What is a Hypnic Jerk?

Also called sleep start, hypnagogic jerk or monoclonic jerk, a hypnic jerk puts the "falling" in "falling asleep."  You've experienced it.  You are drifting off to sleep when your body suddenly moves.  You may also see a flash of light or hear a very loud noise.  Many people (like me) also feel as if they've suddenly fallen from a great height.  Here's what you need to know about hypnic jerks.

Why Am I Having Hypnic Jerks?

You have them because you're human.  Although there have been many theories as to the exact cause of hypnic jerks, there has been no conclusive proof.

Is It A Serious Condition?

Although they are freaky as hell, hypnic jerks are not dangerous.  It is normal to experience them.  Unless they happen repeatedly throughout the night (a condition called intensified hypnic jerks) you do not need to see a doctor about them.  People who jerk violently or see flashes of light may fear that they have a mild epileptic condition, notes Fundamentals of Sleep Technology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007).  If your doctor is not sure if you have epilepsy, you may need to spend a night at a sleep clinic in order to rule out epilepsy.

Can You Prevent These Things?

Not really.  Places like Wikipedia and even the generally reliable WiseGEEK list things people can try to prevent hypnic jerks, but there is no known cure for hypnic jerks.

Image of homeless sleeper in Vancouver by Jay Black/ Wikimedia Commons.

How Quality of Sleep Affects Your Physical Health

Just how important is sleep to physical health? A rare genetic condition found in only 30 families worldwide have discovered that lack of sleep can kill you. People suffering from fatal familial insomnia die a long, painful death because they are unable to sleep. The longest a patient can last is nine months after symptoms begin.

Most people won't develop fatal familial insomnia, but they still suffer the very real physical affects from lack of sleep. Just how much sleep is needed for a quality sleep varies from person to person. In general, adults need from eight to nine hours a night while seniors need from six to seven hours a night. The CDC estimates that in America alone, 41 million people of working age do not get enough sleep.

Genetic Changes

In an eye-opening study by the University of Surrey, blood samples were taken from volunteers who got enough sleep and compared them to blood samples from people who did not get enough sleep. For the study, those with not enough sleep slept less than six hours a night. The researchers discovered that over 700 genes changed just from lack of sleep.
It is still unknown why lack of sleep caused these changes or just what parts of the body were impacted by the gene changes. It does seem that lack of sleep can impact a person developing Type 2 diabetes or becoming more prone to having a stroke. But the evidence is clear - if you do not get enough sleep, you are eventually going to feel sick.

Impact on Immune System

Although it is unknown exactly why we need to sleep, one theory is that this "down time" helps the body repair damaged cells and replace old cells. These activities are carried out in part by the immune system. When the immune system isn't functioning properly, the body cannot fight any colds, flues or viruses that may be sweeping through the area. This is because the immune system cannot make enough T-cells to fight sicknesses.

Even people who have received immunizations, such as the flu shot or nasal spray, may still wind up getting sick. Lack of sleep means the body cannot respond quickly to immunizations. It also cannot make enough antibodies to fight off the very thing the immunization is supposed to be protecting people from. Once a person gets sick, they need to sleep. If they cannot get enough quality sleep, it will take them longer to get better.

My Most Common Nightmare: Working Retail

Yes, you read that right -- my most common nightmare is working in retail on Christmas Eve.  I wish I could write that my most common nightmare was a little something more creative or twisted, but I'd be lying.  At least once a week since I was a teenager, I've dreamt about being stuck in a retail job in late December or on Christmas Eve itself.

I worked retail for over ten years or at least one-quarter of my life (ain't THAT a depressing thought) and getting rid of those years' worth of memories is getting to be a nearly impossible task.  Stores I've worked for include Kmart, Macy's and CVS.  Each store had it's own levels of horror, but I can honestly say that working Kmart from November 1 to January 5 is the deepest layer of Hell you will ever possibly know.

My retail nightmares include:

• quitting and walking out of the store triumphantly, only to blink and find myself back in the walls 
• having to stock shelves while I'm caught in a bear trap (and when I ask my supervisor if he could take the bear trap off of my leg, he berates me for not being a team player)
• being forced to work at a Kmart without pay for over a year
• trying to fly out of a store, only to get trapped by the walls and am physically unable to get out of the sliding glass doors.

