Doctor explains why your body jolts when you're about to sleep as there are 'triggers'

When you're tired and need some sleep, there's nothing more annoying than having your body actively working against you. For some people, it can be a struggle to switch your mind off before bedtime, while others may experience sudden jolts that prevent sleep entirely.

It has prompted Dr Sooj Kukadia, an NHS doctor, to share why some people experience "night time glitches and hypnic jerks" when they're trying to rest after a long day. In a TikTok video, he said: "Do you know someone who glitches in their sleep? This is called a hypnic or hypnagogic jerk and is an involuntary sudden jumping sensation in the body."

Explaining when it happens, he says you must be in the transition stage between being awake and asleep for it to occur. He said: "We don't know what causes it but one theory suggests that our brains gets confused by the signal as we fall asleep and by our muscles relaxing and it thinks we're falling. It reacts by twitching our muscles. People usually only really notice them if they wake up from their sleep because of these jolts."

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He claims it could even be an evolutionary acquired trait to stop our ancestors from falling out of trees. The jolts can be triggered by stress, anxiety, physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation, nicotine and caffeine and too much exercise before bed.

He recommends booking an appointment with your doctor if they've been happening for a long period of time or they start to happen while you're awake. Commenting on his video, one user said: "I was told our brain thinks we’re dying so it gives us a jolt." Another user added: "I do this all the time."

A third user said: "Happens to me every night while I’m trying to get to sleep and also wakes me when deeply asleep. Also suffer from sleep walking, vivid dreams and occasional sleep paralysis." One more user added: "Usually it happens because you are dreaming so your brain gets confused between dream and reality. with me it happens in dreams where I start falling or I am about to fall."

Another user said: "Literally happens every night for me all night. I don’t sleep, I might get like three four hours and that’s a good night. I literally go all the time with no sleep cuz my body just doesn’t allow me to." A final user added: "This happens to me after 3 days of no sleep and it gets so bad I start to get anxiety I hate it so now I do everything I can to keep a steady daily night of sleep."