This generally happens to me about twice a year however I’ve just gone two nights in a row putting up with this most unpleasant method of waking up. It’s not often I’m actually punching or kicking with any force although it has happened on occasion. The last two were really forceful and I have sore leg muscles as well. I’ll mention it to my doctor when I go for a check up in January.
Almost every time it happens I’m having a dream that begins with a verbal confrontation that escalates into violence then I’m thrashing about in my bed beating the crap out of my pillow. Good thing I’m single eh? Anybody else had to put up with this nonsense? Did you ever find out a cause or is it just one of those things?
Undesirable movements and so on during or just before/after sleep are called parasomnias and there are a lot of them. In any event, it gives you something to Google if nobody more knowledgeable turns up.
My recollection is that they are grossly divided into 1) primary and secondary by whether they are caused by some kind of disturbance of the sleep cycle itself or are secondary to some other kind of physical problem; and 2) REM stage, non-REM stage, and transition disorders.
Under stress I sleepwalk (which is primary, non-REM) and with or without stress I talk in my sleep (primary, transition) and under all consitions I am very curious which is how I know. I have no other expertise. But I would indeed bring it up with a doctor because there is some chance that you could hurt yourself and because sometimes it’s a syptom of somethign else entirely – muscle spasms or sleep apnea for instance (to cover a pretty wide range).
I personally have so many insignificant neurological oddities that we didn’t look very far for a cause, but for me it can be made worse by a fever, lack of sleep, and stress.
With me it’s the reverse of the reverse? When I’m severly sleep deprived, (especially when napping), and something happens in the room that makes me want to wake up, I feel like some force is holding me down, keeping me from waking up. I know I’m asleep, and I know I’m trying to wake up, but my body just won’t let itself wake up. It was pretty scarry the first time it happened , but now I realize what’s happening and just make myself wake up more slowly.
On another note, when I end up fighting in a dream, I’ll feel like I’m moving in slow motion, and although I’ll be in a dominant position, and making most of the strikes, they’re very slow and constricted, and not doing much damage.
I awoke to him tenderly kissing up my forearm towards my hand. He turned my hand over, pressed a kiss into the palm and then CHOMP! I yelped and he instantly bolted upright. “Did I just do that?”
“Yes!” I said, laughing and shaking my hand. I asked him what he’d been dreaming, but he didn’t remember. I still think he must have been dreaming he was a vampire.
Just yesterday, I woke up with a start. It was 7:20am and I’d have sworn I heard the doorbell. It was the weird, torn-from-dreaming-sleep sort of awakening. Because of my groggy confusion and funny angle, I misread my alarm clock as 1:20, pretty late in the day and not an unreasonable time for visitors. Heart pounding, I sprang out of bed and threw some clothes on to greet my guest. I went into the kitchen and noticed the clocks with the right time and I knew no one was ringing my bell at 7 on a Saturday morning. I went back to bed.
The same thing happened at 11:30. That time I got up and stayed up. I’ve had some heavy stuff on my mind lately and I can’t help but think that’s what was going on.
I can’t remember what I was dreaming about, but a few weeks ago I punched my wife in the head during my sleep. It really upset me (and her!), and I got worried that I might be even more violent in my sleep in future, but thankfully I’ve never done anything like it since.
I have a friend, though, who ran naked down the street while asleep, thinking his wife was a demon chasing him. Worrying. But very funny.
My husband has attacked me in his sleep - it’s pretty scary to be woken up by someone bigger than you trying to beat you up! Especially when he’s sleeping, and not hearing a word you’re saying in protest/defence! It has happened 3 times so far, and I hope it never happens again! He has never remembered what he was dreaming about, in each case.
Thanks for letting me know I’m not the only randomly violent sleeper everyone. It’s just so odd since I sleep like a corpse the rest of the time. I’m hoping to die in my sleep Rigamarole but if you had the randomly violent sleep issue you might just be able to die kicking and punching while sleeping.
My cousin used to sleepwalk; and sleeptalk; and sleepget up, take the wake-up call from her mother, have a whole conversation and go back to bed, all this without waking up; and sleepdance; and yeah, if anybody was dumb enough to try and wake her up, sleepfight.
Shortly after she started doing it, she slugged her dad a good one that almost knocked him unsconcsious (not to mention damages to the living room library) and we all figured that You Better Not Touch Her When She’s Asleep.
She hasn’t done it for years, thankfully, it was caused by stress.
My mom reports that my father has taken to thrashing around in his sleep. One time he actually punched her in the nose! Now if she has to wake him she pokes him quickly and then jumps back out of range!
For years he snored heavily but I guess he has moved on to other sleep habits.
It used to be that every time I’d try to sleep on a waterbed, I’d have swimming-race dreams and thrash around until myself or whomever was sharing the bed got conked and woken up. It was so exhausting that I just gave up on trying to sleep in water beds, and would head for the couch if that was the only option. It may have been not just from the water bed, but from the stress of sleeping in a strange bed, too (I don’t sleep well at motels, either).
