Falling sensation again.

[countrygirl]

I know I have posted about this before but its driving me mad. It comes and goes although every night before I fall asleep I get at least one horrible head sensation ( intense tingling feeling in head with sensation as if you have fallen suddenly) sometimes the sensation is so strong I clutch at the bed as if I am falling out.

I have had a good few weeks but yesterday I had to have mri scan of my neck and I hate that scanner being claustrophobic - in previous scans I have had big dose of diazepan from Drs but thought I would do it cold turkey:scared15: bad idea - I had to wait hour and half for my scan due to emergency so was a quivering heap by then with racing/pounding heart and feeling very lightheaded. While I was in the scanner I had a couple of the horrible head sensations which was very scary as I could not move and when I went to bed last night the sensations were the worst they have every been constant every few seconds and I had to take a sleeping pill.

Drs has so far said these sensations could either be anxiety related or coming from my neck damage and yesterday only confuses me more as I had both severe anxiety and having to be in a position that hurt my neck so no wiser.

Quite a few of you have taken the trouble to reply to me before on this symptom and it has helped me enormouslly just knowing I am not alone,
please could you hand hold for me again/

[molly36]

Hi there i get this feelining a lot when im falling asleep ,i usually find i get it more if i have had a lot of stress in the days before .Its a horrible feeling my doc says it all part of anxiety and panic and althouth scary it cant harm us.But i do no what you are going through .kind regards molly

[countrygirl]

Thanks Molly. Whats freaking me now is that I am getting this sensation during the day as well when I am not relaxing or trying to fall asleep. It is only a split second sensation but like you have just fallen.

I will get the results of my neck mri middle of next week to see how bad my herniated disc and bone spur is as my neck is causing me terrible pain and problems.

[molly36]

Thats what i had a few years ago i had it when i was awake a few times when i was lying watching the tv it totally freaked me out.Doc as usual said it was all anxiety .i know the fear you feel its a terrible thing to have to me fear is what makes every second of my life a nitmare .kind regards molly

[snowgoose]

hello countrygirl :)

you are not alone in this horrid sensation ..................it scares the hell out of me which of course makes me even more tense and the muscle twitching starts .get it through the day too ......but worse at night .
I have wondered if it is med related cos sometimes with docs approval I double my nighttime dose of Dosulepin if insomnia is going on too long .
Also I have neck problems like you so wonder if it is related ?

empathy with the mri head and neck scan :flowers:

we are not alone anyway Countrygirl xxx

[Zee]

I experienced that feeling for the first time last year and happened on a few occasions. It is scary I agree.. Mine was found to be neck/shoulder problem.

[londonchris]

Yeah I get this sometimes at night when I'm literally just about to drift off. They're an extremely common occurance called hypnic jerks and it's basically the result of a tired body and mind, hence the anxiety link.

It's best if at all possible to get into a regular pattern of sleep, going to sleep and waking up at the same time if possible and to get up on waking, shower, have a cuppa, just don't lounge around in bed.

Not much else is known of hypnic jerks but they're very common and also harmless, just annoying when you get them just as you drift off!!

[blueangel]

I've had these lots in the past as well. For me, I've often started dreaming, and am either walking down the road and trip over something, or I'm in a lift and the cable breaks. I then wake up and go back to sleep again.

[paula lynne]

I get this too Country girl as you know. Its horrid. Feel like Im suddenly in a force 10 gale...whoosh! I often told the top of the bed and tell my rational mind this is a sensation and Im not falling. It may be anxiety. It may be trapped nerves etc...let us know the results of your neck MRI x

[countrygirl]

Thanks everyone - just to comment on the hypnic jerk replies, much appreciate you taking the trouble to reply but I do not have hypnic jerks as my body does not move at all - apparently Dr said this is what differentiates them. I do get hynic jerks occasionally like everyone does but they only happen once as you fall sleep whereas my inside head drops ( maybe better way of describing it!) happen every few mintues for up to 2 hrs when I go to bed.

Waiting for my neck mri results sometime this week:huh:

[Zee]

That was a really good explanation of the feeling countrygirl.Exactly what mine was like.. Let us know how things go

[countrygirl]

Had a terrible night last night - the sensations lasted for 3 hrs - I did fall asleep a few times but according to my husband I slept about 15 mins then woke up each time and everytime I felt as if my whole body was trembling violently for about 5 mins then back to the falling sensations. AFter 3 hrs the sensations stopped but I was wide wide awake so eventually gave in and took a zopiderm sleeping tablet which work and I sleep better than usual and wake up feeling better than usual as well but of course I can't take them every night.
Am now back to dreading night time all day long and so depressed about this.
Will try and push my GP on Friday - last time he just said it may be anxiety it may be my neck or may be a sleep problem he didn't really know.