I've also had retail nightmares where I've been on the other side of the cash register and discover that it's Christmas Eve, the store is closing and I haven't finished my Christmas shopping yet.  I doubt that Stephen King will be writing a best-seller based on that premise, but it always gets my blood a-chillin'.

Last night I was dreamt that I was Superman -- and I still couldn't get my Christmas shopping done on time, even after breaking into closed stores and a museum.  My fingers were so large and strong that I had trouble carrying my shopping, which tended to slip from my hands and fall into the arms of the delighted streetwalkers below.

Every year I keep trying to convince my family to skip Christmas and so far it has not worked.  Even if it did, I'd probably still have nightmares about working retail in December.

How to Stop Having Lucid Dreams

As a freelance web content writer, I get asked to write about the most bizarre topics.  A couple of years ago, I had a client ask for a how-to article on how to stop having lucid dreams.  I had to rub my eyes and read that one twice.  Usually, people want to START having lucid dreams, not stop having them.

But I did the article and it was accepted.  It hasn't made me much money in page views (where I get paid a fraction of a penny each time someone clicks on the article) but I was surprised that I made any money from it.  Perhaps there are lucid dreamers out there who would rather experience "normal" dreams. 

Basically, if you want to stop haing lucid dreams, you do the opposite of trying to have lucid dreams.  You move as soon as you wake up, you do not write your dreams down and you check to see if you are taking any medications or nutritional supplemements that are known to cause weird dreams.  My article goes into more detail.

Please click here if you want to read the article. Thanks!

Anxiety with Sleep Apnea May be Helped with CPAP Machines

Anxiety disorders and sleep apnea are often comorbidities. What does this mean?  That someone with an anxiety disorder usually also has sleep apnea.

Someone with sleep apnea suffers from lack of sleep, because the sudden shutting off of their breath often wakes them up. This can happen dozens or even hundreds of times per night. Lack of sleep can cause a person to be more anxious, according to a 2012 study done at the University of California, Berkely. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP machines can help with both sleep and anxiety by helping a person get the oxygen they need for healthy sleep.

Anyone else who lives in the immediate area may also benefit from the device. The choking, snorting and snoring sounds of a person with sleep apnea can be loud enough to wake up everyone in a house, dormitory or an entire floor of a building.

How It Works

When people sleep, their muscles relax, including the muscles of the jaw. When the jaw falls open, this narrows the sleeper's airways. In many people, this narrowing of the airways only causes snoring, but with sleep apnea, it's much worse. CPAP machines create a continual stream of air into a sleeper's mouth. This helps keeps the airway open. This also helps premature babies with lung problems to breathe until they are strong enough to leave the hospital.

But how does this help anxiety? Severe versions of this disorder may intensify sleep apnea. People who suffer from panic attacks can suffer panic attacks while trying to fall asleep or during sleep. People who suffer from extreme nightmares will delay going to bed for as long as possible. Their bodies do not get the rest that they need. Drowsiness can lead to feelings of confusion, irritability, breathlessness, racing heart, chest tightness and panic. All of these sensations combined may trigger a panic attack.

Special Notes

A sleeper needs to wear an oxygen mask in order to receive the air flow. The air flow is always the same intensity. However, a doctor can usually help adjust the air flow for each patient's needs. The mask is attached to a tube attached to the CPAP machine or a specialized pillow. It can take a few nights to get used to wearing the mask, but most people quickly adjust to their new sleep procedure.

Getting better sleep will not instantly cure anyone of either anxiety or sleep apnea. But it can be used in conjunction with other therapies, medications and cognitive behavior therapy. Keeping a journal can help patients learn what foods, drinks or activities keep them wired instead of being relaxed enough to sleep.

Additional References

• Insomnia and Anxiety. Colleen E. Carney & Jack D. Edinger. Springer; 2010.
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America. "Sleep Disorders."

"Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep"; By David K. Randall: My Review

There aren't many books out there like David K. Randall's Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep (W.W. Norton & Company; 2012.) This is a real shame.  We need fewer books detailing how angels supposedly talk to us in our dreams and how clean living leads to better sleep and more science books written for the non-scientist.

If you like the Darwin Award series, then you'll get a kick out of this book.  The only problem is that you will want to stay up all night to finish this book rather than go to sleep.

The author began the book because of his sleepwalking problem -- including walking straight into a wall.  Although he never finds a cure for sleepwalking (trust me -- that's not giving away anything) he does discover the massive sleep industry, which covers everything from CPAP machines to devices to keep lab rats awake in sleep deprivation experiments.  In 2012 alone, the sleep industry raked in $32 billion.

Dreaming in Black and White

My Mom told me that she usually dreams in  black and white instead of in color.  Since she was raised in the era of black and white films and black and white television, this seems like a normal thing for her brain to have done.  She spent a good part of her day looking at black and white images and so dreamt in black and white images.  In the last couple of decades, she began dreaming in color. 

And Mom was not alone. A study by the University of Dundee published in 2008 reported that 25% people over 55 dreamt in black and white (well -- 25% people over 55 who participated in the survey, anyway.)  12% of people in the study claimed that they always dreamt in black and white.

But another group of people also dream in black and white -- psychopaths.  This is the finding in The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (Penguin; 2011.)  Author Jon Ronson (best known as the author of The Men Who Stare at Goats) interviewed workers at Oak Ridge, an asylum near Ontario.  One unconventional therapy ca. 1968 involved patients getting naked and being stuck in a large room where they talked to each other and tour groups could watch.  Another was the Dream Group, where patients talked about their dreams.  Dream Group happened sometime in the 1970s.

Turns out the psychopaths really hated Dream Group because they could barely remember their dreams and when they did they were in black and white.  However, the schizophrenics went to town.  Not only were their dreams in color, but they could remember haing multiple dreams a night.  Unfortunately, their dreams bored the rest of the patients -- especially the psychopaths.

Considering the time frame when this Dream Group took place, it is possible that all of the psychopaths at Oak Ridge who dreamt in black and white grew up in the era of black and white film and television.  But I have not been able to find any studies of the dream content of younger   psychopaths. (Although I admit that I didn't look very hard.)

So, if you are under age 55 and dream in black and white, does it mean that you are a psychopath?  Probably not.  Dreaming in black and white is not one of the 20 most common traits of a psychopath as listed in the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.  By the way, it is psychopathologists estimate that about 1% of the human population are psychopaths.

Sweet dreams, kids.

ITV Documentary: "Sleep Walkers: Secrets of the Night"

This 47 minute ITV documentary from 2008 looks at the strange cases of three sleepwalkers and one "ordinary" sleepwalker.  It shows how frustrating it is to live with (or be a) sleepwalker.  The ordinary sleepwalker is a 9-year-old girl.  The abnormal or extreme sleepwalkers were:

• a woman who eats entire meals in her sleep (and subsequently is now overweight)
• a man who tries to rape his wife when he's completely asleep (why they don't sleep in separate bedrooms is not explored)
• a man who draws very well while fast asleep but can barely draw while awake.  I think his story is the most interesting.  He's the guy in the screenshot below

BBC Documentary: "My Shocking Story: Dying for Sleep"

Think your insomnia is bad?  Well, if you're still alive to read this, then it's not as bad as it could be if you were suffering from fatal familial insomnia.  That's when you can't EVER go to sleep and within a couple of months you've kicked the bucket.  This 35-minute BBC Documentary looks at this incredibly rare and always fatal genetic disease.

Yes -- you read that right.  Genetic.  It's found in only 30 families.  As in a disease that could be wiped out today if everyone who had the faulty gene would just go down to the vet's and get neutered.  Of course, some people do not realize they have the gene until AFTER they have kids, but still the kids then should get a total hysterectomy or a vasectomy.  That way if they are up all night, at least they could be having sex and not having to worry about their kids contracting this incurable and deadly disease.

One interesting note about fatal familial insomnia -- even though you cannot sleep, you still dream (sometimes.)

