Thinking I'm falling when I'm asleep?!

[Alixw]

Has anyone had this thing happen to them where you just drift off to sleep but jump up suddenly beacuse you think you are falling? I wouldn't call it a dream as such, because it's too quick and i don't think that I'm properly asleep, but it really wakes me up!! I've heard a few times that when people get this it's when your heart skips a beat. Is there any truth in that?!

[toecrusher]

i get this sometimes,  someone told me years ago it was all to do with muscle spasms, as you are letting the body go! the muscles react

[milly143]

I get that quite a lot. If I fall asleep in the car I often dream that we are crashing and wake up just before a collision, then obviously everything is fine. Its a strange sensation but I dont find it frightening. I have heard rumors that if you fall in a dream , like off a curb and actually land rather then waking it means you have actually died. How on earth anyone could ever know that is true is beyond me.

[bernardo]

It's called a "myoclonic jerk".  I think it's got something to do with drifting from one stage of sleep to another.  It has got something to do with the body switching off its muscles and becoming paralysed in order not to act out the actions of a dream.

[dirtyharriet]

LOL Milly143, I must be dead then! I often used to dream that I was falling and only woke up with a bang as I crashed to the ground.

[morg_monster]

i read that it is because: sometimes when you are falling asleep, your body becomes too deeply relaxed and there's a danger that you could stop breathing.  The myoclonic jerk happens to pull you out of this very deeply relaxed state, with the usual side effect that you totally wake up.

[thepheebster]

I get it! I love it, wish I knew how to just make it happen!