What are these second-long 'surges' I'm having before sleep when crashing

InitialConditions

InitialConditions

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Another very hard to describe phenomenon. I get this when I'm crashing. Perhaps half-a-dozen times a year. It only happens in bed when I'm led waiting to fall asleep. I get this bizzare second-long surge that I can feel in my head (possibly traveling up to head from torso). I'm sure it's not an adrenaline rush as it's not triggered by anything and there's no panic/anxiety or raised heart beat, though my heart can beat a little harder. It might happen once, or it might repeat a few times (spaced out by 10 minutes or so) before I get to sleep. It really freaks me out and I'd love to know what's going on. It feels like a chemical or hormonal release.

Anyone experienced this, or anything similar?
 
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Might be what's called a "hypnic jerk." It's fairly common. I've experienced it a few times and it is pretty weird.

A hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk, sleep start, sleep twitch, myoclonic jerk, or night start is a brief and sudden involuntary contraction of the muscles of the body which occurs when a person is beginning to fall asleep, often causing the person to jump and awaken suddenly for a moment. Hypnic jerks are one form of involuntary muscle twitches called myoclonus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
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InitialConditions said:
I'm sure it's not an adrenaline rush as it's not triggered by anything
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Just as a suggestion... I've read that many people with ME have proven low cortisol. I don't know the biochemical connection between cortisol and adrenaline, other than they are both produced by the adrenal glands and are both stress hormones. But perhaps if you have a low level of either of them one or both may occasionally rise just for a few seconds, and if you are used to a low level and it rises then it may be interpreted as a kind of rush? I think adrenaline may be produced when necessary, but cortisol is produced in a circadian rhythm, so it rises at certain times of day without an obvious trigger.

In healthy people I think the trigger for maintaining the circadian rhythm is sunlight, but if you spend a lot of time in the dark perhaps your circadian rhythm is disturbed.
 
InitialConditions said:
Another very hard to describe phenomenon. I get this when I'm crashing. Perhaps half-a-dozen times a year. It only happens in bed when I'm led waiting to fall asleep. I get this bizzare second-long surge that I can feel in my head (possibly traveling up to head from torso). I'm sure it's not an adrenaline rush as it's not triggered by anything and there's no panic/anxiety or raised heart beat, though my heart can beat a little harder. It might happen once, or it might repeat a few times (spaced out by 10 minutes or so) before I get to sleep. It really freaks me out and I'd love to know what's going on. It feels like a chemical or hormonal release.

Anyone experienced this, or anything similar?
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Your real problem is that you're trying to not fall out of a tree in your sleep :emoji_evergreen_tree::zzz:o_O Wikipedia says so, so it must be true. Plus I like that explanation better than the usual - equally unproven - suspects of anxiety and stress.
Scientists do not know exactly why this phenomenon occurs and are still trying to understand it. None of the several theories that have attempted to explain it has been fully accepted.[9] One hypothesis posits that the hypnic jerk is a form of reflex, initiated in response to normal bodily events during the lead-up to the first stages of sleep, including a decrease in blood pressure and the relaxation of muscle tissue.[10] Another theory postulates that the body mistakes the sense of relaxation that is felt when falling asleep as a sign that the body is falling. As a consequence, it causes a jerk to wake the sleeper up so they can catch themselves.[11] A researcher at the University of Colorado suggested that a hypnic jerk could be "an archaic reflex to the brain's misinterpretation of muscle relaxation with the onset of sleep as a signal that a sleeping primate is falling out of a tree. The reflex may also have had selective value by having the sleeper readjust or review his or her sleeping position in a nest or on a branch in order to assure that a fall did not occur", but evidence is lacking.[2]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk

I don't get jerks but quite often just at the point of going to sleep I get a weird sensation of an "awakeness hormone" being flushed through my body for just a second. Then I feel awake for a little while until becoming drowsy again and either going to sleep or repeating the experience. It's a quite pleasant, relaxed sort of alertness, not at all wired and tired, and during the day it would be welcome, just not when I want to sleep.

I've always assumed it's an odd, non-jerking version of hypnic jerk but that's just a guess that suits me because while hypnic jerks are annoying at least they're harmless.
 
NelliePledge said:
I have something when tired but wired when the electric buzzing uncomfortable feeling in my body wears off. it is like a wave of something flowing through my body for a few seconds and the bad feeling goes and I can sleep. This only happens (or is noticeable) when the wired feeling is there not with more routine insomnia.
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Thanks for your comments. It's not a hypnic jerk - I do experience these and it's very different. These surges are totally within my body, and feel like a release of a hormone or chemical(?) @NelliePledge 's experience is the most similar to what I'm describing.
 
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