feelgood

Some of you know what I'm talking about.

When I used to sleep with my ex-gf, she twitches while sleeping. I'm a sensitive guy when I'm sleeping, the lightest touch will wake the shit outta me.

I know my brother's gf does the same.

What's the deal with that? The twitching part?

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bobbles

my very recent ex-gf (we're still fuck buddies) twiches at night because when she was a baby she had some blood disorder, and they gave her needles in the feet while she was asleep (which obviously woke her up)

so now whenever shes asleep her feet are constantly twitching

FngKestrel

There's also restless leg syndrome, a mild sleep disorder. Well, mild if you're not the one being affected by it.

ratbastid

lurkette chases bunnies in her sleep all night long. I've posted about it before (search "lurkette bunnies").

It's definitely Restless Leg Syndrome. I've seen videos of people with RLS, and it's exactly like what she does.

For a while, going on an Iron supplement helped a lot. The first couple weeks she was taking iron, it was totally gone. After a bit, it sort of came bac, but it's still better than it used to be.

I'm a really light sleeper too--she can pull the covers slightly and wake me up.

rhaevyn

Also happens if you have a lot of caffeine during the day.

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dlish

i twitch sometimes and wake myself up..im a light sleeper, so i feel when i twich cos i wake myself up..only happens when im really really tired..but usually when i first go to sleep.. ive read somewhere its the muscles spasming wanting to relax?

does this ring true?

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ShaniFaye

Dave does this really bad while he's falling asleep, thats how I can tell he's finally gotten to sleep because it stops

I've found that if we "spoon" with my front pressed to his back and I lay with my right arm under my head and put my hand on top of his head that he doesnt do it.

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cellophanedeity

Simon does this too. It's come to the point where I find it comforting when he does, 'cause then I know he's just fallen asleep. It started me at first though!

stonegrody

I twitch as I'm falling asleep and I think even after. I thought it might have been a psychological thing. Maybe it is a lack of iron...

WooHoo! I'm not crazy! I can wash this "insane" stamp off my hand now.

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FngKestrel

Iron, huh? I'll have to try that. I've got a pinched nerve in the small of my back that I think contributes to it, but if an iron supplement will help, I'll have to give that a shot.

guthmund

I thought it was Vitamin E? Of course, my massive amount of medical knowledge is mostly gleaned from television, so, I'm just saying...I could be wrong.

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streak_56

It must be weird when you watch my gf sleeping eh bro?

I've been waken up by just people slamming doors and slamming them hard enough to shake my bed. And I wake up then, I wake up at the slightest sound, movement, anything. It's hard for me to get asleep, harder for me to stay asleep.

ChrisJericho

I was watching the Discovery channel documentary about Navy SEAL hell week. I think the instructors gave the recruits their first 1 hour of sleep after 2-3 days o0f excercises and the camera showed them sleeping, those guys were twitching like mofos !!

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Lead543

Yea Jeff....how do you know I twitch in my sleep....

Greg twitches a lot. He wakes himself up doing it then blames it on me.
I don't really twitch when I'm sleeping, when I'm falling asleep however I tend to.
I think it's because I start to dream but am still sleeping lightly.

feelgood

You both realize that your journal is public right? And you both realize that when you sleep in Greg's bed, you leave the door wide open...

How can I resist?

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Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

Sugar&Spice

I'm glad to see many others have encountered the twitching also. My boyfriend does this all the time and I never knew what to make of it. Now I know he is perfectly normal. But I am still curious as to why it happens.

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abaya

Ktspktsp starts a-twitchin' the instant he falls asleep... and like cellophane, I find it comforting too. These days he's almost always more worn out than me and falls asleep quickly... and I like knowing that he's finally resting and letting his body and mind recover from the day. So, twitching is good in my book, unless of course it's mad flailing of limbs like I used to do after dozing in my 8am college history class...

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dlish

ok i googled it and came up with two sites that explain it in laemans terms.

its called hypnagogic myoclonus (the first word refers to sleep and the second to muscle twitches), and apparently its normal.

heres the links.. enjoy
http://www.yesmag.bc.ca/Questions/sleep.html
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_090.html

Why do people "twitch" sometimes while falling asleep?
Your question was moved to the front of the line because it was more exciting than the others -- plus it had nothing to do with water vapour.

In medical parlance, the twitching is called hypnagogic myoclonus (the first word refers to sleep and the second to muscle twitches).

Myoclonus refers to any kind of muscle twitching. A hiccup, believe it or not, is a kind of myoclonus. It can happen to people at any time, and repeated episodes usually mean there is an underlying medical problem -- multiple sclerosis, ALS, CJD, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. Anti-depresssants, such as Paxil and Zoloft, can cause myoclonus. Researchers believe a disruption of certain neurotransmitters are related to some forms of myoclonus. One neurotransmitter associated with myoclonus is serotonin, which constricts blood vessels and brings on sleep. The other is gamma-aminobutyic acid (GABA), which helps the brain control the muscles.

Hypnagogic myoclonus (also called sleep starts) is very normal and happens to just about everyone. According to the University of Marburg in Germany, reports of sleep starts are in the 60 to 70 percent range of sleepers (which means everyone) and they're often forgotten. It happens before you're getting into heavy duty sleep mode when the brain is gradually sliding away to dream land. You have probably experienced a falling sensation -- or some other weird feeling -- if you twitch yourself awake. Some people also experience visual sleep starts, a sensation of blinding light. Auditory sleep starts involve a loud snapping noise. (This happens to me, and up until now, I thought it was something outside my body and I would force my husband to get up and go investigate. Guess I won't do that anymore.)

Not a lot is known about why people experience sleep starts, but there seems to be some suggestion that anxiety, some kind of noise, a vivid dream, muscle fatigue, or even genetic disposition plays some part, perhaps in how frequently the sensation occurs.

