The person shudders when falling asleep. Why a person can twitch when falling asleep and in a dream - disturbing causes of startle

Many are faced with such a process as shuddering of the body at the time of falling asleep or in a dream. Why is this happening? Not so long ago, a scientific explanation for the phenomenon was provided.

General information about the sleep process

The study of the nature of dreams began actively in the 20th century. Scientists have found that sleep is a complex multifaceted process that is divided into several phases. Many are faced with the fact that in the evening they simply fall down from fatigue, nervous tension, and think that they will fall asleep literally within two minutes. It's a delusion. A person falls into sleep gradually, even after a busy day full of events. It takes about two hours to go from one phase to another.

The body twitches violently during sleep, most often in children and people with chronic fatigue. Let's analyze each situation separately.

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Why do people talk in their sleep?

Why does a child twitch in a dream?

The baby shudders when falling asleep because his sleep phases are different from adults. In adults, deep sleep lasts an average of 2.5 hours, in a child - only an hour. During the superficial phase, or, as it is also called, drowsiness, the baby moves his arms, legs, says something, smiles and even laughs. His consciousness, brain are actively working, and everything that he imagines is displayed in reality. It is not necessary to wake the child at this moment, this is fraught with severe fright, stress.

Why does one have it every night, and the other - once every six months? It's all about the temperament of the baby, the level mental development state of the central nervous system. Some children easily "throw everything out of their heads", while others experience the moment again and again.

To help the baby calmly immerse himself in the kingdom of Morpheus, you can use:

Warm bath half an hour before bedtime. It would be nice to add soothing herbs (mint, sage);
Comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Optimally - 20 degrees of heat;
After reading a good story before going to bed, chat for a few minutes about pleasant trifles.

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Why is the tongue numb?

Why does an adult twitch when he falls asleep?

For those who live according to the regime, lead a measured calm life, such a phenomenon is a rarity.

But those who work overtime experience psychological discomfort, often shuddering at the moment of falling asleep. The thing is that a person, being in the stage of REM sleep, reacts sharply to any stimuli: the light outside the window or in the next room, the breath of the wind, loud music - whatever. The muscles of the body contract unconsciously. This is the body's standard defense against external influences. In people with severe nervous work such protection is very strong.

The feeling of shuddering or twitching of the muscles when falling asleep or during sleep is not uncommon in both children and adults; this phenomenon may be initial symptom epilepsy (Simmonds myoclonus) or simple hypnogogic twitching of muscle groups: sometimes a person wakes up from a sharp push, which in a dream is seen as a fall, a collision with something.

Origin

There are several theories that explain why a person shudders while falling asleep. Immersion in sleep in humans is accompanied by a decrease in the frequency of heartbeat and respiration, a decrease in the activity of all body systems. For the brain, it's like a little death. And in order to check “whether the owner is alive”, he sends impulses to the motor structures. Complete relaxation of the muscles can be interpreted as a fall, so a startle is an attempt by the brain to wake a person up and warn him of danger.

Scientists also define hypnogogic seizures as a response to stress. For example, students during a session have more interrupted, restless, and often accompanied by twitching sleep.

Or it could be a manifestation of restless leg syndrome. A person complains of a feeling of discomfort with the muscles of the lower leg (itching, burning, tingling, pain of a pressing or bursting nature). Moreover, such sensations are more pronounced in the evening hours or at night. During sleep, rhythmic movements of the lower limbs often appear: they are stereotyped, repetitive; most often accompanied by flexion or spread of the toes or movement of the entire foot. Sometimes the condition progresses and passes to the upper limbs.

With insufficient nutrition of muscle tissue, seizures may occur. This compensatory mechanism is designed to increase blood flow to a specific area, which improves trophism and eliminates the cause of "starvation".

Myoclonic jerks in epilepsy

Simmonds nocturnal myoclonus is registered in half of patients with epilepsy. These are stable seizures that occur predominantly at night and are prone to progression. In the future, they can be replaced by tonic seizures of a generalized and focal nature.