Dreaming About Using the Toilet

One of the most common dreams you can have is having to use the toilet.  You either have to go and can't find a bathroom anywhere, go in public or plumbing suddenly shows up in a dream.  If you're like me, you will have dreams where toilets appear everywhere -- substituting for bus seats, couches, beds, in the middle of a stage with a whole audience watching -- you know what I mean.  (And if you don't, just pretend you do.)

I've also dreamt about finding a toilet -- but the toilet is broken or will not flush.  The author of Dream On It: Unlock Your Dreams, Change Your Life (Macmillan), Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, explains that dreaming about overflowing or backed up toilets means that your "emotional plumbing is backed up."

She is, of course, wrong.

There is no heavy subconscious meaning to dreaming about this -- it means that you have to go to the bathroom.  As soon as you wake up, what do you have to do?  Go to the bathroom!  Your bladder sends not-so-subtle messages to your dreaming brain that you gotta go.  You wake up and stagger to the toilet (if you're lucky to get that far.)  Sometimes your body speaks to you through your dreams.

Can you actually wet the bed if you dream about using the toilet?  Yes -- but this is rare.  For example, my Mom told me that once (when she had a bladder infection) she dreamed of using the toilet -- and woke up to discover that she had peed the bed.  My Dad was none too amused. They divorced about 25 years later, but that's not the point.  The point is that the dreaming mind is a strange thing, but dreaming about having to use a toilet is normal.

Image of 1913 toilet by Anagoria for Wikimedia Commons.

Why Men Usually Fall Asleep After Sex

 

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Men fall asleep after sex because they're tired. Try not to take it personally!  If they've managed to achieve orgasm, then their bodies have been put into a state of bliss and relaxation. It only follows that if a body is relaxed enough, it will fall asleep. This is even a problem with people trying to learn meditation, as they may become so relaxed that they fall asleep.
 

According to Dr. Billy Goldberg and Mark Leyner, authors of a book entitled Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor Only After Your Third Whiskey Sour (Three Rivers Press; 2006), the male brain releases the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, which not only relax the muscles but can make a man very drowsy.

In a survey done by University of Surrey, 48% of 10,000 sexually active men in the UK not only fall asleep after sex, but during sex. Although this is not the most seductive thing an English man could admit to, it may show that English men are honest when it comes to answering surveys.

Body Language

No matter how often one reads about hormones, it can be a little disturbing to have your sexual partner sawing wood while you're still raring to go. An active mind may read all kinds of things into the man's post-orgasmic slumber. The biggest fear is that the man is bored with his partner and that's the real reason why he falls asleep.

Falling asleep next to someone can be seen as a sign of trust. Our ancestors probably found strength in numbers so that someone was always awake and on guard in order to prevent the tribe from being wiped out by sabre-toothed tigers or a rival tribe. This may also explain why many women are wide awake after sex. Their genes have programmed them to be on the lookout for predators while everyone else is asleep.

Timing Is Everything

Keep in mind that, despite the stereotype, not all men will fall asleep right after sex. Some will become energized and ask their partners if they wish to have sex again. Some will become very hungry and some will want to engage in relaxing and pleasurable activities like smoking, eating a pizza, watching television or soaking in a hot bath.

But the stereotype that men usually fall asleep after sex is persistent and must be for good reason. The reason most likely is that sex is usually relegated to the activity that takes place right before going to sleep. Throughout history, men have had a long day tilling the fields, slaughtering the heathen or running the rat race. Before sex is even initiated, the man is already tired.

In order to try and keep the man awake, sex should take place at some other time than when he usually falls asleep. But it is not guaranteed to work. The partner of such a man should not be upset if the man falls asleep after sex. However, he or she should be upset if the man falls asleep during sex.

References:

• Daily Mail Online. "Why men fall asleep after sex." David Wilkes. 3 May 2005. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-338126/Why-men-fall-asleep-sex.html
• "Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor Only After Your Third Whiskey Sour." Dr. Billy Goldberg and Mark Leyner. Three Rivers Press; 2006.
• Life's Little Mysteries. "Why Do Guys Get Sleepy After Sex?" http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070315_sex_sleep.html