Do u ever get jolted awake when sleeping?

Does this happen to u?? It has been happening to me more frequently. I will be napping or sleeping and all of a sudden my body gets jolted awake. I don't have a better way of explaining it.... It bothers me because when it happens it feels as though my body is "restarting" like if someone used those electric paddles on ur chest and yelled, "clear!" Lol.

I'm just wondering if other people get this.
*is it a symptom of anxiety?
*is it a side effect of my med?
*should I be worried that this is happening?

Any insight/input would be greatly appreciated as always :)

JJ

I use to have them, more so during times of high anxiety, just as I would start of totally relax and
fall asleep, a jerk like something startled me, when you start to recover these will become less frequent
I haven't had one in a year now, lol probably will tonight. "they will not hurt you".

Larry ***

Hmm, not sure about that, it happens in a phase where the body seems to be asleep but the mind still isn't. It might feel like you are completely asleep. But i tend to get them 30 minutes after I get in bed and not 3 hours into my sleep. Check it out, I'm sure it's something similar atleast.

My experience with this was once I had already been asleep for a while I'd suddenly wake up out of no where looking around wondering why I just woke up? Then I'd worry about that It was definitely during a high stress time & I was having it frequently until coping better with my anxiety. I haven't had it in months now thankfully.

Try working on lowering your stress/anxiety and I bet this symptom will become a thing of the past Best of wishes to you.

I get those quite frequently just before I fall asleep. I've never given them a second thought. The only thing I think about when they happen is that my body is saying, "That's it for today.", and totally relaxing itself.

Hi there,

I would like to contribute to this discussion hopefully with a cure as I suffered the following symptoms:

a) Just when I'm about to fall asleep, I am jolted awake with a pounding heart and I gasp a bit for air as if I forgot to breathe.

b) This continues ad nauseam, all night allowing me to get less than 1 hour of sleep and can persist for days, forcing me to take sleeping pills.

Background
I did extensive research online and have also had blood tests, thyroid test, urine test (results to come soon), lung function test, EKG, echo-gram of the heart, 24 hour holter monitor, allergy test, take-home sleep study (I have no apnea), neurology tests checking oxygen flow to brain and screening for degenerative diseases like ALS. All came back negative although I was insufficient for Vitamin D, so I am taking supplements.

As the days went by (I suffered from this for about 4-5 weeks with my main symptom during the day being shortness in breath), I finally stumbled upon 'Adrenal Fatigue'. This is the failure of our adrenal glands to produce cortisol, the stress response hormone, in adequate quantities, resulting in an internal imbalance of cortisol in our bodies. This can elevate PH levels thus reducing our CO2 tolerance at night; so when we transition from staying awake to light or REM sleep, there is a brief pause where our parasympathetic system takes over (i.e automatic breathing). In this brief pause, in my understanding, PH levels rise as do Co2 levels. If our adrenals are fatigued, our sensitivity to higher PH and Co2 levels, causes us to be jolted awake, just as we fall asleep. This is a fantastic video by an American doctor called Dr. Berg. If you put in "adrenal fatigue shortness in breath" in YouTube search you will find it.

I want to stress something here; always get yourself checked out with some or all of the tests I did above to ensure that you have no underlying condition, but most probably, it is not some underlying condition but instead what I have explained above. So please relax, I know how scary this symptom can be.

Adrenal Fatigue is well documented and all doctors know about it. There are 4 stages to adrenal fatigue and this can be caused/exacerbated by stress in your life-style (even too much exercise can cause it). It is a sneaky one as it creeps up on you and can wreak havoc on your adrenals and eventually, thyroid, causing major sleep disturbance issues.

Solution
So here are a few tangible steps I took immediately when I found out the above and I've started to sleep normally again.

a) Cut out white rice, bread or any processed foods (this is not forever, just until I am healed). This is a big big one, the moment I eat this, I get the same heart palpitations/jolts at night.

b) Your last meal should be no later than 7pm at night; make sure it is light. Some lentils/legumes, fish, or chicken but nothing heavy like a pizza followed by chocolate.

c) Magnesium tablet after your dinner meal as this relaxes the muscles. Some doctors recommend melatonin, you may wish to check it out too, I have not tried it.

d) Retire to bed at 9pm with the view to fall asleep by 10pm-11pm, maybe midnight depending on your insomnia type of condition.

e) If you are experiencing the sleeping issues described above, this most likely means your mind/body has experienced recent trauma or excessive levels of stress (you may or may not have realised it consciously). This mean you absolutely need to reduce your intraday stress; ideally get bed rest for a few days.

Literally overnight, doing a-d has entirely removed that strange "jerking" and I am now sleeping.

