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+--- Thread: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? (/Thread-Full-body-jolt-or-jump-while-dozing-off)
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Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - ronlecroy - 05-15-2018
Recently, with other sleeping issues I have also developed a disturbing full body jolt or jump as I start to drift off to sleep. It's almost like I get an big electric shock. Seems to mostly happen when I start to enter the first stage of sleep. Boom! My whole body gets a jolt. As someone who has had a couple electrical shocks in my life I can say it's nearly an identical response. Doesn't seem breathing related at all. Is this just part of a disturbed sleep pattern or have I got some weird neurological thing going on?
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - Fats Drywaller - 05-15-2018
"Why do we twitch while falling asleep?" at The Straight Dope
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - PaulaO2 - 05-15-2018
Google:
hypnic jerk
myoclonus or myoclonic jerk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
I have these nearly every night. Most of the time it is just a full body twitch and I am able to continue toward sleep after my heart slows down. Other times I spring out of bed and yell. I twitch a lot in my sleep though.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - MyronH - 05-16-2018
Interesting. In my last sleep study, I had one of these happen. I didn't know what it was. I was asleep, and during the night I woke up with my legs and whole body jolted. I sat up in bed, and the tech came in the room. I asked them what happened, but they never explained what it was that happened. I figured I may have stopped breathing for awhile, and my body jolted me awake to start breathing again.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - Ockrocket - 05-16-2018
Or it could be your physical body waking up a split second before your astral body has returned from Astral travelling.
This was one of the most intriguing stories I heard many decades ago regarding why our bodies suddenly "jump" when waking from sleep.
But I'm sure there are some more realistic medical reasons behind it.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - srlevine1 - 05-16-2018
Perfectly normal and they do not seem to be harmful.
I was in the CCU with full heart monitoring for Ventricular Tachycardia when I experienced a jolt just as I was falling asleep.
It did not appear to affect my heart -- and any slight increase in heart rate was attributed to anxiety over the hospitalization and situation.
Nobody could explain it, but everyone had a theory including an evolutionary response to keep apes from falling out of trees.
My best guess was it was a subconscious message related to my normal sleep cycle -- if my subconscious does not expect a sleep state, it provides a stimulus to awaken the body to maintain consciousness. But it is just a guess with no real substantiation.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - ronlecroy - 05-16-2018
Thank you everyone! Your responses are very reassuring. Sounds like a pretty common affliction and not too serious. I sure do miss being the carefree and active guy I was just one year ago. In the last 6 months I've developed life disrupting sleep issues and overactive bladder that is driving me to insanity day and night. My bedroom now looks like a clinic. It's like all of the sudden old age stopped in for a visit and now has permanently moved in with me. Oh well, that's how it goes I guess. I told my doctor my goal for all of 2018 is to sleep more than 2 hours continuously and be able to watch a movie without having to leave to hit the restroom. Is that too much to ask? I'm depressed.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - Fats Drywaller - 05-16-2018
(05-16-2018, 02:56 PM)ronlecroy Wrote: I told my doctor my goal for all of 2018 is to sleep more than 2 hours continuously and be able to watch a movie without having to leave to hit the restroom. Is that too much to ask? I'm depressed.
Have you got any more specific diagnosis from your docs recently? Are you sure that the main problem is sleep apnea? Are you using your machine consistently, every night, and if so, is it helping?
From what you said in other threads, it sounded like maybe it's an undiagnosed (so far) mystery condition for which CPAP might not do any good. (???) But if sleep apnea is a big part of your problem, then you have to use the machine (consistently) to control it and reduce the symptoms.
And if you're really at a loss and your doctors are too, then is it feasible to find some other doc and/or clinic from which you can get better help?
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - mesenteria - 05-16-2018
I think that it might have something to do with the inner ear and head movement or body movement. As we lose tone, we sag or roll a bit. If the vestibular system detects the movement, it may signal that we are falling, at which we start. Why we don't universally do this, or respond with a start every time we fall asleep is beyond me.
RE: Full body jolt or jump while dozing off? - Sleep2Snore - 05-16-2018
All interesting theories, I do that a lot at times but I have no theory as to what causes it. My brother used to jump in bed when he did it, so he went to the doctor and this is what the doctor said, no word of a lie, "It is your bodies response to you starting to die, it is your bodies way of stopping this happening." Well, if that is true I sure try to die a lot at times
I think it is just another of the theories going around and I don't think the doctor knew what caused it any more than any of us.