Twitching can be limited to one muscle group, or it can affect several at once. They also often change their localization: one night an arm or both legs may twitch, and the second the mimic muscles of the face are already involved. Myoclonus may be asymmetric, or it may affect friendly muscle groups; the joint is rarely affected. The appearance of seizures may be associated with an acute lack of oxygen in the brain tissues, the presence of pathological epileptic impulses, or degenerative changes in cells (which is more typical for older people).

Hypnogogic twitches

The real reasons for this phenomenon are not known.
still. In the Middle Ages, shuddering while falling asleep was called the touch of the devil.

Now scientists have disagreed: some believe that convulsions appear during the change from one phase of sleep to another; and others sin on the hypothalamus. This part of the brain reacts to changes in the rate of breathing and heartbeat and sends signals to make sure that "everything is going according to plan." Thanks to sharp muscle contractions, the vital activity of the body is checked.

Sleep apnea is more common in children. At the same time, the child sweats when falling asleep, restless, rushing about in a dream. The dreams of a child are different from the dreams of adults. The subconscious of children is not so heavily loaded with experiences and consequences of nervous overstrain.

In the structure of the brain there are two systems that are opposite in their activity. The reticular activating system is most "energetic" during wakefulness, responds to vital functions (breathing and heartbeat), and is located in the brainstem. But the nucleus of the hypothalamus is responsible for the process of falling asleep and regulates the phases of sleep. At the end of the working day, the second system is activated, and the person gradually goes to sleep. But the first system is not going to give up so easily and fights for control over movements. And therefore, against the background of falling asleep, legs and arms twitch, sudden movements appear, convulsions are myoclonic in nature. Sometimes these sensations are built into sleep, which is manifested by a feeling of flying or falling.

sleep paralysis

In case of violations of the system "awakening-falling asleep" sleep paralysis can occur. This is a frightening phenomenon, which is accompanied by a feeling of lack of air, fear of death, hallucinations.

Sleep paralysis occurs because the brain "gets ahead" of the body. In fact, you have already woken up, but the processes of motor activity have not yet started. From here, there are sensations of stopping breathing, suffocation, "the feeling that someone is sitting on me, my heart stops, I suffocate, my legs do not obey." Panic fear can cause visual and auditory hallucinations that are hostile in nature. The more impressionable the person, the more obvious these visions. Someone sees flashes of light, someone frightening creatures, and some describe furry paws that squeeze the neck or chest.

Getting rid of sleep paralysis as soon as possible is possible with full awareness of what is happening. Prevention methods include normalizing the sleep cycle, active physical exercises and reduction of stressful situations.

How to get rid of twitches

If startling in sleep is a sign of epilepsy, then successfully apply drug treatment clonazepam, carbamazepine, valproate acid in injection or oral form. Good results are obtained by the use of neuroleptics.

If muscle twitching is a reaction to sleep disturbance or stress, then it is better to do prevention.

Try to adjust the sleep pattern: it is better to fall asleep at the same time in a well-ventilated room without annoying stimuli. Before going to bed, it is better to avoid overeating, as this does not contribute to easy sleep and calm awakening.

Of course, it would be ideal to try to avoid stressful situations and protect the nervous system. You can take light sedatives before going to bed: tincture of valerian or motherwort.

Watching a sleeping person at night, you can see how he shudders or twitches in his sleep. These movements may involve the entire body, the legs, or may originate in small muscles. But they do not always lead to awakening. In the morning, after waking up, the body is fresh and full of energy. Is this normal or pathological? why man twitching in your sleep?

Waking up while falling asleep is medically called hypnogagic twitching.

The physiology of sleep has not yet been well studied, but there are many studies showing how a person falls asleep, what happens to the body at this time. Muscle movements are not always a sign of a disease. For example, eye movements are observed during REM sleep. Some people experience muscle twitches at the same time. There are several reasons why people move when they sleep.

Norm or pathology

If a person shudders in a dream, then this may be a physiological reaction of the body or a sign of a disease. Startles are often observed in children. They are associated with the imperfection of the nervous system of the child and the fact that the sleep of a child differs from that of an adult in the duration of the phases.

