Cramps (from the English convulsions) are sudden muscle contractions that occur involuntarily and have a paroxysmal character. They cause severe but short-term pain that may recur after some time.
If such signs are not observed, the possibility of a diagnosis of epilepsy can be excluded.
Non-epileptic seizures can occur for the following reasons:
- Consequently birth trauma. In this case, the muscles of the face and limbs undergo contractions. These seizures can occur from birth or appear several months later.
- As a result of defects in the central nervous system, cardiovascular, heart defects, congenital deformities, asphyxia.
- As a consequence due to the toxicity of the virus. In this case, tension throughout the body is observed.
- Reaction to vaccination.
- Endocrine disorders.
- Poisoning.
- Metabolic disease. This reason is childhood occurs less frequently than in adults. But a lack of microelements still increases the risk of seizures. In this case, facial muscles are more often affected.
In children, nocturnal cramps are characterized by shaking and stretching of the limbs during sleep.
Often attacks pass without a trace, but it must be taken into account that in early age repeated contractions can significantly delay physical and mental development, and also cause speech impairment.
To reduce the risk of muscle contraction, parents can give their child a light massage of the feet and legs before bed, organize cold and hot shower for legs.
Rare spasms during a child's sleep do not pose a potential threat, but if they occur systematically, this is a signal that you need to seek help. Parents should monitor their child’s sleep in order to tell their doctor in detail about the characteristics of the attacks.
What to do, how to get rid of the problem?
To get rid of night cramps, you need to know the cause of their origin. If spasms are associated with health problems, then treatment should be aimed primarily at the affected area. For example, if painful contractions are a consequence of epilepsy, then the use of medications such as valproate acid will reduce the likelihood of seizures. And children have seizures after infectious diseases Vaccination can stop it.
If the attacks are not related to a health condition, but are a consequence of external stimuli, they need to be eliminated.
If you feel a convulsive spasm, the following actions will help:
- pull the toe of the foot (if the cramp has cramped the lower limbs) or the fingers of the palm (if the upper ones) towards yourself, relax and pull towards yourself again, and clenching and unclenching the fist will help get rid of the cramp in the hand;
- gently massage the cramped muscle;
- in an emergency, pinch the sore spot or prick with a needle.
The nuisance of emus is... unacceptable.
Seizures can be prevented by following simple rules. This does not apply to cases where muscle contractions occur due to illness. If there are no health problems, but cramps, spasms, shudders and tremors appear periodically during sleep, try the following measures to prevent them:
To prevent seizures in young children, parents should monitor the optimal temperature in the room where the child sleeps. Before going to bed, the baby should be calm; do not play active or emotional games with him.
Before falling asleep, you can give your baby a foot massage and a contrast shower for the legs. At frequent appearance spasms and restlessness during sleep, consult a specialist immediately.
Often, many people experience sudden short-term “twitchings” of the whole body while falling asleep. Most often, this happens either at the stage when the brain begins to turn off and the subconscious “draws” the first dreams, or in the dead of night, when a person is already immersed in sleep.
So, why do you twitch when you fall asleep? Is it a problem, a disease, or is it just normal reaction body? And if so, why doesn't everyone have this reaction every night? In this article we will try to give answers to all these questions.
A little bit of history
In ancient times, people believed that sleep is a kind of “rehearsal” for death, when a person’s soul does not completely leave for another world. Then it was believed that everything that a person sees or does in a state of sleep is the work of the devil. In connection with this idea of dreams, the “twitching” while falling asleep was called “the touch of the devil.”
Why do you twitch when you fall asleep - thoughts of 20th century scientists
In the 20th century, when scientists had already sufficiently studied the state of sleep, this issue was illuminated from a completely different point of view.
In fact, the answer to the question why you twitch when you fall asleep is quite logical.
Scientist A. Ts. Golbin, who long time studied a person in a state of sleep, said that “twitching” is the result of the transition of stages of sleep from one to another, while preventing the person from non-physiologically deepening into sleep.
A. M. Wayne believed that the answer to this question lies much deeper. He said that a small part of the brain, the hypothalamus, reacts with sharp muscle contractions, which reacts to a slowdown in breathing and heartbeat. Thus, by contracting all the muscles of the body, the body checks vitality, since the state of falling asleep is very similar physiologically to the pre-comatose state.
Modernity. Why do you twitch when you fall asleep?
But today scientists and psychologists give a completely different explanation for myoclonus - a small short-term twitching while falling asleep. Myoclonus is believed to help relax all the muscles in the body.
If you observe, it turns out that you twitch when you fall asleep most often after a difficult and difficult day. Physical and psychological stress on the body forces you to keep your muscles toned throughout the day, which makes it much more difficult to relax before bed. Then the brain sends short-term impulses that cause the muscles to twitch, after which they completely relax. And those light dreams that most often accompany “twitching” (for example, a fall or a blow) are drawn to us by the subconscious so that we do not wake up completely.
