Read this if you're worried about jolts or "brain zaps" when falling asleep!

Hi,

I had a "brain zap" when I was drifting off to sleep last night, and it scared me so badly! I've been Googling all morning thinking of course it's epilepsy or a brain tumor, etc. etc.

Then I found these two sources. One is from Wikipedia, but the other is from the Discover channel's website. I feel a LOT better after reading these and hope they can help someone else:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

http://www.discovery.com/area/skinny.../skinnyon.html

:yesyes:


aurora

Hi

I get these so this is reasurring as they arev frightening.

Thanks.

Sharona xxx

Thanks for that - will make this topic sticky so people can see it.

:hugs: :hugs:
I have copied both ???URL's
that post was so reasuring
Thank you so much for the info:hugs:
Best wishes
June
:hugs:

Hi there, I too have had "brain zaps" so the post was very reassuring. Also, I have episodes of my balance going and waves of dizziness. Does anyone else experience this? Normally it only last for seconds. I have been told the dizziness is positional vertigo. Wether the brief loss of balance is linked I dont know. Sometimes it wakes me up and sometimes it happens just as I am going to sleep. When I move a bit it seems to stop. Some nights it doesnt happen at all and others it happens a couple of times. It happened last night, the loss of balance I mean. I can do without it. I worry that something is wrong inside my head. Thanks for the brain zaps post though. That was a relief to read that.

Shirley

I'm not sure about describing them as brain zaps... Was it a "zapping noise" or a zap of pain?

I have been dealing with headaches for almost a year now, they began around three weeks after anxietys dark shadow shrouded me in a veil of despair. April 14th 2008 was when my anxiety started, a few days after a binge drink/smoking some weed...I had bumped my head walking into a door, there was a tiny red dot and was fine for a couple days, but I was pancing like crazy days later, as I just didn't feel myself... wondering what was wrong with me, I would keep myself in bed and move as little as possible... I lost 24lbs as I began to eat only wheatabix and fruit. My muscles were getting tense and I was under tremendous stress, I was worried about dying from an unknown illness. So I attributed it all to my "head injury" and once my headaches began I decided to hound doctors and medical staff at hospitals until I got a CT and MRI scan... I was negative for anything nasty.
So I entered into debates and conversations with medical staff until finally accepting I was tense, stressed and suffering anxiety and panic attacks, which on relfection, I know agree on.
I never take the medication because I am affraid of it to, honestly I over think things, I would take the pills and wonder "what are they doing to me... WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!?!?" before jumping out a window.

I am sometimes prone to short episodes of pain on my scalp, these are known as ice-pick headaches and usally only last a few seconds or minutes. These would seem to be the zaps you speak of. I had one before I got up this morning, which felt worse as I strained my neck... so it would seem to be a muscular thing.

ok the start! for 10 years i was a cocaine (functional) addict and boozer. the doctor told me he would make me feel human again after a stupid suicide attempt. now i was at my last 6 months of drug abuse before i realised enough was enough! so i went an told my doctor all!!

at the time i was going through a divorce, anyhow the doc supplied me with citalopram 20mg and diazapan 5mg twice daily, i took these for at least a year and had enough and i had some serious dark thoughts on these in the beginning. anyhow i got fed up with the diazapan making me feel groggy and looking tired all the time. so self medicated on the (not advised to others) diaz'z the citals did not work anymore, so i was prescribed sertraline even more worse than citals.

after 6 months of being on them i was prescribed the dreaded effexor 75mg
they are the absolute pits!!!! now i stopped taking them after a year and a bit and they didnt work either, now this is where it gets weird.

i never really had any side effects from any prescribed drug until i met effexor.

since stoppping effexor, the very day i stopped i got the most blistering side effects ever, read the effexoractivist web pages and read the symptoms.

when i stopped effexor, i was given prozac, they just gave me really bad stomach problems if anything!

