Hypnic Jerk
Imagin this; you’re laying comfortably in your warm bed, all snuggled up and you’re drifting away into sleep. All of a sudden you’re sitting straight up in bed and your heart is beating in your throat. You’re wondering what exactly just happened although it’s not something unfamiliar, it’s happened before; a hypnic jerk.
What kind of jerk, you might wonder. A hypnic jerk. It’s probably an unfamiliar term for something that’s rather familiar to most people. It’s an involuntary muscle twitch which often occurs during the transition from wakefulness to sleep. I always experience it as falling off the sidewalk backwards, kind of like slipping off the edge unexpectedly.
So why am I writing this down? It happened to me (again) two nights ago and I wondered if there was an actual term for it, as most people describe it differently. After a bit of googling I found the answer to my question, it’s called hypnic jerk (or if you really want to do it right hypnagogic myoclonic twitch) and decided to share this absolute piece of randomness with all of you.
It might be useful to you, or it might not. Either way reading this kept you busy for a little while.
Plugged: Kat, Amanda, Jennii, Jessica, Jon, Amber
11 Comments on "Hypnic Jerk"
I hate those! Especially when I’m half dreaming, everything is going great as far as dreams go then I’m walking down a path or a flight a stairs and I trip. I wake up and realize my body just spasmed/jerked/twitched however you like to call it 
Hey, cool, I know a new term now! 
I hate when those happen – I get them the most when I’m sitting somewhere and start drifting off – or is that just me falling off my chair?
I GET THAT!
It always seems to happen when you’re half-dreaming…still semi-awake, but semi-asleep too. Like, I half-dream that I’m walking down some stairs or something, and then I trip and fall down them, and that’s when the hypnic jerk happens!
How strange.
So that’s what it’s called. It happens to me quite often – the sensation of falling on my bed or on a chair. The curious thing is that it usually occurs when I’m taking my afternoon nap or siesta.
Thanks for sharing this.
I’m obsessed with reading everything I can to do with sleep. My legs tend to jerk sometimes when I’m trying to sleep, and my cat glares at me accusingly whenever it happens. Heh.
That happens to me all the time! I never knew what it was called before. Thanks for the new term!
Those things are so weird! It really does feel like your falling from something or tripping over something. Creepy. Thanks for the term… always wondered what those were really called!
Well, you learn something new every day. This used to happen to me quite a lot when I was younger. It appears to have stopped now. Though, I’ll bet you it happens tonight because I said that. :p
WOW. I know exactly what you are talking about. That is nuts! That happens to me almost every single night and I always wondered about that. VERY interesting blog. =P
My husband does it all of the time! When we started to sleep in the same bed I thought he was just strange and now I know he is.
When I was expecting our daughter he was sleeping with his spasms and I was constantly awaken by muscle cramps in the legs – what a circus.
I never knew there was a name for it.
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For some reason the word “spasm” really makes me giggle (an immature moment, perhaps?). I keep having them in my knees (the only way I know how to describe it). My mum believes it is due to stretched ligaments (as she is not a doctor I refuse to believe or take note of her advice, I’m afraid).
I hope your, um, hypnic jerk… Gets better?