Hypnic Jerks

[StarsDie]

I've been dealing with these for a few years now and they're such a major pain for me. They sometimes cause sleepless nights.

Luckily I have been keeping my health anxiety in check for quite a while so I don't typically start catastrophizing them and thinking that they're really a part of some worse health condition.

I just want to know if anyone else here struggles with them, and if it makes it difficult to sleep.

I sometimes just feel really alone with my problems I guess.

*Edit*

Turns out I have a bad medical condition possibly brought on by a side effect of a medication.
The journey out of this condition is perilous and scary.

Just what I need with my anxiety.
I guess we all live long enough that we all run into health problems eventually.
No one makes it out of life alive anyways.

I've been looking back at my posting history on the health anxiety forums here and it blows my mind just how much I lived my life in fear. Now my mortality is actually staring me in the face. It's harrowing.

[Whizz]

I have them, I find they get worse when I'm very tired or anxious. Obviously talk to your doc if you're worried, but on the whole, they're not anything to worry about. Trying some relaxation exercises before bed.

[serith]

I have that, it seems very common and nothing to worry about. I'm willing to bet it's your anxiety and over-focusing on it that causes the sleepless nights.

[StarsDie]

Yeah probably.

Has hypnic jerks ever made it difficult for you to fall asleep?

[StarsDie]

Yeah my doctor tells me they're normal. And I do know I have experienced them throughout my life.

However, they seem to be a lot more frequent recently and they will sometimes become an obstacle for sleep; whereas that hasn't typically been the case before.

I tell my doctor this, but he insists there's nothing to worry about; though he does give me the option of a sleep study.

[StarsDie]

I am able to initially fall asleep after an hour or 2 of battling with the hypnic jerks. And that initial sleep will last anywhere between 2-5 hours before I eventually wake up to go to the bathroom.

And it's when I go back to bed that it becomes practically impossible to return to sleep. That's been my issue the past 3 nights now. My sleeping is getting really really bad now because of this issue.

I'm doing what I can to relax myself throughout the day and at night, as I take a weekly restorative yoga class at 5pm on Thursdays. I was hoping it would help last night, but it didn't. I got a grand total of about 3 hours of sleep last night, it was awful.

It makes me start mulling over potential physical ailments I could have, which I know isn't a good idea. So I avoid googling anything.

But there doesn't seem to be any connection to any problems besides anxiety.

I thought I had been doing well keeping my anxiety levels down, but apparently not.