since leaving effexor i have these really really scary head shocks, when i move my eyes left and right up or down or even move suddenly i get this enormous wave of dizziness in my head, if i feel my heart miss a beat i get a massive jolt of an electrical buzz through my head, i only feel really safe to move or look ahead to get some relief from the dizziness.

i think my doc either thinks im mad or he is worried his advice on the effexor has left me permantley brain damaged, its really scary and shows no signs of letting up, i also can feel off balance sometimes and its really affecting my moods, some days i could forget about the dizzy stuff and then do the gardening and not even think about it then the next day i can go out and do something else and the dizzines just bloody follows me and its just easier to sit and look ahead. its really upsetting me and i dont know if im going mad or have been left with a serious chemical imbalance from using effexor.

i have not drunk or taken any cocaine for near on 2 years now. and have been off all medication for a month now

can someone please help, this crap is really squeezing my skull!!!!!!!!!!:wacko:

please see this: http://theeffexoractivist.org/

Yes, I get these often!

I'm actually glad I researched it and found out. Put me at ease.

What a relief to know that others have experienced these. Although mine seem to have subsided now, they were actually the catalyst for my latest bout of anxiety and panic attacks.

They started out of the blue one night just as i was going to sleep. The next minute had awful dizzy sensation and then 'Zap' - a blue flash and a feeling like an electric shock in my head and my heart feeling as though it had jumped a beat. It terrified me! It took me hours to get to sleep that night because every time I started 'dropping off' the same thing happened. From then on they happened every night for well over a year and even after the blue flashes stopped I still got the dizzy feeling - right up to 3 months ago. It was no wonder I ended up a wreck... I was definitely sleep deprived for months on end.

I still have no idea why they started - just got a name for them from a neurologist about a year after they began with the statement 'Nothing to worry about, everyone gets them.' I wanted to say to him 'Well, if that's true, why do people look at me like I've grown 2 heads if I mention them then? Why didn't my Dr have a clue what was going on?'

All I can say is 'thank goodness they've stopped'.

I wish I'd found these websites when I first got the 'zaps'...

Jay :)

I've had Hypnic jerks a few times in the past. It has never struck me as odd though, I just jolt to full wakefulness in a moment of panic, realise a few seconds later that it was a "dream" (feels the same as waking up during a long fall in a full REM sleep dream) and go back to sleep.

well i had my first hypnic or whatever there called wednesday night,,and now i know why how cool,,,thankyou:yesyes:

Thanks for the reassurance as i have suffered from these for years and used to get them every night. I get the odd one still during the day too. Its so frightening when i get them when i wake up and my body starts shaking and i start having a panic attack from the shock of it all.

I followed the links to find out more about this as I too have experienced loud explosions in my head, they always wake me and seem to come with a flash of light too.

I've had these for a few years, thought it was only me and that I was crazy or weird. Glad I'm not the only one :) I've never been scared of them, mine often comes with breathing trouble, and sometimes happen in every sleep-try, so I can't fall asleep. It helps going out and take a glass of milk or water, then back to bed.

can anyone tell me if they get these shocks every night on falling asleep i am on ads but not withdrawing there scary

I too get these. Usually when I'm trying to get to sleep. It's pleasing to know that they are common

I don't get the explosion but its very violent, I thought it was down to using the pc to much (i test software) but taking days off made no difference.
It does depend on how tired I am, if I go to bed around 10 they are hardly noticable, 1am the wife ends up on the roof lol, good to know my head and heart aren't going to explode dun arf feel like it at times!
I think stress levels have a lot to do with it as well, I'm a bit tightly wrapped at the moment

thanks for the articles, they are a great help :yesyes:

The links were helpful, but I'd research further than WikiPedia. WikiPedia is not necessarily correct. Follow the links at the bottom and read information on reliable medical sites (MayoClinic, etc.) especially if you have pain as well. Of course, like many things, once you know why it happens if can subside as stressing over things can make them a self-fulfilling issue. I have them and some of them are related to nerve issues caused by herniated discs i my lower back and neck. Because of the spine issues I have had my brain and entire spine MRI's and X-rayed lately.

