So I’m about to snooze when all of a sudden before I drift off it feels like I missed a stair in my bed and I start to fall until I’m forcefully woken up by the shock. Like, WTH?! It’s not like a dream where you fall off a skyscraper, it’s more like before you start to dream when it happens.
It’s a hypnic jerk.
They’d no single agreed on cause, but they happen during the transition from wakefulness to sleep.
You know what’s crazy ?
I know folks who don’t experience this and think we’re crazy for having this happen.
I read something about this and night terrors being more likely when you’re asleep on your back. At which point I switched to side sleeping.
No more falling issues, but now my shoulder is jacked up.
I hear that. I used to sleep with my arm under my pillow but my shoulders can’t take it anymore.
I wound up buying a medcline. It’s a wedge pillow with a cutout for your arm. Solved that problem for me. The new one is that the body pillow flattens around my head over the course of the night. Not a huge deal, so I’m relatively comfortable now.
I want to go back to a hammock. I never slept better than when I had one bolted in my room.
Man I used to get this a bunch as a kid. Then it transformed into hallucinations. Not sure which I prefer. Meds have it handled though.
No Idea why it happens, but there is a name for it! It’s called a Hypnic Jerk.
It’s more nuanced than this but something along the lines of your brain having more “awake” activity than your body, so your brain interprets the lack of response from your muscles as a possible sign that you’re falling.
Oh that’s an interesting theory.
While I’m not an expert on this topic at all, I’m a biologist, and as far as I know there’s no clear, universal answer for that.
I shared that theory because it’s easy to understand and it makes the most sense to me.
Discovering that this is a common occurence is comforting. I thought I was crazy or something.
I definitely get this. Pretty damn annoying.
I get this tons, and have unfortunately kicked bed company as a result. Also have a tendency to hear telephones when not quite yet awake.
Ngl I love when this happens. Sleep paralysis not so much, though luckily I don’t get that too much anymore, at all.
I don’t know what it is, but for me it’s always a loud ass truck horn blaring, it’s crazy
I will raise you one. Sometimes I see lots of colors and patterns right before I sleep or wake in the middle of the night. Like I took some sort of psychedelic
Hypnagogic hallucinations, completely normal!
You’re right! But once it happened when I was partially off the bed with my head hanging off, so combined with blood rush to my head and a pounding headache! But the patterns were cool at least
