# Mini seizure weirdness...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-seizure-weirdness/135721>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 7, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-seizure-weirdness/135721 "2002-11-07T15:29:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-seizure-weirdness/135721/1 "2002-11-07T15:29:11Z")

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This is something that’s happened for as long as I remember, but seems to be happening slightly more frequently - twice this morning for instance.

Sometimes if I’m dozing off, maybe just staring to dream, I suddenly get a weird “short circuit” sensation in my brain. The best way I can describe it is that I “hear” a short (maybe a quarter to a half a second) burst of static, and see a flash. It’s enough to make me wake right up again. It’s sometimes (but by no means always) accompanied by the familiar muscle jerk thing that everyone gets – and I don’t get the brain thing happening every time the muscle jerk happens.

As I say, this happened twice this morning - I was in bed, and having had a rather heavy night last night I’d hit the snooze button and was drifting back to sleep on each occasion. The second time, it seemed to start off with a loud “snapping” sound that made me wake up with a jolt.

It also very occasionally happens when I’m not sleeping, but am just tired.

Does anyone else get this, or know what I’m talking about? Or should I see a doctor?

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-seizure-weirdness/135721/2 "2002-11-07T15:47:14Z")

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That should, of course, say “just **starting** to dream”.

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**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-seizure-weirdness/135721/3 "2002-11-07T22:38:51Z")

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Try a Google search on hypnagogic hallucinations.