It’s one of the strangest sensations you experience when you’re about to call it a night. Just when you think you’ve fallen asleep, you suddenly feel like you’re in free fall. When I’m lying in bed, my stomach somersaults and my body involuntarily spasms. During this process, your limbs or even your entire upper body may twitch or flap. There’s no logical reason why you might feel like you’re temporarily in fight-or-flight mode, and any calm you’ve recently gained can disappear in an instant. This experience may leave you feeling confused, frustrated, or just plain weird. Even worse, this may not be the first time. But if that’s any consolation, you’re not alone.
Estimation 70% of people They will experience hypnotic convulsions at least once in their life. About 10 percent of the population even experiences that feeling on a regular basis. This is also called a hypnotic jerk, after the hypnotic transition stage of falling asleep. But despite its regularity and decades of documentation, researchers have not reached a consensus on the cause of this strange phenomenon, often referred to as “sleep onset,” or why it occurs.
“The hypnotic jerk represents a fascinating phenomenon in sleep, but additional research is needed to clarify its physiology and origins,” said the authors of a 2018 study published in the same journal. summarized. Current sleep medicine reports. More than six years later, that opinion still holds strong among experts in the field.
“I don’t know of a good explanation for why that happens,” he says Allen RichertAssociate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center. “This is an organized muscle movement, so it requires central nervous system communication. But where and what stimulates that movement, and why, is unknown to my knowledge. ”
However, there are a few things you should know about the hypnotic bastard. According to experts, this movement is a prime example of myoclonus or myoclonic spasms, which are involuntary muscle spasms similar to hiccups or epileptic seizures. But just because you turn off the lights and wake up right away doesn’t mean you need to schedule an MRI.
“We don’t consider it a pathological problem; it’s a normal phenomenon,” Richert explains. “This is clearly not a sign of a sleep disorder that we can treat, nor is it a sign of an underlying problem such as a seizure or movement disorder.”
of American Academy of Sleep Medicine lists many reasons that may be causing your particular type of hypnagogic cramps. Unfortunately, the scope of the description is so wide that it doesn’t help narrow it down at all. “Large intake of caffeine or other stimulants” and “excessive stress” can also cause sleep onset, but so can “before strenuous physical labor or exercise” or lack of sleep. Hypnotic spasms can occur when you’re overexcited, but they can also occur when you’re exhausted.
“That’s what’s interesting,” Richert says. “A lot of times you can say, ‘Well, if you deprive yourself of sleep for a while, you’re more likely to become sleep deprived.’ [physical consequences]. ” But…to my knowledge, there is no evidence that getting more sleep will make your symptoms better, or that not getting enough sleep will make your symptoms worse. ”
Still, many sleep researchers have offered their own plausible theories to explain the hypnotic jerk. 1 group That feeling is It occurs after blood pressure drops, and when muscle tissue relaxes, the brain misfires and temporarily goes into panic mode. Although there is no concrete evidence to support it yet, other experts argue that this feeling occurs when your brain instinctively thinks you are. easy to fall from trees— which may have been true for some of our primate ancestors as well.
[Related: Why do jump scares terrify us so much? Blame evolution.]
Richert added that he is also unaware of any specific medications or behavioral modifications that have been shown to increase or decrease sleep onset time. Meanwhile, the AASM recommends some classic bedtime tips. Avoid caffeine and other stimulants in the hours before bed, try to reduce stress, and get enough sleep overall.
But unless hypnosis or its fears are negatively impacting your life, you don’t need to see a doctor, Richert and other experts say. For now, hypnotic excitement remains a strange quirk of human evolution, but it’s certainly not a sleep-depriving problem.
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