I understand steps a-e above seem wishy washy but they actually worked very well for me. Your sleep as you are probably well aware is where a good portion of internal body repair occurs; especially in deep delta wave REM sleep. So if you are too bored or lazy to try out the steps a-e above, please do it just for the sake of your sleep-health.

I hope the above helps some of you.
Sonic

Hi,
This is a general response to this topic which outlines my experience in this regard and suggests some measures which I find very helpful and may be of help to others.

I suffer from an un-diagnosed sleep condition (for more than a decade now) which manifests itself in a variety of ways. One of the ways it manifests is in the form of a type of hypnic jerks similar to what many people describe in this thread. For me these tend to occur later in the night, after sleeping for a few hours, and may then continue to the morning. They involve jolting awake from dreamless sleep for no apparent reason. As and where they occur repeatedly they are major sleep disruptor. Another way my condition presents is in the form of more traumatic waking episodes whereupon I become partly awake or aware with an intense feeling of something being very wrong (like I'm not breathing or I’m simply dying) and struggle desperately, in a panic, to wake fully…not pleasant!

I've had this all checked out with various sleep studies, tests, etc. Although, the sleep studies have confirmed that the episodes are real, they’ve ruled out all the various medically recognised sleep conditions including sleep apnoea. In fact, all the tests have showed that I’m in good physical health and condition. Moreover, I exercise frequently and I am near ideal weight. I have suffered in the past from anxiety but I’ve been relatively stress and anxiety free for some years now. I am male and in my late forties.

However, in spite of the lack of any medical diagnosis, the good news is that I have this condition largely under control. I have achieved this primarily through my diet. To make a long story short, I have discovered, formally by chance, latterly through research, that the following dietary approaches provide a means to greatly reduce the symptoms (and probably the cause of) my condition.
These approaches are, in order of effectiveness; A) A gluten free diet, B) the Paleo diet and C) The AIP (Auto Immune Protocol) diet.

If you check these out, you’ll see that these diets, A to C, get progressively more stringent (the AIP diet in particular is pretty difficult and time consuming to follow, but is very healthy and has lots of additional health rewards). Whichever way, I find that the more I stick to the AIP diet the less symptoms I get and the better I sleep….essentially a real life changer for me.

Notwithstanding, the need to rule out more obvious, possibly dangerous, sleep conditions, such as sleep apnoea (with a medical professional), I would suggest anyone suffering from hypnic jerks or other similar undiagnosed sleep conditions could try the dietary approach as described above. That is, try first a gluten free diet (without processed substitutes), then if needs be try the Paleo diet and/or then the AIP diet. In spite of what some mainstream medical professionals might advise, these diets are perfectly healthy and nutritionally balanced. However, they do take some effort but if it helps in any way with the debilitating sleep issues described in this thread then they can only be well worth the effort.

If you’re curious as to why these dietary approaches might work, you can check out the research and thinking behind the Paleo and AIP diets on line or in various books which you can find in the health section of good book stores (essentially, I believe that I have some sort of gut related autoimmune condition which manifests itself in sleep disturbance).

Finally, I’d like to point out that my suggestion is based on just my experience. In this regard, I feel it important to point out the many other suggestions in this thread, all of which are just as valid. In particular, I believe that the comment by Sonic 123 and those comments addressing the possible role of anxiety in these conditions make for very useful and significant reading.
Hope this is of some help. P.

Hi PeterMV50,

Thank you for sharing your story with the forum. This could be a helpful avenue for someone to explore who has had a similar experience to yours.

Health and wellness be yours...and post anytime with us for sharing and/or support!

Scaredy Cat

msOuchie,

'Oh yeah...that's when you stop breathing...'

OMG...best spouse response ever! I am not LOL-ing at your experience, but rather the casual nature of how that little nugget of information was delivered! Oh man!

I am so glad that with some positive lifestyle changes, you were able to stop your sleep issues. That is amazing!

...and thanks for posting your story so that others might gain some insight into their own!

S.C.

M.O.,

Still shaking my head!

...and yes, it all turned out for the good, so all's well that ends well, but you've just got to laugh sometimes!

Keep up the great work on your heals goals!

Oh and P.S. How does he know when you are having low BGL? My hubs is Type 1 and has been awoken on his own when he is low...but how would I know if I need to wake him?

S.C.

MsOuchie,

Thank you so much for that information! All in all he has great mamagement, but the crashing during sleep is a scary reality...

...so thanks...I will now be aware of the ketosis smell, restlessness and/or sweating while he is asleep.

Thanks again and well wishes right back at you!

S C.

All GTK!

Yes when he was Dx'd our insurance had a mandatory educational class on diabetes management which was really beneficial for him. I also did a lot of research and learning on my own so I could be a good support and help to him...

...but extra info and experience from others who know is always a great thing, so thanks again!

(((((HUGS)))))

S.C.