Do you know why people twitch in their sleep
Miscellaneous / / April 04, 2023
This reflex saved our ancestors' lives.
You must have had this: you are lying in bed, you already feel that you are falling asleep... And then your whole body from head to toe suddenly shudders, as if from the touch of an electrode. You come to your senses for a second with a slight fright, but almost immediately you fall back into a slumber.
Perhaps such a strange behavior of your own muscles can seriously alarm and even make you think about health. But really, there is no reason to worry.
This is a completely normal and very common physiological phenomenon, which is called hypnagogic jerkS. Chokroverty, S. Bhat, D. Gupta. Intensified hypnic jerks: a polysomnographic and polymyographic analysis / Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. him at least once feltS. Chokroverty. Sleep Disorders Medicine: Basic Science, Technical Considerations, and Clinical Aspects about 70% of people in the world, and almost 10% experience this almost every night.
Such tremors are harmless and
don't causeR. Vetrugno, P. Montagna. Sleep-to-wake transition movement disorders / Sleep Medicine no negative consequences. Sometimes, however, they are frightening, because they can be accompanied by a feeling of falling into the void or vivid and plausible dreams and hallucinations.Hypnagogic jerks are known to be more experiencingI. Oswald. Sudden Bodily Jerks on Falling Asleep Brain / Oxford Academic men. In addition, people with irregular sleep schedules and those who experience severe stress and abuse nicotine and caffeine are especially exposed to them.
Why does this happen to people? Well, here scientists are still not sure. But there is one theory.
She saysHypnic Jerks - The Reason Why We Twitch Before Falling Asleep / Live Sciencethat the propensity for the hypnagogic jerk was inherited by humans from distant primate ancestors who slept in trees.
The logic is this: if the monkey is incorrectly placed on a branch and begins to fall because of this in a dream, the body twitches in order to wake the climber in time and prevent him from falling off.
Over time, people moved from trees to beds, but from time to time the brain still fails and recalls those glorious days when we rested on the top. And makes the body shudder, even if there is no danger of falling. Just for prevention, so that the body does not relax too much.
What to do if you notice that you have begun to twitch at night too often? Well, recommendationsHypnic Jerks: Why You Twitch When You Sleep / Sleep Foundation are banal, but effective.
Go to bed at the same time, sleep with the lights off and away from noise sources. Give up alcohol caffeine and nicotine, maintain physical activity throughout the day, and avoid overwork and stress. This will reduce the number of hypnagogic twitches.
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