Familiar to most people. Many of us have wondered why a person twitches when falling asleep.
Even in ancient times, people drew an analogy between the process of falling asleep and the onset of death. Our distant ancestors believed that the soul of a sleeping person goes to the world of the dead. An involuntary spasm during sleep was considered a reaction to the touch of the devil.
But what does he say? modern medicine about this? There have been many theories in science to explain this phenomenon. There was an opinion that dreams indicate incipient epilepsy. The essence of another hypothesis was reduced to disturbances in the functioning of the hypothalamus - the highest vegetative center brain. But attempts to find an answer to the question of why a person twitches when he falls asleep using these theories have failed.
The most convincing were the explanations of scientists who studied the nature of such a physiological state as sleep. Some of them came to the conclusion that people shudder when transitioning from one phase of sleep to another. Other experts claim that the human body reacts by slowing breathing and reducing the amplitude of heart contractions. Reflexive muscle contraction is a test of vitality, since the state of sleep is mistakenly perceived by the hypothalamus as close to coma.
Scientists have also found that there is a relationship night cramps with physical activity and emotional experiences throughout the day. That is, the answer to the question of why a person twitches when falling asleep lies in his state immediately before sleep. Therefore, the transition from wakefulness to night rest should be smooth. It is better to leave a clump of unresolved problems for the morning.
But it’s not just adults who startle in their sleep. Sometimes a young mother notices that But, as doctors assure, this is not a reason to sound the alarm. The fact is that for babies under one year old, such a physiological reaction during sleep is completely normal. The braking mechanism of a child’s nervous system at this age is imperfect. This is especially true for premature babies, so they flinch more often.
It should be noted that in babies, sleep, sleep phases and their duration differ from what happens in this regard with adults.
Since it is in this state that growth hormone is produced in newborns, young children spend most days in a dream. This is necessary for the normal development of the child. When the baby sleeps, his nervous system and brain are actively developing. Children under one year old wake up from the slightest rustle; this happens due to the fact that their phase of shallow sleep is longer than deep sleep. Such a program is inherent in us by nature. Babies are the most vulnerable, so children, sensing a threat to their safety (noise, bright light, sudden movement) immediately wake up and scream.
So, the answer to the question of why a person twitches when falling asleep has already been found. There is nothing wrong with this physiological reaction, and involuntary twitching during sleep itself does not cause problems in a healthy person.
Many people know this feeling: you are already lying in a cozy bed and getting ready to fall asleep, when suddenly your body jerks and you wake up. In this case, there is usually a strong feeling of falling, and there is little pleasant here.
Why do you twitch when you fall asleep? Let's consider further possible reasons.
Why does a person twitch when falling asleep?
No person can fall asleep instantly. In the process of falling asleep, the brain sequentially goes through several stages, which are called sleep phases. It takes about one and a half hours for an adult to fall asleep until the deep sleep phase. Sometimes at this time the limbs or even the whole body involuntarily shudder.
Why is this happening? There are three main reasons why a person twitches in his sleep:
- The process of falling asleep is similar to the process of brain dying. Therefore, sometimes during sleep the brain sends a signal to the body to make sure that the body is sleeping and not dying. This is what causes twitching during sleep.
- During the gradual transition to sleep, the body relaxes, so any sharp sound, gust of wind or other irritant can cause it to involuntarily flinch. The muscles unconsciously contract - thereby demonstrating “protection” from the dangers of the external environment. And yet for people who lead a calm and healthy image life, twitching in a dream is a rarity.
- Another reason that a person twitches when falling asleep is increased physical exercise, stress, chronic fatigue. The human nervous system does not fully cope with this, therefore, at the moment of falling asleep, the muscles try to relax, twitching involuntarily. If this bothers you quite often, then you should reduce your loads, get more rest, especially in evening time, before bedtime. A course of relaxing massage, soothing herbs, walks on fresh air will help you gradually get rid of night tremors and put your nervous system in order.
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Startling while falling asleep is a physiological phenomenon in which the muscles of the body spontaneously contract (sometimes this process is accompanied by a cry). Such convulsive contractions can be repeated cyclically every 10-15 minutes. At the same time, sleeping people behave differently. In one case, the attack leads to a sudden interruption of sleep, in the other it does not affect it in any way.
If the startle when falling asleep in adults is not caused by pathological reasons, then it is considered absolutely normal. Most often it occurs against the background of excessive nervous fatigue.