Well i never. No doctor has been able to tell me this.

Hypnic jerks are the cause of my worst attacks.

Lets see what happens next time now i know what they are.

It always amazes me how when i can be laid awake so freaked out to sleep that i then come on here and read all the wonderful advice by so many brave people and it instantly reassures me and inflates me with confidence almost immediately xx thanks muchly aurora xx

I no this is a older post but when every one said dizzy do you mean spining or a
of balance feeling ???

I have these usually if im not thinking of anything or just laid still.I get them also in my sleep more of a gasp for air tho scares the hell out of my wife

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sleeplessingrantham

I have these usually if im not thinking of anything or just laid still.I get them also in my sleep more of a gasp for air tho scares the hell out of my wife

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Hi

I get that gasp of air feeling too while sleeping xx

I come on here just to find out about this! yes I get this and its awful but it goes away in time from past experiance anyway :)
In Dr Claire Weekes books on nervous illness she talks about a pistol shot or a whip crack or snap type noise just before you fall
to sleep.
Also I have read in other books that you can hear a few words spoken or your name shouted out just before you nood off. When
my depression and anxiety are bad this is a common problem for me but sleeping pills helped because when the crack noise come
it would wake me up and I could not sleep again so if you really get it bad see your Dr for a short course of sleeping pills : )

Brent

Brent

I get this with tramadol not sure if its normal or not anybody know ? x

hI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dnvgraphics2k12

I get this with tramadol not sure if its normal or not anybody know ? x

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Do you mean the head noise? did the problem start when you started to take the tramadol?

Brent

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BasilCat

Hi there, I too have had "brain zaps" so the post was very reassuring. Also, I have episodes of my balance going and waves of dizziness. Does anyone else experience this? Normally it only last for seconds. I have been told the dizziness is positional vertigo. Wether the brief loss of balance is linked I dont know. Sometimes it wakes me up and sometimes it happens just as I am going to sleep. When I move a bit it seems to stop. Some nights it doesnt happen at all and others it happens a couple of times. It happened last night, the loss of balance I mean. I can do without it. I worry that something is wrong inside my head. Thanks for the brain zaps post though. That was a relief to read that.

Shirley

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I to get dizzy sometimes when nodding off at night, have to have my neck in the right position, not every night though, being tense makes it worse, when it happens it feels like something is fizzing in my neck and i go all light headed (also like someone standing on a hosepipe ) and have to sit up, it then calms down, I have tried to stay laying down but it just gets worse, have mentioned it to GP they say its probably a muscle spasm in my neck, but sometimes it can do it 3 or 4 times a night and all you want to do is sleep, horrible sensation. Also when nodding off or waking up can get a funny pattern like a kalediscope but sections move side to side not all in and out like normal, goes as soon as I open my eyes, maybe it is all to do with balance??

Bless up Aurora. Can't get on Discovery but Wikapedia is so reassuring. It's a new symptom for me, and I thought I was going mad.

:yesyes:Hi, I am new to this site and I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has posted about these jerks that I get most nights when I lie down. I have been through loads and loads of different types of doctors to ask about these and every single one of them looked at me as if I was mad... when I read these posts and found that other people had them too and explained what they were I cannot tell you how reassured I am feeling. I've had all sorts of tests for inner ear problems/balance/vertigo/migraine associated vertigo/menieres disease and have been told on various occasions that any of these conditions could be the reason for them, but they weren't convinced as they really didn't know.

This seems like a way someone might describe what's been happening to me. To me, though, it's less of a sound and more of a violent numbing of the brain, ear and eyes. Like fainting in fast forward. It has the shape and length of the white noise in the HBO logo card they play before HBO original programming, if the volume were cranked to 11. Despite that description, I still wouldn't call it a sound -- that was just the best analogy I could come up with.

