🛌 Waking Up Twitching - What is Hypnic Jerk? Learn in 5 Steps
Our adventure of falling asleep with the sound of our mother's voice ❤️ when we are just a baby continues throughout our lives. Sleep is a human need that affects our lives to a great extent, even if we do not realize it. While some of us cannot get enough sleep, some of us say
"a few hours of sleep is more than enough for me."
But see, what matters is not how many hours we sleep, but how quality we sleep. While we are thinking about this concept of quality sleep, the concept of hypnic jerk is slowly being introduced into our lives.
What is Hypnic Jerk?
You are in the deepest part of sleep, or you have just gone to bed and are about to drift off into a sweet sleep, what is that? You are falling rapidly downwards from a very high place. As a reaction to this situation, your limbs contract, move independently of you, and you suddenly wake up with a start.
This is what you are experiencing: Hypnic Jerk! It is also called “Sleep onset tremor” or “hypnagogic tremor”. It is usually severe enough to wake you up from sleep. Very few people continue to sleep after this event, but in any case, it reduces the quality of sleep. Well, but what are the reasons for this problem? Is it psychological? Is it physiological? Or is it completely random?
What Causes Hypnic Jerk?
Psychologist Frederick Coolidge from the University of Colorado says, as a result of his research,
"Hypnic Jerk may be caused by a reflex from the past." Since our ancestors spent most of their days in trees to protect themselves from predators, being startled while falling asleep provided them with the advantage of checking whether they were safe. Those who experienced Hypnic Jerk in the evolutionary process; While those who survive, live longer and have more chances to reproduce, those who do not are eliminated. Therefore, it may have been passed on to subsequent generations as a feature that increases the chance of survival. Based on this thesis, it is claimed that Hypnic Jerk is an evolutionary feature inherited from our ancestors. Of course, it would be a shame if we said that Hypnic Jerk is entirely the fault of genes. What we have said so far are actually the least likely ones. 60-70% of the reason for this situation is you. Some of the situations where you unknowingly drag your body into this problem are as follows:
- Consuming excessive nicotine and caffeine (tobacco products, coffee, cola, etc.)
- Being under intense stress
- Side effects of the drugs used
- Exercises done late in the evening
- Irregular sleep
- Falling asleep immediately after eating
These are the most basic causes of Hypnic Jerk.
What is Hypnic Twitch?
Hypnic twitching is actually a part of Hypnic Jerk, as we explained at the beginning of the topic. The involuntary movement of the limbs due to Hypnic Jerk is called Hypnic Twitching. These twitches are not movements desired by the person, they occur involuntarily. Hypnic Jitter develops when two parts of the brain lose communication with each other. While you close your eyes and prepare for sleep, a part of your brain is not yet ready for it.
While one side of your brain sends sleep to your eyes, the other side thinks you're sitting still. When this is the case and you suddenly close your eyes, the other part of your brain thinks that you are dead, not actually sleeping, and the brain sends a twitch to your limbs in response to this, we call this Hypnic Twitching. This often happens to people who suffer from insomnia and have had a tired day. It may even become a habit in people who constantly try to prevent the body's sleep system from activating. You need to prevent this situation. Let's look at ways to get rid of "Hypnic Jerk and Hypnic Twitching".
How to Prevent Hypnic Jerk?
- Exercise is extremely important for our health, but premature exercise can reduce sleep quality. Exercising late at night will accelerate the blood circulation in your body and bring vitality to your body during the hours when you should actually be sleeping; It will make you lose sleep. While you wait for sleep to come again, you will disrupt the sleep synchronization between your brain and body, reducing your sleep quality and causing Hypnic Jerk. Before going to bed; You should be careful not to exercise late at night.
- Everything in our lives actually consists of habits. When you do something the same way over and over again, your brain codes it for itself and turns it into a task, thus improving your quality of life. It's the same for sleep. If you don't have a sleep routine, set one for yourself. Like taking a warm shower, reading a book, or drinking milk before going to bed. After doing these activities, focus only on sleep. After a while your brain says; It will give you signals that you need to sleep after reading a book. This way, you will establish a sleep routine. Before the signals of sleep actually reach our eyes directly, you will remind our brain that it is time to sleep, thanks to the activity you do, and you will adapt your brain to sleep. In this way, you will reduce the Hypnic Jerk effect by sleeping regularly, comfortably and easily.
- Where and under what conditions you sleep is as important as how you sleep. For example, my brother can hardly fall asleep anywhere other than his own bed. Up to this point, I have explained what you need to do to your brain, but external factors also have great effects on our sleep. Keeping the lights on in the room where you sleep and stimulating factors such as television and telephones keep our minds open. The light burning in your room signals to your brain that it is not yet time to sleep. Sleeping in front of the TV is one of the poorest ways to sleep. Even if you say that you are not paying attention, your brain tries to perceive the sounds coming from the television even while you are asleep. While your body is asleep, your brain will still consider you awake, causing you to become Hypnic Jerk.
- Stimulating substances such as caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes cause sleep disorders. Caffeine, chocolate, coffee, tea, etc. Foods consumed cause stimulation of the brain and cause loss of sleep. Smoking and alcohol consumption also negatively affect your sleep. You can minimize the possibility of Hypnic Jerk by staying away from such food, beverages, alcohol and tobacco products late at night.
- In our age, it is almost impossible to live without stress, but it is in our hands to control our stress. Uncontrollable stress will disrupt your sleep patterns and cause health problems beyond Hypnic Jerk. You should try to stay away from stress and relax yourself spiritually by doing a little meditation before going to bed.
What is Parasomnia?
Parasomnia, also known as sleep terror. So, what is sleep terror, Parasomnia? It is generally more common in children aged 5-7. The phenomenon in which children in this age group wake up from sleep in a fearful manner, scream, breathe rapidly and sweat is called Parasomnia. Night terror attacks usually occur 2-3 hours after sleep begins. It takes approximately 20 seconds to 5 minutes. Within 15 minutes at the latest, the child calms down and falls asleep spontaneously without being fully awake. The child becomes unresponsive and disconnected from the environment during the attack. It usually occurs once a night and does not recur. There may be delirium, sighing, and moaning during sleep after the attack. If parasomnia recurs very frequently, the times should be noted and followed. Parasomnia usually recurs at the same time, so you can interrupt your sleep by setting an alarm. If your child sleeps very frequently, you can take precautions by taking note of the hours and waking your child calmly and cautiously at those hours.
