Too scared to Google...jerking awake?

[Eventhesparrows]

I'm too afraid to Google this, but for the past few nights, as I'm trying to fall asleep, I'll wake up in a violent jerk. Then I'll be Shakey. What does this mean? I'm afraid it's some kind of weird seizure caused by my biggest fear...a brain tumor:weep:

[ServerError]

Myoclonic jerks. Healthy people experience them. Myself included. Not a sign of illness of any kind.

[Annaboodle]

I didn't know what they were called but I get this. It feels like being sort of wrenched from falling asleep with a whole body jerk. Had it from time to time for as long as I can remember. It's normal and nothing and I just file it under "weird shit my body does".

[ServerError]

It's technically a form of seizure, I believe, but it's completely harmless and not a sign of disease in anyway. Happens when you're somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

It's not well understood, but it's thought it may go back in our evolutionary history. They say it could be our bodies keeping us safe from threats while we sleep by waking us suddenly while we sleep. You can see how that could make it more likely to happen in anxiety. But it happens non-anxiety sufferers too.

(Feel free to correct me on any of the above if I'm wrong!)

Main point - IT'S TOTALLY HARMLESS.

[Annaboodle]

It's technically a form of seizure, I believe, but it's completely harmless and not a sign of disease in anyway. Happens when you're somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

It's not well understood, but it's thought it may go back in our evolutionary history. They say it could be our bodies keeping us safe from threats while we sleep by waking us suddenly while we sleep. You can see how that could make it more likely to happen in anxiety. But it happens non-anxiety sufferers too.

(Feel free to correct me on any of the above if I'm wrong!)

Main point - IT'S TOTALLY HARMLESS.

That's interesting. I spend most of my time in bed in that limbo land between sleep and wakefulness so it's not surprising then that I get this. Some of my weird shit has names! Fishmanpa had a name for another really common sensation I get when I stand up after long periods of inactivity. Yep, half-asleep, inactive. lol

[Eventhesparrows]

I just wonder why it hasn't happened in FOREVER, then suddenly it's happening every night for the past few nights? I'm not even SUPER anxious right now. I haven't been on this forum in weeks...maybe even a month or two. I've been MUCH more anxious than this before and have never experienced this.

[ServerError]

I can't tell you why that it is. Nobody here can. But one thing's for sure: if you obsess about why it's happening, you'll be miserable.

[melfish]

I just file it under "weird shit my body does".

Must add this to the arsenal! :)

[PanicJ]

Same thing happens to me, and let me tell you, I thought for sure that it was a sign of something terrible. It kept me awake for hours on end. Spoke with my neurologist who assured me that it's not a sign of something terrible.

[Eventhesparrows]

Phew! That's makes me feel better! Thanks guys!!!

[JoeCanuck]

I do it from time to time, but... oh god, my wife is nuts when she's falling asleep. I've been kicked more than a few times.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It's technically a form of seizure, I believe, but it's completely harmless and not a sign of disease in anyway. Happens when you're somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

It's not well understood, but it's thought it may go back in our evolutionary history. They say it could be our bodies keeping us safe from threats while we sleep by waking us suddenly while we sleep. You can see how that could make it more likely to happen in anxiety. But it happens non-anxiety sufferers too.

(Feel free to correct me on any of the above if I'm wrong!)

Main point - IT'S TOTALLY HARMLESS.


Perhaps the most common experience of this kind is the falling sensation, and associated hypnic jerk, encountered by many people, at least occasionally, while drifting off to sleep


A hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk, sleep start, sleep twitch or night start is an involuntary twitch which occurs just as a person is beginning to fall asleep, often causing them to awaken suddenly for a moment. Physically, hypnic jerks resemble the "jump" experienced by a person when startled, sometimes accompanied by a falling sensation. Hypnic jerks are associated with a rapid heartbeat, quickened breathing, sweat, and sometimes "a peculiar sensory feeling of 'shock' or 'falling into the void'". A higher occurrence is reported in people with irregular sleep schedules.

Causes

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine there is a wide range of potential causes, including anxiety, caffeine, stress and strenuous activities in the evening. However, most hypnic jerks occur essentially at random in healthy people.
Another hypothesis is evolutionary, stretching back to our primate ancestors. A study at the University of Colorado has suggested that a hypnic jerk could be "an archaic reflex to the brain's misinterpretation of muscle relaxation with the onset of sleep as a signal that a sleeping primate is falling out of a tree. The reflex may also have had selective value by having the sleeper readjust or review his or her sleeping position in a nest or on a branch in order to assure that a fall did not occur.

They have been differentiated with myoclonus though.

[ServerError]

Yeah, hypnic jerk. My bad.