Sometimes when I am really tired and go to bed I start to fall asleep almost at the moment I put my head on the pillow. A few minutes later, when I am on that state between being awake and sleeping I am awakened by a really strong feeling of an electric shock (or maybe having a really strong band-aid being pulled out) from the middle of my chest. I never had seizures, and the only power outlet near by my bed is quite close to the ground. Is that normal? It happened quite a few times already.
I’ve had it happen too. For me, its kind of a short loud buzzing sound. From little I’ve managed to find online, it seems to be harmless. I am prone to migraines, and I think it may be a mild migraine or related symptom caused by being really tired.
I am also really prone to migraines. I can’t really describe the feeling, it is also a loud noise, and I lose the air in my lungs. Does this thing have a name?
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The question of what this might be is a factual question. However, the question of what to do about it is more like medical advice. Let’s move this over to IMHO so that both aspects of the topic may be addressed.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
I am not a doctor, but I believe these are called “myoclonic jerks”. They are fairly common, and can be completely harmless or can be a sign of something that needs addressed (like epilepsy). You’ll have to see a doctor to find out whether or not something needs to be done about yours.
Wikipedia page:
Thank you very much! I will go to the doctor tomorrow, so I will ask him about that. It is funny, I can almost feel the “energy” forming inside my chest before I go to bed…
I’ve always felt like it was falling off something rather than a shock. I hate that.
I never used to have these, but developed them over the past ten years or so. Now, darn near every night. Irritating!
Shakes: I always thought of it as an “electric shock” effect…but, yeah, it does kind of feel like the instinctive tightening of the muscles that accompanies losing one’s balance and starting to fall.
It seems to be common enough. Not necessarily that it happens often (normally), but that a large number of people experience this at least once in a while.
The sensation of falling is apparently familiar enough that it was made into a meme in the move Inception several years ago, along with a variety of other odd sleep-experience memes that the viewing audience would be expected to “relate” to. (ETA: The falling and electric shock memes were both used in the movie, along with many others.)
I asked my doctor about this once, and he immediately exclaimed: “Hypnic jerk!”
Of course, I thought he was calling me names, so I punched him in the face.
I fall asleep without any problem about 99% of the time, but once in a while I’ll have a night where I get these in rapid succession and it is incredibly annoying. It’s rare enough that I haven’t been able to figure out a specific trigger, but it feels exactly like an electric shock to me.