Jumping in your sleep.....

As the title says really!

My boyfriend does it a lot- some nights more than others. He jumps and wakes himself up, usually as he's falling to sleep but sometimes when he is actually in deep sleep. Just wondered if anyone knows any causes of it and if anyone else does it?

Reply 1

bunthulhu

14

I do it a fair bit, my boyfriend finds it hilarious. I heard somewhere that your breathing or heart rate (something like that) has gotten too low so your brain does it as basically a survival instinct? I can't remember where I heard that though so it might be a load of pooh :biggrin:

Reply 2

SianyLou

10

I do it but don't know what causes it! Often it's just as I'm falling asleep, and I 'dream' that I'm falling of or over something, and I jolt myself awake. Often it's just tripping up the pavement or something, other times its dreaming that i fall out of bed. Weird

Reply 3

Christo

14

Is this like when you feel you're falling off something high?

Reply 4

blissy

15

babynessontoast

I do it but don't know what causes it! Often it's just as I'm falling asleep, and I 'dream' that I'm falling of or over something, and I jolt myself awake. Often it's just tripping up the pavement or something, other times its dreaming that i fall out of bed. Weird

I do that as well! Apparently I twitch and shudder and have lots of strange involuntary muscle movements through the night too (the bf knows this cause I usually manage to distrub him enough for him to wake up)

Reply 5

kinkajou

15

oh i always do that :p:

Reply 6

slk999

15

it must be quite exciting in your house! i wonder what must be going on in your neighbours' heads! :eek:

Reply 7

norelle

5

Yeah, it can be dreaming about tripping over something small or falling off a cliff, I've had both. It makes your heart race so much!

Reply 8

Tyler Durden

17

Yeah, I do that sometimes. I always land on the pavement. Feels really genuine!

Reply 9

SianyLou

10

It's horrible cos it wakes you up just as you're dropping off (lol see what i did there?!) to sleep...

Reply 10

Christo

14

englishstudent

Yeah, I do that sometimes. I always land on the pavement. Feels really genuine!

Me too. I always fall off a lamppost... weird.

Reply 11

Cano234

babynessontoast

I do it but don't know what causes it! Often it's just as I'm falling asleep, and I 'dream' that I'm falling of or over something, and I jolt myself awake. Often it's just tripping up the pavement or something, other times its dreaming that i fall out of bed. Weird

Yer i do exactly that, usually its falling off something very high, so i jolt awake

Reply 12

bunthulhu

14

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jan99/915569370.Ns.r.html :smile:

Reply 13

bunthulhu

14

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-hypnic-jerk.htm

"When we drift of into sleep, the body undergoes changes in temperature, breathing and muscle relaxation. The hypnic jerk may be a result of the muscles relaxing. The brain misinterprets this as a sign of falling and signals our limbs to wake up; hence the jerking legs or arms."

Reply 14

sparkler

11

funny how it only happens when we fall off stuff though..(edit: ^ah.... thanks for the link!)

annoys me though, cause it usually happens after i've been trying to get to sleep for ages and then *jump* and i'm wide awake again!

:rolleyes:

Reply 15

SianyLou

10

well that didnt help at all...for all us blondes out there you might as well have just sent us a nursery rhyme in latin, it made as much sense.

Reply 16

garethfenney

it sounds stupid but i heard if you actually hit the bottom you die in your sleep :O...

Reply 17

helloworld

6

i jolt in my sleep like a litle animal buti dont wake up from it, i do it alllll the time apparently

Reply 18

bunthulhu

14

garethfenney

it sounds stupid but i heard if you actually hit the bottom you die in your sleep :O...

I think that's quite possibly an urban myth :p:

Basically the changes that your body undergoes as you fall asleep makes your brain think you're falling so it makes you twitch so you wake up and think 'oh noes I'm falling' *splat* :smile:

Reply 19

Tyler Durden

17

garethfenney

it sounds stupid but i heard if you actually hit the bottom you die in your sleep :O...

Dude, you're going to OXFORD to study LAW! :p:

Jumping in your sleep.....

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