[countrygirl]

Went to my Gp this morning and he thinks the sensation is connected to my neck problem and that the nerves are firing off when I relax - he said anyone would get in a state about this horrible symptom. He wants me to take amyltriptyline small dose to see if it will help with the nerves and pain and he has also given me a prescription for diazepam to take for a couple of weeks to see if calming me down and relaxing the muscles during the day helps.
My mri scan results of my neck are on their way to GP so hopefully will have them tomorrow and see GP on friday as planned. GP was sympathetic and didn't make me feel like a nervous nelly for being in such a state about the lack of sleep.
I hate the feeling of being so terrified and not being in control - it worries me that I feel so terrified that I don't want to live feeling like this. I get this feeling whenever i have a symptom that is stopping me sleeping and or freaking me out.
I remember as a teenager after a sex education lesson getting a sore throat and being convinced I had got sex tranmitted disease because I had kissed a boy!! I can remember feeling exactly like I do now for weeks:shrug:

[parisoni12]

The bottom drops out of your dreams, you start to sink and there's nothing to hold on to. You're falling, falling, falling. Especially from a great height, the sensation can be terrifying. Or, it might be quite an exciting thrill. Even a short fall can be such a surprise that you jerk awake.

I suspect that loss of equilibrium became a critical problem for us, as a species, when we started to walk upright. Some say that fear of falling is a remnant of those times long past when remaining high in the trees was necessary for our survival. We do seem to have a well-developed awareness of the end of the bed, so that we don't tip over its edge every night. But that could be learned behavior since infants and toddlers sleep surrounded by barriers so they won't roll onto the floor. At its best, fear of falling serves as a very useful system, warning us about lack of balance in waking life. But if we take that fear into sleep, it can be detrimental to our desire to fly.

A falling dream can, of course, be put through the interpretation mill to find symbolic significance. But some falling dreams have no pictures attached! I think this is a case where it would be advantageous to start, not with the imagery, but with the feeling. After doing reality checks on falling dreams, I've concluded that I really can't appreciate the "meaning" of a particular falling dream unless I first track down whatever stimulated the sensation.

Falling dreams can be due to a replay of a vivid feeling that occurred during the day. Because of the sharp sensations involved, the intensity might not dissipate by the time we go to sleep. It might be a sensation occurring while we sleep. Or it can be anticipatory or precognitive of a possible event to come.

Replay of An Actual Fall

Biking, climbing, equestrian and aerial sports have quite intense feelings attached to them. Your falling sensation might occur if, during the day, you tumble off your mountain bike when it slips on some loose gravel. The experience is embedded in your body just like those pebbles are embedded in your knees.

In some cases, the memory of an actual fall can be so vivid that, when the experience is called up again, even the sensations come along for a ride. You fell down the stairs when you were younger. Today, when you find yourself teetering at the top of the stairway, your warning system turns on with a vengeance and doesn't turn off before bedtime.

Sometimes it's easy to link your dream with the fall, or its sensational memory, because the previous day's experience is so vivid. But don't forget the familiar sinking sensations of controlled falls. Did you ride an escalator or elevator yesterday? The fall or its recall doesn't have to impress your conscious mind much. It can be a peripheral event that is repressed or a subliminal event that is not fully recognized. If your attention is directed elsewhere when you quickly recover from a minor stumble, the tactile sensation of falling and your emotional reaction to it might not be allowed full expression. Until you go to sleep.

[countrygirl]

Very interesting post and I know what you mean abou the fallilng dreams as I have them occasionally but this is not what I am experiencing when relaxing for sleep. It is so hard to describe what I mean - the people who have experienced the sensation know what I mean and have described it in their posts well but unless you have had it yourself the descriptions mean different things to different people.

My best analogy is a cross between an electric shock to the brain with a split second sensations as if you have dropped over top of a rollercoster but it lasts less than a second in time.

I got the results of my mri neck scan and as expected have herniated disc with bad arthrtis and trapped nerve at C6 the Dr is not totally convinced the sensations are neck related and is writing to the sleep clinic at liverpool hospital to see if they need to see me.

[Serb]

Was googling my symptoms, bad idea, and came across this thread.

I also get this sensation.

I have recently had a cardiac ablation and after being on beta blockers for about 18 months, after stoping the beta blockers I get this. I also am experiencing postural hypertension.

Mine last a second or even a split second, it can happen during the day, at night, relaxed, stressed, anxious whatever. I think it's worse when stressed anxious or worried.

For me it feels like a falling sensation, or a very brief break in consciousness where my horizon or whatever I'm looking at falls away or jerks. It's combined with a rush to the head of adrenalin or blood, can feel dizzy afterwards if it catches me out of the blue.

I do get them while trying to sleep sometimes but they don't bother me as much. They are not hypnic Or mycotic jerks as body doesn't jerk.

I can't find a name for this sensation but there are many others who post about this on the web, but the trouble is they are very hard to describe.

Any doc who I talk to about it thinks it's linked to anxiety. I have been through a lot lately with heart operation, years of beta blockers, inability to exercise and a stressful job so I can't discount that. I have other anxiety symptoms like panic attacks, reflux and poor digestion.

Have seen an ENT who thinks these aren't vestibular, had a clean MRI and EEG so not epilepsy, MS etc. My current diagnosis is mild autonomic dysfunction following cardiac ablation, so perhaps these are in some way linked to the autonomic nervous system.

Because they are accompanied by what feels like a surge in the head I am
seeing an endocrinologist to see if this is in anyway linked to adrenalin or hormonal imbalance.

I suspect the ability to acknowledge these as benign would help and they would dissipate in time, but not knowing what they are or when they will come makes them scary. After they come I am left anxious, fast heart rate etc because of this!

Would love to try anti anxiety drugs but can't because of my poetical hypertension.