Contrary to popular belief, sleep paralysis is a common and harmless condition. However, it remains a disconcerting experience when it occurs unexpectedly. This particular situation most often occurs while falling asleep or waking up: you are conscious, your eyes may even be open, but your body is no longer responding. Motionless, unable to speak or react, you feel trapped in your body. This disconnect between an awake mind and a paralyzed body often causes intense anxiety.

Adding to the strangeness of the moment, some describe sensory hallucinations. Ominous shadows that seem to spy on you, incomprehensible whispers... All these details give this episode the atmosphere of a wide-eyed nightmare.

Where does this curious phenomenon come from?

Rest assured: you're not going crazy, and there's no supernatural presence involved (  although some urban legends suggest otherwise   !). Sleep paralysis is explained by perfectly normal bodily mechanisms. During REM sleep, the phase in which we dream, our brain temporarily freezes our muscles to prevent us from acting out our dreams. During an episode of paralysis, the mind awakens while the body remains under the influence of this inhibition. The result: you're awake... in a sleeping body.