Options
Does anyone experience hypnic jerks?
intoxication
Posts: 7,059 Forum Member
✭
I do and I hate them! I only just found out the name for them today. From wiki:
and
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, often 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.'"
and
The evolutionary explanation for the existence of the hypnic jerk remains unclear, but one possibility is that it is a vestigial reflex humans evolved when they usually slept in trees. Thus, experiencing a hypnic jerk prior to falling asleep may have been selected so that the individual would be able to readjust their sleeping position in the tree to prevent a fall from occurring.
0
Comments
I thought everyone had them from time to time?
Ergh, I hate them.
Haha, brilliant:D
That's what I blame it on anyway.
They're annoying but I've gotten used to them.
I wonder if they're visible to others??
Restless legs syndrome is very uncomfortable
it`s not my legs, it`s most often my arms, i have been known to fling what i`m holding at the time
I'm getting it when awake atm, it's annoying
That often happens to me when I'm playing Solitaire on my Kindle. I seem to doze off and jerk awake but still playing the game!
Yes, I get those falling jerks just as I'm dropping off. Excuse the pun. It's usually a horrible feeling of falling down the kerb of a pavement. I thought it was just me till I read about it on here. I also wake up suddenly with a horrible noise in my ears: it's me, snoring.:D
or falling off a cliff