafka suffered from chronic insomnia disorder. As a result of nocturnal insomnia and his need to write in the absence of noise, Kafka deliberately changed his sleep-wake habits so he could write at night. This inadequate sleep hygiene aggravated and perpetuated his insomnia resulting in daytime consequences and a negative impact on his quality of life.
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Figure legends
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Figure 1. Selection of the buildings in Prague related to Kafka’s life. A. Kafka House, Nàm. Franze Kafky 1, Prague. Franz Kafkas’ birthplace. A commemorative plaque marks where the writer was born on July 3, 1883.
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B. The House at the Minute (Minuta-Haus), Staroměstské náměstí 2 (Altstädter Ring 2), Prague. Franz Kafka and his parents lived in this Reinassance style house in the heart of Prague’s Old Town from July 1889 to September 1896. His three sisters Elli, Valli and Ottla were born here.
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C. Kinsky Palace, Staroměstské náměstí 2, Prague. At the end of the 19th century there was a German grammar school in the palace located in the Altstädter Ring, the main square in the heart of Prague. Franz Kafka studied here from 1893 to 1901.
Figure 2. The K statue outside the Franz Kafka Museum.
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The K statue, outside the Franz Kafka Museum, located in Cihelná 635/2b, Prague, is a tribute to the writer and also refers to the protagonists of Kafka’s novel The Trial (Joseph K), and The Castle (K).
Figure 3. Statue of Franz Kafka. Made by Jaroslav Róna in 2003, this statue is located in Vězeňská street in Prague. The black bronze sculpture represents a headless male figure in a suit with a smaller figure of Kafka sitting on his shoulders. Róna found inspiration in Kafka’s early short story Description of a Struggle (1904-1909), where the image of a young man riding on the shoulders of another while roaming the night streets of Prague appears. The statue is surreal and strange, in other words, Kafkaesque.
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Acknowledgment
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We thank Dr. Myrna Rosenfeld for kindly proofreading the text.
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