I must say, I was a weird child. Let me see if I can explain:
Between the ages of 8, and maybe 13 or 14, I would do this head-rocking thing before I would fall asleep. It would always be in rhythm with whatever music was playing. I had to listen to music to fall asleep. I tried to look this up on the net, but the only thing I can find is ‘Rhythmic movement disorder’ in infants. For me, this was not involuntary, so I’m not sure if this was a disorder or not, and I wasn’t an infant. And I don’t really recall (or remember) doing this before the ages of 8 or 9. A few times, my parents would walk in on me because the music may have been loud enough for them to hear. I did not know this, as my eyes were closed and I was focused on the music, while rocking my head from left to right. They were concerned about this, but didn’t really see and immediate concern and thought I would phase out of it. After about my mid teens, I stopped the rocking thing, but continued to listen to the radio, as I could not sleep with out it, up until maybe 18 or so. Now at 23, I still listen to the radio, but only to radio talk shows, at low volume.
Anyone else like this? My grandmother thought for sure there was something wrong with me, because whenever I had a sleepover at her house, I would have a Walkman with headphones and rock my self to sleep. Surely I can’t be alone in this…
You’re probably not alone. I, too, listened to the radio as a child while trying to fall asleep, and I still remember my Radio Shack AM radio in the shape of a cocker spaniel. The nobs were on it’s belly, which in retrospect, seems kinda weird- Almost teat-like. I would listen almost every night, and that continued until I was in high school. I have fallen asleep with headphones on, too. I don’t ever recall rocking my head back and forth, though.
My bedtime ritual bizarrity was dry washing my feet (like dry washing your hands, only with your feet, eh!). I could not bear to sleep with socks on because I liked to wiggle my toes, rub my feet together, and rub them against the sheets. I still do this, and I think it secretly disturbs my husband. He’s a big advocate of socks in bed.
A lot of people do the foot-rubbing thing, and find it soothing. I’ve heard that it starts in the womb.* DangerDad and I have both been known to do it, though I don’t have to be barefoot (DDad hates socks in bed, maybe we should trade!).
I used to rock myself to sleep when I was younger, maybe up until age of 10 or so. I recall seeing later in some class that they find this alot in kids whose folks smoked heavily. Maybe also in orphans, but I’ll have to research it a bit.
That’s just the thing. The disorder you quoted seems to be a rocking, or head-banging during sleep (the beginning and end of the sleep phase). I would just do the rocking thing before I actually fell asleep, voluntarily. Never have I ever had the side-effects listed above. Just to clarify too, I’m not trying to point out that listening to music is weird, just the rocking part.
I never rocked to music but I need, absolutely NEED some sort of noise to fall asleep to. I cannot fall asleep in total quiet. Right now, I listen to both a lullabye (for my daughter) and a gurgling stream sound (for me). I used to have this floor fan from Sam’s Club (formerly Price Club) that sounded like a muted airplane engine. I loved that fan! I could hear NOTHING but this fan… NO ANNOYING DOGS or motorcycles in the dead of night. Only bad thing was I’d wonder if I’d miss hearing someone break into my bedroom at night so there were times I couldn’t get to sleep very easily. My stupid ex-husband broke it during a fight (he was drunk and he tried throwing it at me, nice huh?) so I lost my wonderful fan sniff. I surely miss that muted, soothing hum.
My little brother rocks his head back and forth while falling asleep, and has as long as I can remember (he’s 11 now). He also needs some sort of music to fall asleep, though what kind of music doesn’t seem to matter (he changes CDs every so often). He is perfectly capable of falling asleep without it (though not easily, I’m guessing), but he’s convinced he really needs it, so it’s probably just an outgrowable habit, similiar to thumb sucking. Still, it’s annoying whenever we have to share a room, and I have to wait until he falls asleep before the head rocking shuffle noise stops.
Yeah my cousin did that and I actually picked it up of of him and in fact I liked it a lot, but that’s because I was and still am a fidgety person. In face I do it a lot to this day as it seems to provide sum relief from headaches.
As for that disorder **ShibbOleth/b], it’s quite preposterous. The condition it was describing is clearly of the demonic possession sort.
My younger sister (we shared a room) did the head banging thing. She would lift her head up and thump it back down on her pillow. It started fairly young, probably about 4-5. I don’t know if she still does it, I moved out when she was 15, and I have never really thought about it until now. I used to fall asleep to that every night, maybe that is why I have to have a fan on when I sleep.