Sleep Paralysis: Causes and Effects In the depths of the night, as you try to roll over, you realize that you cannot move. When you feel completely paralyzed, you find it impossible to ask for help while seeing the characters lurking around you. Suddenly you feel electrical sensations coursing through your body and hear a deafening buzz. This phenomenon is recognized as sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is a state in which a person may feel conscious but unable to move. This happens when a person transitions between the stages of consciousness and sleep. During this period, the person may feel unable to move or speak for a few seconds or sometimes even for a few minutes. Sleep paralysis may also be called isolated sleep paralysis or familial sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis causes people to sleep in a disturbed mental state that consists of periods of inability to perform normal movements, not due to mental illness, but due to stress, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. A person experiencing sleep paralysis may wake up and find himself unable to move, speak, and sometimes even breathe as if frozen (Takahashi). The person may also hear footsteps or see ghosts: the victim often sees indistinct shapes approaching and immediately becomes terrified; in many cases the individual suffering from sleep paralysis may feel an oppressive weight on the chest and body and a sense of suffocation (Adler). Sleep paralysis represents a major source of distress for countless people around the world (Hufford). Although many people experience sleep paralysis with only symptoms that leave them unable to move, there have been several cases where sleep paralysis has had more profound symptoms. Dr...... middle of paper ...... ncyclopedia. Medicine Plus. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000801.htmMadriaga, A. (2008, January 7). The dark side of the placebo effect: when intense belief kills. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/the-dark-side-of-the-placebo-effect-when-intense-belief-kills/245065/McNally, R.J. (2005). Sleep paralysis, sexual abuse and abduction by space aliens. Transcultural Psychiatry, 42(1), 113-122. Nocturnal sleep behaviors. (n.d.). Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://stanfordhospital.org/clinicsmedServices/clinics/sleep/sleep_disorders/nighttime-sleep-behaviors.htmlTakahasi, H. (n.d.). Sleep paralysis: awake but still asleep. Studio Serendip. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1740