• Question: When we are in that half asleep half awake sensation, does the falling sensation occur because of you position, or your subconscious thoughts?

    Asked by to Laurence, Greig, Aimee on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      If you are referring to the sensation of falling that sometimes happens just as you are falling asleep and that causes you to ‘jump’ and often abruptly awake, I just learnt that has a very fancy name: ‘hypnic jerk’ !!

      So apparently this happens in the early stages of sleep, and is more frequent under the age of 12. The reason why it happens is not well-known, but it’s possible that it was favoured by evolution because when we were still living in trees, people who woke up abruptly with a falling sensation as they were falling asleep were more likely to re-adjust their position and so not fall down the tree while sleeping. Pretty cool!

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      As Laurance said, this is called a “hypnic jerk”, or hypnic myoclonia. It is caused by involuntary muscle twitches as the body is relaxing just before sleep, and so is very easily disturbed. It can be brought on by things ,such as anxiety, bad sleeping patterns or caffine before bed.

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