Why when i’m trying to sleep, sometimes my body do the fake fall thing ?
In: Biology
So it’s my understanding that as you fall asleep, your brain paralyzes the rest of your body to prevent yourself from acting out your dreams.
Before your brain can give the rest of your body the all clear to fall asleep, it checks to see if your body is actually paralyzed, and when you feel that falling/jolting feeling, it was just a result of your body not being completely paralyzed when your brain “checked”
Sleep paralysis works much in the same way, just the other way around. ( Your body is still paralyzed but your conscious brain turns on)
Sorry in advance for formatting
i had always heard this referred to as the “primordial shake”, an instinct to keep yourself from falling too asleep, and thereby vulnerable to predators
It’s called a [Hypnic Jerk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk), and it’s not exactly known what causes it. It happens to healthy people pretty much at random. Some people think its related to an ancient reflex that kept monkeys from falling out of trees at night, but there isn’t much evidence.
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