A Pair of Opposites
These words refer to opposite realities--awake or dreaming/sleeping--and thus the topsy-turvy world of St. Petersburg and the larger Gogolian universe...
наяву (nayaVOO--thanks to Marina Polyakova for catching this!) - not in a dream, in reality, in one's waking hours
бодрствовать (BOHDRSTvavat') - to watch, to sit up, to keep vigil, to be awake
(бодрый (BOHDryj) - cheerful, peppy, buoyant, fresh)
I didn't know бодрствовать --Gogol uses it when Piskarev's life becomes dominated by dreams (even before he succumbs to the allure of opium). The apparently related adjective I remember as one of my favorites when I was a student of Russian--a great way to describe the energetic kids (bodry malchik--a lively boy) I got to know during my time visiting the Internat (Boarding School for Orphaned and Fostered Kids) in Tuzha (Тужа) in the Kirov region of Russia back in the 90s.
The tinge of liveliness in bodrstvovat' only strengthens the feeling that sleep is Piskarev's preferred status--not only is he awake when he sleeps, but only when he sleeps is he fully alive...
The passage in question:
Наконец сновидения сделались его жизнью, и с этого времени вся жизнь его приняла странный оборот: он, можно сказать, спал наяву и бодрствовал во сне.
Google (unretouched): Finally, dreams became his life, and from that time on his whole life took a strange turn: he, one might say, slept in reality and was awake in a dream.
Pevear and Volkhonsky (p. 262): In the end dreams became his life, and his whole life thereafter took a strange turn; one might say he slept while waking and watched while asleep.
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