My body suddenly twitched while I was sleeping! Why?

Have you ever had this experience when sleeping: you are about to fall into a sweet dream, but suddenly you get a jolt like you were electrocuted, or you kick involuntarily and wake up instantly! What is going on?

In fact, this phenomenon is called hypnic muscle jerk

This type of muscle twitching occurs frequently in our daily lives, such as hiccups, eyelid twitching, etc. Generally speaking, occasional hypnic jerks are normal as long as they do not affect daily life, and there is no need to overthink it. However, some daily behaviors will indeed increase the frequency of hypnic jerks, such as recent work pressure, long overtime hours, drinking coffee or tea before bed, calcium deficiency, etc., which lead to poor sleep quality and increase hypnic jerks.

However, if you have not done anything recently that affects your sleep quality, but the frequency of twitching while sleeping at night has increased significantly, the amplitude of twitching has increased significantly, and you also have symptoms such as headache and dizziness, then you need to pay attention and it is best to go to the hospital for a check-up in time.