If this is what's happening to me, it helps a little to know it's name, but I'm still terrified of trying to sleep. I've never experienced this before this month and I want this to end.

Really good advice, guys. I get these some times, but I always fall asleep right after and by the time I wake up I've forgotten all about the experience.

hi
i am also experiencing “brain zaps” but not sure if its the same type that everyone here experiences. id appreciate if people could let me know if they experience the below and if so, what they think the cause was/is:
1. zaps localised to the forehead just above the eyes, rather than deep inside the head
2. zaps that get worse when hearing noise – any kind of noise loud or quiet. and zaps that almost fully disappear with ear plugs in
3. zaps that stop completely when you get up and move around, or even move your hands or legs gently, but then return full force once you return to a still position
4. zaps that seems to almost completely disappear with alcohol
5. zaps which are present almost 24/7 rather than coming in episodes
thanks

Hi, I'm just coming off Fluoxetine. I have read about zaps and they obviously vary. I am herring just a sharp pain in my now and again, no 'bubbling brain' or anything... Could that be a
version of zaps?

Hello all, I'm new to No More Panic, and I can't tell you what relief it is to find this thread.

I've been feeling sick with worry since experiencing these shocks, which seem to happen if I lie down to sleep or sit feeling relaxed.

I took Citalopram for 7 years, but finally came off it in Feb this year after tapering for 2 years. The GP doesn't think I should be getting any side effects now I'm off the meds, but I never had these symptoms before Citalopram!

I find the sensation seems to originate from behind my left eye, and is like a little jolt that leaves me dizzy and anxious. Last night, I had one when I'd dropped off to sleep, which made me very disorientated and short of breath.

Although I keep trying to rationalise this as something to "ride out", I am now wondering whether to take the symptoms back to the drs? Be good to hear if anyone's had any luck with their GP acknowledging this? :shrug:

I was getting gasps and jolts, i just let them pass and then it subsides. I also found not fearing them and using some deep relaxation helps to fall asleep without them. Search 'The Honest Guys guided meditation' on Youtube I've found these really help for nights where i can't relax without the panic gasps.

I had this when i woke this morning at 4 to let my cats out i fell back to sleep but while falling a sleep i got the exploding head syndrome .

djami, I have not experienced your zaps exactly but I note you write:

4. zaps that seems to almost completely disappear with alcohol

One of the ways I got out of my (recent) HA spiral was I noticed whenever I had alcohol, my symptoms would be non existent. I was having liquor enough times that it became apparent to me that if something really was wrong with me (brain tumor, MS, heart issues was the current range) then something should appear even if I had had a couple of beers. The fact that it didn't was not coincidence but because with alcohol I was truly relaxed...and most of the rest of the time I was anxious whether I felt the anxiety or not and that led to the symptoms and hyper sensitivity.

Now I have stopped drinking too as hang overs made anxiety worse!

I am the ex king of body zaps, everywhere. Brain included but more legs, feet and hands. I also had brain vibrations at night...Scary stuff until the neurologist told me it was not my brain but a muscle. Came back twice since but I didn't care when it did. Now gone for weeks.

I have had this happen a couple times in the past. Each time it luckily went away the next night, but I never got any sleep because every time I tried to sleep I would get a jolt and even trouble breathing. Scared the crap out of me! The whole next day I was also convinced that this would be permanent and I would never go to sleep normally again, and I also thought I may have had a brain bleed. I was so relieved when I slept normally that night. It happened again a fell months later, I noticed both times I was extremely tired the night it happened, but luckily never happened since. To those who also get this sometimes, I am almost sure that it isn't anything bad, just some type of exhaustion.

I get brain zaps but I also get whole body zaps which feel like my body has been touched with an electric prod - does anyone else get these body zaps?

Had several of these last night while trying to fall asleep. Just kind of spasmed and jolted awake. Unfortunately it triggered insomnia and additional anxiety for me today. Now I am having little electrical zaps all over my body during the day. My mind keeps thinking ALS, MS, or Parkinsons.