Considering both the lack of research in the area of sleep paralysis and the increasing popularity of health-related websites and bulletin boards, this study seeks to understand how members of an online bulletin board devoted to sleep paralysis (SP) use the Internet to share their story and obtain information about their condition. By examining how bulletin board members use the Internet to socially construct their condition, and more specifically, by studying how this social construction affects their experience of the condition, this study seeks to establish the role of the Internet and of online communication in a sleep paralysis sufferer's SP experiences. Since sleep paralysis victims usually express much embarrassment over their condition (Paradis, Friedman, & Hatch, 1997) and are therefore "disinclined to make their experiences public" (Cheyne, Newby-Clark, & Rueffer, 1999a, p. 317), the role and importance of online disclosures will be a central part of this investigation.