hypnagogic myoclonic twitch

[John_M]

Sponsor Messages

I was reading an older thread where 'ugly n' rude' mentioned a condition called "hypnagogic myoclonic twitch" as a cause of hallucinations. I have the Jerked awake twitch quite often as I am falling asleep (no hallucinations though, as of yet) . I was wonder if 'Ugly N' Rude' or some other knowledgeable person could elaborate on this subject for me.

---

"Beware the man of one book."
— St. Thomas Aquinas

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
— Aristotle

[UglyNRude]

This is an excerpt from this page Hypnic jerk
The general consensus among researchers is that, as your muscles begin to slack and go into a restful state just as you are falling asleep; your brain senses these relaxation signals and misinterprets them, thinking you are falling down. The brain then sends signals to the muscles in your arms and legs in an attempt to jerk you back upright. This misinterpretation that takes place in your brain may also be responsible for the “falling” dreams that accompany the falling sensation. These “dreams” are not really normal dreams, as they are not produced from R.E.M sleep, but rather more like a daydream or hallucination in response to the body’s sensations.

[Haunted Lady]

I haven't experienced this extensively myself and can only remember a 'falling dream' maybe once in my life. I do know that my husband has the twitch though. Ususally we crawl into bed, he gets all clingy, I feel all snuggly warm and safe and just start to nod off and.....BAM! Hubby jerks me wide awake. I know he does it and I have mentioned it to him a couple of times (he does it nightly when he is home), but he doesn't even remember it.

At one point he jerked every 10 minutes for an hour or so and I finally sort of accidentally on purpose jerked my elbow into his gut because he kept waking me up. Whoops.

After reading the article I will say though that he does fall into the category of someone who often stays awake for more than 24 hours at a time. He works overnights, stays up all day them goes back to work all night again. He has terrible insomnia and the years of graveyard shifts have taken their toll. It's only the weekend we have together to sleep in the same bed and by then he is exhausted.

[D B Sweeney]

This happens to me quite often (at least twice a week) and fits in exactly with what UNR and LK have said in that it often awakens my partner. Combine HMT (especially if the sufferer isn't aware of what it is) with a haunted location and an existing belief in ghosts and we have all the ingredients in place to bake paranormal cookies.

DB