The medical term “bedwetting” refers to sleep paralysis, which usually occurs during the rapid eye movement phase, when people have just fallen asleep. At this time, all skeletal muscles except the respiratory and eye muscles are in a state of extremely low tension, so the person feels immobilised and therefore fearful. The patient’s heart rate increases, breathing becomes shallow and fast, gas exchange in the lungs is inadequate and even laryngeal spasms occur, leading to a feeling of suffocation and breathlessness.