It has been a while since I read Stoker's Dracula, but my recollection is that his vampire's attacked their targets only when they were sleeping, or at least near to it.
I think this fits in with historical accounts of supposed cases of vampirism and extant folklore, in which someone of failing health would report a fevered recollection of someone recently departed, a relative or neighbor, troubling their sleep. The conclusion reached by pre-scientific minds was that the cause of this person's distress was predation by the restless spirit of the departed (or a demonic spirit residing in his corpse and assuming his likeness), in other words, a vampire. Action was taken to prevent further attacks by taking some action against the corpse.
What I see as interesting in this is that the vampire attacks when the victim is vulnerable not just physically, abed and sleeping, but psychically as well. The victim's conscious mind is relaxed, his or her mental barriers down. The victim reacts to the vampire's attack as if it is but a dream or nightmare, and is even apt to forget it, as dreams are often forgotten once the sleeper wakens.
The sense of paralysis that Mina feels when confronted by Dracula is also reminiscent of the helplessness a dreamer might experience in a nightmare, the sense of dislocation of perspective in which a dreamer feels as if he is watching a scene unfold but unable to exert himself to alter it.
From what I remember, the attack of Dracula's 'brides' on Jonathan Harker seem to him like a troubling, though decidedly erotic, nightmare.
And when Lucy rises from the grave, doesn't Van Helsing make some comment about how she is trapped eternally in some sort of fugue, having succumbed in her sleep?
I'd like to know what people think of this, especially those with more recent acquaintance with the text.
