The waking nightmare of sleep paralysis

ACTOR Tom Holland, who became a Marvel superhero and took on the role of Spider-Man in six movies, has to cope with sleep paralysis, a common condition where a person is between wakefulness and sleep and is conscious, but unable to move for a few minutes.

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Sleep paralysis is a temporary loss of muscle function while you're sleeping. It typically occurs when a person is falling asleep, shortly after they have fallen asleep, or while they're waking up.

In sleep there are two phases rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep which alternate in cycles during the entire duration of sleep. Abnormal sleep-related movement disorders can occur in either of these phases and are referred to as parasomnias.