Physiological movements associated with sleep

Motor activity of the muscles can occur during the transition from one stage of sleep to another. The stages differ from each other by the different activity of the cells of the nervous and muscular systems. Phase change does not occur immediately and muscle twitching is a phase conflict. This is why a person twitches when falling asleep. The same movements can be during the transition from the stage slow sleep to fast.

It is interesting! There is a hypothesis that sleep is like training before death. The heartbeat slows down, breathing slows down, the muscles are relaxed. The brain perceives this as death and sends a pulse to the muscles to check if its owner is alive.

Everyone noticed that during an uncomfortable posture, numbness, “goosebumps”, tingling may occur in the limbs, this is due to blood flow disorders. The body has receptors that respond to reduced blood flow. They send an impulse to the central nervous system, which causes muscle contractions and a change in body position. Startle in bedridden patients is associated with impaired blood flow, in such cases it is necessary to stretch their muscles or massage them.

Strong physical activity and stress before bedtime can also cause involuntary movements. After active work, the muscles cannot completely relax. Therefore, the impulses sent by the brain and causing them to twitch help relieve stress and fall asleep. Night terrors are also accompanied by shuddering, screaming or crying. People twitch with an external stimulus (sound, touch) when they take a nap. Snoring is also a reason leading to a motor reaction, as the level of oxygen in the blood decreases, and the brain tries to wake the person up.

Movement in sleep is a symptom of the disease

If movements in a dream disturb a person, he often wakes up, feels tired in the morning, then this may be a sign of illness. These diseases include:

Restless legs syndrome. The patient feels tingling, “goosebumps”, numbness in the legs, in severe cases they spread to the body and hands. Usually the attack begins at night, at rest. There is a desire to move the legs, stretch them. The disease is caused by a malfunction of the dopaminergic system. It is necessary to address to the neuropathologist.

Restless legs syndrome is manifested by paresthesia in lower limbs and their excessive motor activity during sleep

Syndrome of periodic movements of the lower extremities or nocturnal myoclonus. The patient bends the legs at the ankle, knee, less often hip joints and unbends thumb, movements are periodically repeated after 10–80 seconds. The patient may wake up, but not even remember that he was moving. The diagnosis is made after polysomnography.
"Sleep epilepsy" - a rare case of epilepsy, seizures occur when the patient falls asleep. Convulsions cover the whole body.
Nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia. May lead to attacks of involuntary movements in the limbs that occur at night or upon awakening. They can be short or last up to 1 hour. The movements are active, sharp, injuries are possible. The disease is poorly understood, resembles epilepsy and is treated in the same way.
Bruxism is contraction of the jaw muscles or "teeth grinding". It can occur in both adults and children. Do not drink coffee or smoke before going to bed. Caffeine and nicotine enhance it.
Neurological diseases (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, senile dementia, and others) can also cause legs to twitch during sleep.
Reception medicines(antipsychotics, some antidepressants, lithium preparations).

All these diseases should be treated only under the supervision of a doctor, because in most cases drugs are prescribed that must be taken according to a certain scheme, their dosage is individual, they have contraindications and side effects.

What to do if you twitch when you sleep

If you find yourself experiencing symptoms of the above diseases that cause persistent sleep disturbances, then you need to visit a doctor. He will conduct additional studies in order to make a diagnosis. A good result is obtained by examination on a polysomnograph. This device registers muscle contractions while a person is sleeping, which helps to make a diagnosis.

Polysomnography is modern method diagnosing sleep disorders

When movements at night in a dream, due to physiology, treatment is not required. Only in cases where they interfere with a good night's sleep or are associated with constant nightmares, you can contact a specialist to prescribe sleeping pills. But it's better to try:

properly organize your day;
avoid too active physical exertion;
do not overeat before bed;
create a comfortable environment (muffled light, quiet music);
take a bath with decoctions of medicinal herbs;
drink mint tea or warm milk at night.

Startles when falling asleep and in a dream do not always speak of an illness - this is a normal physiological reaction of the body that does not require treatment. But if there is a suspicion of an illness, or against this background a person does not get enough sleep, depression appears, one should consult a specialist.

