You must have experienced the feeling of falling while sleeping and waking up from a dream of falling from a height.
Why is that?
Sleep paralysis, dream talk, sleepwalking, and snoring… are probably common sleep phenomena that you have ever experienced or heard.
But have you ever seen yourself falling or being thrown from above in a dream? If you’ve ever experienced it, you’ll probably remember how real that feeling was, enough to startle you awake immediately.
Why is there this phenomenon?
According to scientists, this phenomenon of dreaming of falling, then falling is also known as a “dream seizure” or a hypnagogic jerk.
A hypnagogic jerk is an involuntary muscle contraction that occurs when we are in the transition between waking and sleeping. This is a brief moment as if you were floating in the air and startled awake.
This phenomenon occurs in most people when dreaming.
This phenomenon occurs in most people, even those who are healthy and have good sleep.
Experts say 70% of the population experience hypnagogic jerk syndrome, even cats and dogs experience it.
When you have this dream convulsion, you will feel like you have fallen from the sky, missed or tripped from a cliff. Falling into a dream causes your heart rate to increase, breathing faster, sweating, and causing a feeling of shock – startling you awake.
The fact that you dream of falling is a way to check if you are still alive or not.
“Jaws are uncontrolled body movements. They often occur when people are dreaming a dream falls into the void,” said Dr. Charles Bae, associate professor of clinical medicine and neurology, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said.
This is an actual reflex. Your brain appears hallucinating, showing images such as falling, falling into space, bright lights, or loud noises coming from inside the head … startling the body.
Sleep jerks are normal and fairly common, occurring more often in someone who is stressed and has insomnia. In addition, if you sleep late, the body will lose the previous stages of deep sleep and the likelihood of being startled is higher, making it difficult for you to enter a formal sleep. Some people experience multiple jerks throughout the night, and often they don’t realize they’re having a hypnagogic jerk.
Experts say that if you’re startled in the middle of the night too much, you should see a doctor check the situation. The condition only occurs in a few stressful moments, you should note and correct bad habits, and the seizures will disappear. The nature of this syndrome is harmless and only makes you have less time to sleep, making the body tired the next day.