Theories for the appearance of startles in sleep
This topic has been studied for quite a long time, but scientists still do not understand the reasons for vibration in the body during the night or nap. Unconscious and uncontrollable seizures muscle contractions The following four theories explain:
- Immediately before bedtime, at the moment of falling asleep, a significant slowdown of all internal processes occurs (the heart beats slower, the intensity of breathing decreases). The brain regards this situation as a near-death state and tries to activate the work internal organs, sending nerve impulses to motor structures. As a result, the muscles contract and the limbs twitch. At the same time, in a dream, a person most often sees frightening dreams about falling from high altitude. Our brain draws such pictures for a reason, in this way it artificially stimulates the release of the hormone adrenaline.
- According to the second theory, cramps when falling asleep are a natural reaction of the body not the transition from one phase (stage) of sleep to another. In other words, the spasm is the result of the transformation of the superficial stage into deep sleep.
- Many doctors correlate twitching with stressful situations that we encounter during the day. In addition, muscle contraction during sleep is explained by improper or unstable functioning of the central nervous system (in children, this phenomenon is most often associated with underdevelopment of the central nervous system). In other words, when falling asleep human brain re-analyzes negative emotions, causing muscles to contract.
The latest theory says that seizures are nothing more than a physiological malfunction in the body. For example, insufficient oxygen supply to muscles, deficiency of magnesium and other trace elements causes a person to make involuntary movements.
Myoclonic spasms
As a rule, such twitchings are mostly diagnosed in absolutely healthy people. According to experts, this is a normal and natural symptom. It is accompanied by irregular twitching of the arms or legs and most often manifests itself immediately before bedtime or after a person has fallen asleep. Myoclonic spasms have one characteristic difference - they are not concentrated in any place and often change their localization. For example, today a person’s leg will twitch during sleep, and tomorrow the arm muscles will contract.
As a rule, myoclonic twitches appear due to the following reasons: insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, interruption of hypnotic and sedatives from the first generations (benzodiazepines, barbiturates, etc.). In addition, such convulsions are caused by neuroses, depression and other mental disorders.
Degenerative cellular processes and pathological impulses of the epileptic type also lead to this phenomenon. All this often causes the appearance of restless legs syndrome.
Restless legs syndrome
“Periodic movements of the legs during sleep” is another name for this syndrome. It appears during falling asleep and directly during sleep; it differs from myoclonic twitching by specific electrophysiological features. Restless legs syndrome is a sensorimotor disorder. It is accompanied by discomfort in the area of the legs, which are at rest. In particular, this pathology is accompanied by a feeling of tingling and burning in the legs.
The human body shudders and vibrates, the legs hurt - all this leads to a deterioration in the quality of sleep. Unconscious movements lower limbs(flexion and extension of the fingers, rotation of the entire foot) slightly reduce the intensity of pain.
Most of the syndrome is diagnosed in older people. However, it also occurs in young patients under 35 years of age. The risk group does not include teenagers and young children.
If your leg twitches, the reasons should be sought in the following pathologies and unfavorable factors:
- iron deficiency anemia;
- uremia (as a consequence of renal failure);
- Parkinson's disease;
- type 2 diabetes mellitus;
- compression of the spinal nerve;
- complications after gastric surgery;
- hormonal disorders;
- venous insufficiency of the lower extremities;
- arthritis;
- heart failure;
- vascular diseases;
- improper functioning of the thyroid gland;
- injuries spinal cord and so on.
Restless legs syndrome is often observed during pregnancy. But if, in addition to this factor, no other causes are found, it does not pose a danger and goes away on its own after childbirth.
When a person with restless legs syndrome jerks his legs and wakes up, the cause should also be sought in excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and protein metabolism disorders.
Getting rid of the problem
People often ask what should I do if I fall asleep and occasionally startle? To fix the problem, you need to know exactly what is causing it. In the case where seizures are the result of a disease, treatment should be directed to the disease. That is, it is not the symptom that is eliminated, but the root cause itself.
For example, if muscle contractions and twitching are associated with epilepsy, the doctor should prescribe antipsychotic medications. medications. In particular, Clonazepam, a drug from the group of benzodiazepine derivatives, helps well. Valproate acid reduces the risk of night cramps. If seizures are detected in children who have had infectious diseases, vaccination will help.
But attacks are often diagnosed in completely healthy people. In this case, they are usually provoked by external stimuli. To get rid of them, protect yourself from negative emotions, which excite the psyche excessively.
Consult a specialist, he will help you determine exactly the reason why you shudder in your sleep and prescribe sedatives or sleeping pills. This will improve the quality of your night's sleep and minimize the number of startles and muscle contractions.
Have you woken up because your limbs are vibrating? The following are simple, but effective tips will help you sleep well. But they do not apply to cases where convulsive contractions are caused by pathological factors. So, we recommend:
You shouldn’t be afraid that you’re twitching in your sleep; what’s worse is an incorrect lifestyle, which can lead to more serious consequences.
