If Your Body Suddenly Jerks While Falling Asleep, THIS Is What It Means

Imagine you’re asleep, and you’re dreaming of something wonderful. Suddenly, you feel a jerk in your body that wakes you up from your blissful sleep. Frustrating, right?

Why did your body jerk suddenly? Has this ever happened to you?

Scientists claim that it is a common occurrence and they have formulated several theories to figure out what exactly it is and why it happens.

Scientists term this phenomenon as a ‘hypnic jerk’, where people get up suddenly due to various reasons. Some people feel that they are falling from a great height, while others feel as if a demon is trying to choke them while they’re asleep. Though the situations are different, everyone ends up waking up suddenly with a jerk.

One of the theories suggests that these hypnic jerks are a result of a visual perception of falling that people see in their dreams just when they are about to fall asleep. So, there is a possibility that the part of the brain that works on the creation of dreams tries to create a sudden urge to get up, which eventually results in such a scenario.

Usually, this happens when your body is exhausted, and you have fallen asleep out of tiredness. Apparently, the brain processes sleep stages too quickly, and this confuses the body into thinking that the systems are failing. The jerk is caused as a response to the flood of chemicals in the brain. This, in turn, leads to the creation of such a dream, which wakes you up suddenly.

Usually, there is nothing to worry about these hypnic jerks as even if you wake up once, you can simply roll over and go back to sleep. A few factors that can lead to hypnic jerks are emotional stress, high caffeine intake, and sleep deprivation. But, if you suffer from hypnic jerks quite often, and if you find difficulty in falling asleep again after waking up, it is better to talk to your doctor.

Here is a video explaining the causes of hypnic jerks:

When was the last time you encountered a hypnic jerk in your sleep? How did you get up? Was it because of some scary dream? If yes, what was it?

Share your experience in the comments box below.

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Jyotsana RaoBeauty & Lifestyle Writer

 

Jyotsana Rao is an engineering graduate from NIT, Nagpur, who discovered her love for writing during her undergraduate days. She is passionate about writing about everything related to beauty - makeup, fashion, hairstyles, skin care, or hair care and has 4 years of experience on writing in these genres.

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