When a startle occurs when falling asleep in adults, the reasons may be different. These include both heavy chronic diseases, and normal physiological processes that do not harm health.

Why is this happening?

The mechanism of seizures during sleep is still not fully understood.

It can appear at the moment when the body moves from a state of wakefulness to a phase of REM sleep. During this period, all physiological processes slow down: breathing becomes superficial, slows down heartbeat.

The brain regards such a situation as a threat to life. To activate the organs, it sends nerve impulses to certain muscle groups. The result is twitching or spasm.

There is an opinion that a similar phenomenon can occur at the moment when the phase of REM sleep passes into the phase of slow sleep. The phase change is accompanied by a change in brain activity and can provoke spasms and twitches. Often at this moment people wake up and then cannot fall asleep for a long time.

Psychologists tend to explain spasms and twitches of the body during falling asleep and during sleep by the workload of the nervous system, chronic stress, a person’s inability to relax and get rid of problems in the evening. At the time of going to bed, the brain continues to analyze the events of the past day, and increased activity of the central nervous system can cause involuntary muscle contractions.

Most often, a person's arms, shoulders, and lower limbs twitch, but sometimes a cramp can shake the whole body. Nevertheless, most doctors believe that such a phenomenon can be considered a physiological norm, since it does not bring tangible harm to health.

Myoclonic convulsions

Quite often, startling when falling asleep, doctors explain myoclonic convulsions.

They are characterized by irregular twitching of the limbs during sleep or immediately after falling asleep.

It is believed that the following negative factors can provoke myoclonus:

asphyxia of the brain;
unreasonable refusal of sedative or antihypertensive drugs;
psychological disorders;
pathological processes occurring in the nervous system;
depression;
chronic stress.

If such symptoms occur rarely enough, they can be considered as the norm, but if they enter the system, you need to look for the cause of myoclonus and eliminate it.

restless leg syndrome

Doctors explain that a common reason why a person shudders in a dream is restless leg syndrome, otherwise known as Ekbom's syndrome.

This is a sensorimotor disorder that is characterized by unpleasant, sometimes painful sensations in the lower extremities, which appear most often at rest (in the evening and at night). They force a person to make chaotic movements with their feet that alleviate the condition, which leads to night tremors and sleep disturbance.

The appearance of such symptoms may indicate the presence of pathological abnormalities in the body. These include:

dysfunction thyroid gland;
diabetes 1 and 2 types;
chronic heart failure;
severe renal pathology;
uremia;
circulatory disorders;
diseases of the musculoskeletal system.

In these cases, night tremors and convulsions are only symptoms of diseases, so you need to seek medical care and treat the diseases that caused them.

Often, twitches of various parts of the body are observed in pregnant women, especially on later dates. After childbirth, the symptoms go away on their own.

Some older people are also familiar with this problem.

How to get rid of twitches?

To determine the reason why a person twitches when falling asleep, you must first visit a doctor and undergo an examination. The specialist will help to exclude neuropsychiatric diseases that can provoke these symptoms. Perhaps they will require drug therapy.

With beriberi, lack of iron, potassium, calcium or magnesium, the doctor will recommend vitamin and mineral complexes or special preparations containing the necessary trace elements.

If myoclonic convulsions occur due to mental causes (nervous breakdown, prolonged stress, chronic sleep deprivation), your doctor may recommend a course of sedatives. Without contacting a specialist at night, you can take tinctures of valerian and motherwort, which have a sedative and mild hypnotic effect.

In order for convulsions in a dream in adults to occur as rarely as possible or completely stop, you need to properly organize the culture of night rest.

