Odd Sleep Question

Faynor

This is going to be hard to describe, so I hope I don't come off as a weirdo.

Sometimes, as I'm drifting off to sleep and I'm just on the edge of being asleep and being awake, I feel a sort of intense shock originating from my, well, brain. I know you can't feel your brain or whatever, but that is the best way for me to describe it. I get shocked. It's also a bit irritating, because it wakes me up quite a bit.

Now, this only happens when I'm falling asleep, and never anytime else. I'm not that worried about it or anything, I'm just curious if anyone knows what it is or if it happens to anyone else.

TychoCelchuuu

It's not just a mental shock, right? Your whole body jerks? That's a normal thing. It's called a hypnic jerk.

Faynor

No, though that happens to me too. It is just a mental shock. It's not like, painful intense, it's just strong enough to surprise.

Faynor

After googling "Sleep Shock", I found a person who described it better than I.

Sometimes before I fall asleep (but after I've started to doze off), a strange electric shock runs through my body and wakes me up.

It doesn't happen very often, and seems to occur at random when it does. It feels exactly like you'd think an electric shock would, only sans any physical effects. When it occurs, I immediately open my eyes and realize that I've been dozing off. I doubt it's actual electricity, as it's happened in several different beds. Perhaps it's imaginary?

When I doze off, my mind usually goes through a "dream thought" phase, in which my thoughts slowly begin to overtake my senses and gradually become "reality". As this process is typically unnoticable, getting "zapped" gives me quite a shock (no pun intended): my dream "reality" is rapidly shattered, and I get the sensation of waking up from something... real.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Oh, and no -- it isn't a problem at all. I'm merely curious about the nature of the phenomenon.

But they concluded it was a hynpic jerk. I don't feel a falling sensation or anything, however, just the "electricity".

Fats

Probably still a hypnic jerk without much movement or what Wikipedia refers to as 'exploding head syndrome'. I get the same thing: sometimes I jerk, sometimes there's a loud noise, and sometimes there's just the electric feeling that you describe. A little annoying, but benign.

matt has a problem

Someone once told me this was due to your brain thinking you were dying, your breathing is slowing down, heart rate dropping etc. So it makes you twitch to 'keep you alive'. Whether they were full of crap or not...

Cptn Pants

Do you have sleep apnea by any chance? This happens a lot to me, and I have sleep apnea. My fiancée says that sometimes as I'm falling asleep my breathing slows to under 1 breath per minute (she's studying to be a doctor or I wouldn't believe her lol) and when she wakes me up I often feel my heart race, a lot of adrenaline and a jittery feeling that would best be described as the feeling after being electrocuted... yeah I've been electrocuted a few times too lol.

Kyanilis

I get the hypnic jerk reaction a lot, but I can't say any weird shocking sensation has happened. It is very likely that they could be related, however. Just your brain's way of asking if you're still awake, heh.

FightTest

I get this, but only if I'm sleeping on my back. Well, really with my face pointing up. If I lay on my stomach/side, or even if I turn my head to the side while lying on my back, it doesn't happen.

It's really annoying and extremely unpleasant when it does happen.

GhostManOnThird

Well now I'm just glad that other people have this annoying problem too. That quote described it perfectly. Huh.

And yeah it seems when I'm sleeping on my back it happens often. Can't remember waking up from one while I'm sleeping on my side.

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

GhostManOnThird wrote: »

Well now I'm just glad that other people have this annoying problem too. That quote described it perfectly. Huh.

And yeah it seems when I'm sleeping on my back it happens often. Can't remember waking up from one while I'm sleeping on my side.

i get this a lot as well, sometimes even on my side sadly.

fun story: once my dreams actually decided to make the shock fit my dream... it was like jurassic park where dinosaurs had broken through the fences and we are crawling through a fence and someone bumped into me and sent me into the electric fence and woke up with a jolt. fun times

but yeah it's just hypnic jerk (mine are never accompanied by a falling feeling though). I'm still not sure how my dreams managed to explain it off that one time...

winter_combat_knight

Ive had a lot of weird shit happen to me when im dozing off (the most scary is Sleep paralysis). I dunno. What you describe sounds very common. To me it sounds like some form of 'hypnic jerk'. If its a recent problem, look into whats different in your life. I used to have loads of sleep disorders last year and i found it was a mixture of stress, over thinking, tiredness etc.

Just general advice, if you suffer from other sleep disorders like, seeing things in your room (people, creatures) or get out of bed really fast for no apparent reason, i seriously recommend you lock your bedroom door each night. because theres been times when ive walked to the bathroom and couldnt remember getting there. You dont want to have an accident.

THEPAIN73

I get this sometimes. It's natural.

Totally weird though.