Hypnic jerks

[Kodemaster]

Hi guys,

This question tends to come up from time to time and I figured I'd post a link to a couple articles explaining this phenomenon:

http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon971114/skinnyon.html
http://askascientist.binghamton.edu/nov-dec/18nov04ask.html

HTH,

Jeni

[Kodemaster]

Anyone get to read this? I'm surprised nobody replied, let alone stickied it, as this is a topic that comes up rather frequently.

[catmeow]

Hi Kodemaster

Yup I get these myoclonic jerks all the time.  The problem first started after I smashed my knee up last february and I think the trauma of that did something to my nervous system.  It's got a LOT better since february, but basically as I fall asleep, and even whilst asleep I will twitch. Hands, knees, feet neck, shoulders, anything in fact.  It used to keep me awake, or even wake me up!  Sometimes as I lay half asleep I can observe these little twitches which happen regularly every 10 minutes or so.  But as I say, they are disappearing now, and I think are related to the trauma of the skiing accident I had last year.

There are definitely TWO types of "twitch":

Type 1:  This coincides with the onset of dreaming.  If say, I began to dream of opening a door handle, my hand (the one I'm using in the dream to twist the handle) will actually do a twisting "twitch" and wake me up.

Type 2:  This does NOT coincide with any conscious thought process, or any dream.  It's a completely involuntary "jerk" which seems to come from nowhere?

Now I'm pretty experienced at observing myself falling asleep, so I'm absolutely certain that there are TWO types of twitch!  From what I've read this twitching is fairly normal.

There are other possible explanations, including Sylvan Muldoon's idea that twitching is caused by the sudden re-interiorisation of the astral double as it slams back into the physical?  Other explanations are kundalini, chakra or energy related.  Take your pick!

catmeow

[Eas]

I have the twitches quite often when right on the verge of falling asleep, i have both of the types that cat meow mentioned, #1 when I'm just falling asleep i start thinking or dreaming that I'm kicking a football against a wall and on about the third kick my leg takes a massive swing lol, quite funny at the time,
and i just have other twitches too that seem to be not related to anything

[Kodemaster]

Could someone please sticky this or add it to the FAQ page? This question does come up on a regular basis.

Thank you,

Jeni

[Leannain]

nobody has a nervous system as bad as mine -_-

[Quantitativefool]

I often have these twitches too, sometimes I think the ones where there is seemingly no cause can be from the astral and the memory not downloading, but I'm not sure.

-Stu

[JAW]

I had a really wierd one in yoga class the other week. At the end of class you lie down in "corpse pose", sort of like meditation and relaxation at the end. Anyway during this I had one or two normal leg or arm twitches but I also had an "exhalation twitch" where I forcefully exhaled very quickly, I have NO idea what that came from and cant remember dreaming of getting punched in the guts or anything!