It is important to always follow the regime and go to bed at the same time, preferably at 23:00.
You can not watch TV at night, especially films and programs that excite the nervous system. It is advisable not to sit too long at the computer. If possible, you need to remove this technique from the bedroom, the phone is no exception.
Before going to bed, most doctors recommend taking a leisurely walk in the fresh air or at least doing some simple gymnastic or breathing exercises on the balcony. This will help you fall asleep quickly.
If there is no desire to walk, you can listen to light music, read a book, meditate.
The bedroom must be ventilated, and in the warm season, leave the window open at night.
Just before going to bed, it is advisable to take a warm bath with aromatic salt or essential oil lavender, rosemary, mint, citrus.
You need to sleep in pajamas made from natural fabrics. This also applies to bed linen - it should be cotton or linen. To prevent cramps due to the fact that the legs are cold, you can wear thin socks.
If a person often wakes up due to cramps that have arisen due to an uncomfortable body position, you need to purchase a good orthopedic mattress, which should be moderately hard and guarantee a natural physiological posture during sleep.
Great importance has complete darkness and silence in the bedroom. The sleep hormone melatonin, which affects health, is produced only in the complete absence of light and sound. Under these conditions, the brain quickly relaxes, falling asleep occurs quickly, the body and nervous system fully rest, which helps to get rid of night cramps.
If people startle at night due to a deficiency of potassium, magnesium and calcium, they need to enrich the daily menu with greens, vegetables, milk and fermented milk products. In addition, it is necessary to reduce the consumption of drinks that contain a large number of caffeine and have the ability to stimulate the activity of the nervous system.

Thus, following simple rules will help get rid of night cramps, spasms and twitches and will help improve the quality of sleep.

Dream like effective remedy combat fatigue

Ah, this sweet anticipation of the end of the working day! After performing professional duties at work and having dealt with all household chores and household chores around the house, you really want to plunge into the world of sweet dreams and gentle, pleasantly enveloping you, languor! How I want to forget and get rid of all everyday needs and worries, mmm! So you crave at least for a while to swap a colorful dream and a cruel, sometimes even incredibly harsh, reality! One involuntarily recalls the saying from William Shakespeare's immortal tragedy "Hamlet" - "To forget, to fall, to fall asleep, to fall asleep and dream..." That most cherished moment would come faster!!!
But sleep can also be fraught with some minor annoyances and rough edges. A person lies down in bed, plunges into a sweet long-awaited slumber .... and suddenly shudders sharply for no apparent reason! And not because you had a nightmare. This phenomenon was the reason for the removal of the problem “ Why do you twitch when you fall asleep” for consideration among a large audience of the population. By banal reason the relaxed body tensed in an incomprehensible way and served as an impetus to suddenly emerge from the sweet embraces of Morpheus. Of course, the presence of pleasant moments under a given circumstance can be determined as a small fraction, i.e. a drop in the sea. It is extremely uncomfortable when you have to twitch as soon as you start to fall asleep. And it’s good if such incidents happen quite rarely. More terrifying is the fact that a number of people have body twitches every day in the process of falling asleep. It is worth understanding why such an incident happens, and whether there are ways to deal with it. By the way, we have a more extensive article about convulsions called “” - we suggest reading it.

Reasons why a person, falling asleep, twitches

According to scientific research, it is fashionable to distinguish several stages of sleep. In another way, they can be interpreted as phases of sleep. Thanks to the comprehensive feeling of fatigue accumulated during the working day, you are easily subject to a false sensation of lightning-fast going to sleep. However, in reality it is not so at all. The process of departing into the arms of Morpheus occurs gradually. On average, it has been calculated that in order to enter the phase of long-term sleep, a person needs to roughly count on a time period of one and a half to two hours. It is at this moment that the startle occurs, or, according to scientific terminology, the contraction of the muscles of the body. There are a number of reasons for the unpleasant fact of a muscle tick when a person falls asleep. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Causes of startling in a dream in children, ways to deal

Baby twitches when falling asleep. Seeing such twitching, many parents begin to become overly worried about the question of why the child twitches when falling asleep. But before contacting a specialist, one should take into account the fact and always keep it in service, that the dream of a little man differs significantly from the sleep of an adult, formed personality. For example, the phase of deep sleep in mature people lasts an average of 2-3 hours, and this phase is inherent in a child in a volume that is half that, that is, only 1 hour. Further, deep sleep alternates with superficial. At this peak moment, the baby tends to move his arms and legs, the appearance of a smile on his face or the inarticulate muttering of some unintelligible phrases. There is nothing out of the ordinary in this situation, and it is absolutely not a reason to sound the alarm and “blow all the horns”. If a child twitches before going to bed, then this phenomenon is a consequence of the fact that he has not yet entered the long phase, and the dreams that accompany him are on the surface of consciousness. At the moment, it is not recommended to wake the baby, because. awakening can cause feeling unwell and harm the health of the child.

