If Your Body Jerks Awake Right As You're Falling Asleep, There's A Really Odd Scientific Reason For It
Kellen Riggin | Unsplash It's a lazy Sunday afternoon. You've actually done your chores for the day, and you're ready to relax. You find a nice, warm spot on the couch where the sun hits it just right, and you've started drifting off into a gentle nap.
Suddenly, your body jerks. You're jolted awake, and maybe you're sweating, or your pulse is racing. You might even have had a dream that you were falling from a cliff and woke yourself up so quickly that you ended up in a pile on the floor.
If your body jerks awake right as you're falling asleep, there's a strange scientific reason for it
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What you've just experienced is called a hypnic jerk, and though scientists don't really know what causes it, they've surmised a couple of things about it.
A hypnic jerk, often called a sleep start, is a natural reaction of your body when you fall asleep quickly
There might be other factors involved, such as stress, alcohol, or caffeine. This might keep you from relaxing properly, keep your brain awake, and convince you that your lowered heart rate is actually due to danger, not to falling asleep.
While a hypnic jerk isn't a symptom of anything being wrong, it can be a scary experience. Some sleep starts include "a rapid heartbeat, quickened breathing, sweat, and sometimes 'a peculiar sensory feeling of 'shock' or 'falling into the void,'" according to Marianne Middleton of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital Sleep Disorders Center.
So while it's not dangerous to your health, it can cause you to develop a nasty "vicious cycle" in which you lose sleep because you develop anxiety over falling asleep. Which means your body tricks you into being afraid of falling asleep because it jerks itself awake in what might be a terrifying experience. Not cool, brain.
As weird as hypnic jerks feel, they're actually incredibly common
According to the Sleep Foundation, up to 70% of people experience hypnic jerks at some point while falling asleep. Even though they can feel frightening in the moment, experts say they're usually harmless and simply part of the strange transition between being awake and asleep.
Scientists also believe the sensation of falling during a hypnic jerk may happen because your muscles relax so quickly that your brain briefly misinterprets it as your body physically dropping. In response, your nervous system fires off a sudden muscle contraction to catch yourself, which is why so many people wake up feeling like they just missed a step or slipped off a ledge.
Hypnic jerks tend to happen more often when you're overtired or mentally overstimulated. So if you've been stressed lately, doomscrolling before bed, drinking too much caffeine, or running on very little sleep, your brain may have a harder time fully settling down when it's time to rest.
The good news is that hypnic jerks mostly affect people who have inconsistent sleep schedules
Research by Morris B. Chang, MD, MBA, found that sleep deprivation, stress, fatigue, and stimulants like caffeine can all make sleep starts more likely.
One way to try to eliminate the possibility of experiencing a sleep start is to train yourself to go to bed on a proper schedule and make sure not to take in caffeine or alcohol before you go to sleep.
Hypnic jerks can be well ... jerks, but you don't have to let them ruin your sleep. Sweet dreams!
Merethe Najjar is a professional writer, editor, and award-winning fiction author from Atlanta, Georgia. She has had multiple publications featured in The Aviator Magazine, Infinite Press, Yahoo, BRIDES, and others.
