Why does the body shake when sleeping?

I believe many people have experienced this before: the body suddenly shakes or feels like falling while sleeping. You say you finally fall asleep, but suddenly your body moves and you wake up... What is going on? Is there something wrong with my body?

In fact, this is a very normal phenomenon. The reason why the body feels like it is falling is due to the imbalance of gravity sensing. Let’s talk about it below.

01. Composition of the human brain

As shown in the figure below, this is the composition of the human brain. The cerebrum is the center, the medulla oblongata determines brain death, the pituitary gland secretes hormones, and the other red part is called the cerebellum, which is responsible for sensing movement.

Gravity sensing is also done by the cerebellum. Specifically, the vestibular cerebellum (protocerebellum)

The vestibular cerebellum mainly receives fibers from the ipsilateral vestibular ganglion (primary) and vestibular nucleus (secondary), which pass through the inferior cerebellar peduncle to the flocculonodular cortex. It transmits information about changes in head position and the direction of the head relative to gravity to the cerebellum.

When people sleep, the brain relaxes its monitoring of the human body, such as control of muscles, so some people experience sleep paralysis, where they just can't move.

The cerebellum will also give up control. Once the cerebellum relaxes, it will be the same and will not feel the height. So it doesn't matter whether you sleep in the basement or on the top of a high-rise building. Otherwise, the brain will keep asking the cerebellum to report location information, which will be exhausting.

02. Why do people feel like they are falling?

Sometimes, the brain will act crazy and forget where you slept, so it needs to find balance and quickly tells the cerebellum to find it. The cerebellum is instantly confused - "Didn't I tell you before going to bed?" But even if it complains, it still has to obey the brain's orders.

Based on consistent experience, the cerebellum begins to subconsciously seek balance, and this process is when you feel falling. Because all living things on Earth need to sense gravity, and elevators have felt it before. After all, Newton said that there is universal gravitation!

In most cases, the cerebellum will find it quickly, so you are OK. This is also the reason why most people fall in their sleep but find the platform.

If the cerebellum cannot find it, the brain will force you to wake up and make you feel present in reality. This is the explanation for falling.

03. The brain is not omnipotent...

In fact, you have to accept the reality that the brain is not omnipotent. It can doze off, act crazy, and sometimes even lose control of the body.

For example, hysteria is a very scary disease. Part of the reason is that the brain thinks that a part of your body is not working. So, some people suddenly become aphasic or blind. In fact, there is no organic problem. It is the result of the brain's self-suggestion. There is also selective amnesia, which can also be attributed to this, such as Hua Qiangu mm.

The funniest thing is that when you are sleeping too deeply, your brain can't help but wonder, is the host really asleep? Or dead? So in order to verify this, the brain decides to make you tremble. Hahahaha, many people will suddenly tremble in their sleep, this is the reason.

However, it is better to be content with what you have. The brain is such a high-end institution. It has been hard enough to accompany you for so many years. If one day the brain gets tired of you and stops playing with you, and then plays with itself, then it will be a mental breakdown...

04. Additional Notes

I'm sure everyone has experienced this: it's the first time you go to a place or meet someone, but you feel like you've been there or seen them before. That's right, this is déjà vu - deja vu.

This is often because you have received information in the past, but you are not aware of it, but your brain will record the relevant information. One day, when you encounter the same or similar information, your brain will directly extract the corresponding information for comparison, making you feel that this information has happened before. This is a more energy-saving way of brain operation. In fact, in other things, people usually give priority to the most familiar way to deal with things, which is the principle.

When it comes to new and unknown things, people need to use old known things to understand them, and the same goes for the brain.