The best option in this situation would be to provide favorable conditions for restful sleep. All possible assistance in this you can provide: - bathing in a bath with soothing herbs; - creating a temperature level in the room that favors the full functioning of the body (18-21 degrees); Leave a night light turned on at night with soft, unobtrusive lighting. As you can see, there is nothing supernatural in the fact that a newborn twitches when falling asleep. Do not panic in advance and for no reason! Save your own nerves, because nerve cells by no means state-owned, and they do not have the ability to recover after a certain period of time !!!
Why do adults tend to twitch when they fall asleep? Personalities leading healthy lifestyle life, are less likely to experience this phenomenon. The frequency of shuddering directly depends on the sensitivity of sleep. At the moment when the body ceases to feel even the slightest touch, plunging into the phase of rapid sleep, any external stimulus, presented in the form of a loud deafening sound or a breath of wind, can become an excessively harsh factor for the body. As a result, muscles can involuntarily contract as a sign of protection from the negative impact of external stimuli.

Healthy sleep lengthens life and reduces working time

Most people who constantly ask themselves the question “Why do I twitch when I fall asleep?” Should pay attention to the lifestyle they lead. The main causes of uncontrolled and involuntary startling in a dream include moral overstrain, excessive physical exertion, fatigue, stress, an excess of adrenaline in the blood, anxiety, anxiety, strong excitement, quarrels, conflicts, etc. The autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for the rational distribution of such loads in the body, sometimes it is not able to cope with the above phenomena, therefore, during a smooth transition to the phase of long sleep, the muscles involuntarily contract, trying to reach a level of relaxation. At the same time, the factor described above is the reason why the legs twitch, barely touching the pillow with the head. On a subconscious level, startles can also “visit” a person with the help of dreams in the form of flights, reminiscent of soaring under the very heavens, or a swift and sudden fall from a bird's eye view.

Scientific judgments regarding the manifestation of myoclonus

To date, modern scientists and psychologists have other thoughts regarding the explanation of myoclonus - rapid startling during entry into the "sleepy kingdom". According to one of the medical theories, myoclonus helps to relax all the muscles of the body.
After scientific research and experiments, it becomes obvious that a person shudders when he falls asleep after an emotionally difficult and stressful day at work. An organism that experiences serious psychological and physical stress all day long significantly reduces muscle relaxation at night. As a consequence of this circumstance, the brain tends to create lightning-fast impulses that serve as a support for muscle contraction, after which the muscles fully relax. As for light, easy dreams, they accompany in parallel shudders (a blow or a fall can serve as a good example) created by our brains as a preventive barrier so as not to completely disturb our sleep.

Preventive measures against nervous startling during sleep

In order to finally understand the cause of the startle, gradually turning into an ordinary, ordinary and everyday phenomenon, the fact that a person must independently ask himself the question “why do I start to fall asleep and twitch” and analyze all the facts and events preceding such a reaction of the body deserves attention , in which there is total absence inner harmonious mental along with the spiritual substance. Perhaps you should reduce the level of certain types of physical and psychological stress and, if possible, keep as far as possible from sources of stress and external stimuli.

If such phenomena can be classified as a detachment of rare guests of your body, therefore, there is not the slightest thing to worry about and you should not load your body with all sorts of manifestations. panic attack. When in stressful situations or satiating the body physical activity as optimal preventive recommendations, the most effective of them should be taken into account:
take a relaxing bath with mint, chamomile or sea salt or valerian root;
if such procedures do not have a high effect, and the body continues to twitch, in this case, you should not neglect a visit to the doctor for qualified specialist advice.

By the way, our online magazine recently widely covered a rather delicate issue “” - we recommend that you read it.

Healthy and sound sleep to you, ladies and gentlemen!