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streak_56

Or when you come in either way when the door is closed.

Unga

My bf twitches when he sleeps. It's kinda funny, but it wakes me up if i'm sleeping beside him. Apparently im a twitcher too

Ilow

yeah, good post, dlishsguy, many researchers beleive that the myoclonic jerks that occur as we fall asleep are a result of the brain fearing that we are actually dying (sounds sort of silly, but it is a reaction to the change in the level of conciousness) and trying to jolt us out of it. These are not the same as restless leg syndrome, which is a different thing altogether (as I understand it). As an aside, your body should not move at all when you enter REM sleep although there are rare cases of it occurring, this is supposed to prevent you acting out whatever crazy stuff you are dreaming about.

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BalloonKnots

I tend to twitch only when I'm really tired and then try to fall asleep. It's almost like my body can't believe it's finally getting a moment to rest! My GF is the same way. Weird, maybe being tired and twitching is somehow related.

Lead543

Now that I know feelgood watches me, I think I'll be doing a lot more twitching in my sleep.
Jkjkjk!

My family looks after a girl with autism on weekends, her room is right next to mine and I can hear her twitch in her sleep. That or she's moving around. Every once and a while I'll hear a leg or arm hit the wall.

Ilow

found this on Yahoo.com tonite. coincidence?

Leg Ailment Patients Might Get A Kick Out Of FDA Approval Amy Reeves
Fri May 20, 7:00 PM ET

When GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK - News) recently announced that its drug Requip had been approved for restless legs syndrome, the public likely was divided into two responses: "Finally!" and "Uh, what is that exactly?"

Restless legs syndrome, or RLS, is actually a common ailment. Experts figure that as many as 8% of Americans suffer from it to some degree. Until recently, though, an approved treatment for it hasn't surfaced.

As the name suggests, RLS give sufferers a strong compulsion to move their legs. It's not always painful, but it is uncomfortable.

Patients describe the sensation as a pulling, tingling or buzzing feeling in the legs. Some say it feels like bugs are crawling on their legs. This usually happens during the early evening or at night.

Most sufferers are middle-aged and older, though RLS does occur in young people. Pregnant women also seem to get it. Women are slightly more likely to get it than men.

If the attacks are infrequent, they're a nuisance. When people get RLS severely, it can impair sleep.

About 80% of RLS sufferers also suffer periodic leg movements while sleeping, which makes it difficult for them to get a decent night's sleep. This causes the same symptoms as chronic insomnia: fatigue and loss of mental alertness.

The ailment was first named in the 1940s. For the next 50-odd years it didn't get much attention from the medical industry.

"It's just been in the last 10 years that researchers have been doing studies that show this fairly common disorder affects people in a meaningful way," said Georgianna Bell, president of the RLS Foundation. "It affects quality of life to the point where some people can't work."

Happy Accident

Part of the problem with finding a treatment was the fact that nobody knows exactly what causes RLS. It seems to run in families.

It has been tied to such diverse factors as anemia, pregnancy, neurological legions, kidney failure and drug abuse. But a person may have none of those conditions and still get it.

In the course of treating other diseases, doctors sometimes discover a drug has a happy side effect that helps another ailment. That's the case with Requip, which was already on the market as a treatment for Parkinson's disease.

"It was approved for Parkinson's, but as is sometimes the case, physicians will begin to understand that a drug can have a beneficial effect in other ways," said Glaxo spokeswoman Nancy Pekarek. "So Glaxo began to study for those indications."

Glaxo chose patients with moderate to severe RLS and put them on a much lower dose of Requip than is used for Parkinson's. Three-quarters of them reported their symptoms were "much improved."

Company officials are reluctant to estimate how this will impact Requip's market. Part of the problem is defining "moderate to severe" RLS.

Glaxo used its own definition for its study, but it's tough to predict how many of the 10 million U.S. sufferers have it badly enough to be willing to go on medication.

Glaxo's study also included only patients who have RLS without secondary causes such as anemia or kidney failure.

Still, since the disease is tied to age, the market will likely only get bigger. For that reason, some other big drug makers, including Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim and Schwartz Pharma, are looking into whether their drugs might have an RLS benefit.

If nothing else, Bell says Glaxo's move should raise awareness of RLS among doctors, drug makers and the public.

"Many more physicians are going to be educated about this condition," she said. "Nowadays if somebody comes into a doctor's office and says they have a funny sensation like snakes crawling on their legs, the doctor might think it's a psychiatric condition. All kinds of misdiagnoses occur."

Glaxo won't reveal its marketing plans for Requip.

Bell expects the firm will advertise to the general public, prompting sufferers who were reluctant to visit the doctor for their strange symptoms to go ask for treatment.

"A lot of people don't know that the real condition under its real name is actually treatable," said Bell. "We're very excited about that."

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"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
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Zeraph

I'm not sure if it's related but when i was into martial arts a lot more I got to the point that if I were relaxed and thought about a kick my leg would twitch.

I know I used to kick/twitch in my sleep, don't think I do it anymore though. Also it seems to depend on something, cause some nights Ill wake up and my sheets have been kicked off, others I wake in the same position I went to sleep in, so who knows?

lurkette

Dude, that is such good news about the treatment for RLS!!

I don't wake myself all the way up when I twitch in my sleep, but I wake up the next morning after 8-9 hours of sleep feeling like I haven't slept at all. And ratbastid DOES wake up when I twitch, so any treatment will be happy for both of the lurkbastids. The iron did help, but only marginally. Then again, my iron is so low that I probably just haven't gotten back up to normal levels, even with the supplements.

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Ilow

well Lurkette, if you check out the RLS treatment, keep us posted!

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"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
--Sam Harris