strange sensations

Posted by wil on July 24, 1999 at 09:10:12
Hi,
Sorry this is such a long message.
My doc had no idea what it was...but since i had a 'cycle'
of these symptoms before and lived thru it he thought it
wasn't nescesarry to send me to a neurologist.
I have 2 symptoms...
The first one is what i call 'sleep rocking'..
it's hard to decribe but everytime i fall asleep and wake up
after a very short period of time...say 15 minutes(it differs)..it
feels as if my body is reverbing/rocking in a certain rythem
It feels as if it's moving from left to right a few inches with a
'rythem' of about 250 cycles a minute...
This feeling slowly disappears after a few minutes but it takes
a bit longer to really be totally free of it again...maybe half
an hour.
It can differ in intensity...sometimes it's a very gentle sensation
and sometines it's a very intense feeling..i could allmost use the
word 'violent' for it.
I'm sure i'm not moving at all...my body is actually perfectly
still at those moments.
I don't feel it when i wake up from a full night of sleep but
only from short naps and it seems also from just closing my
eyes for a prolonged time while deeply relaxing without really
getting into a state of light sleep.
It's not sleep paralysis cause occosialy i've had that and it's
nothing like the above.
The other feeling is what i call the 'head lag' or 'visual
lag' when my head returns to center after looking left or
right.
So lets say i have my head turned left..and then i turn it
back to center.
Then it's as if the feeling of the actual movement comes
a second orso later then the actual movement itself.
Or as if my brain processes the movement or the visual
clues of that movement a second to late.
Kinda like 'my head has turned but my brain realises it
to late'
These two symptoms always accompany each other
I first develope the first one,the sleep rocking,which slowly
increases in intensity over a few weeks...
Then i develope the second symptom..which also increases
in intensity, from a few times a day to allmost everytime i turn my
head,over a period of a  week orso.
then they disappear in reversed order..
First the "head lag" disappears slowly in about a week....then the
"bedrocking" disappears, but this one goes away slower...and will
decrease in intesity over a few months till it's hardly noticable
anymore
It can be gone for a year or more...and then the entire cycle begins
again.
This might not be related but i have different size pupils
when i wake up in the morning..the left pupil is smaller then the
right one, it weares of in about 15 minutes then both are the same
size again.
I came across one other person who experiences the 'head lag' but
she was diagnosed with epilepsy and "Arnold Chiari malformation" and
i don't think i have either of those.
Thanx for this great forum
Wil
Posted by CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS on July 24, 1999 at 12:02:48
Dear Wil:
Sorry to hear about your "cycle".  The best way to find out about your sleep-like paralysis is to have a sleep study performed.  That will allow your neurologist to see if there is any related neurological dysfunction that may be causing your symptoms.  It may be one of the paroxysmal sleep disorders.  The other event of feeling like your lagging with your vision as you move side to side sounds either cerebellar or vestibular.  There are several centers across the country that have vestibular experts, we at the Cleveland Clinic, Harvard, UCLA have centers.  I would have it checked out with one of these super specialist, or at least contact them.
Sincerely,
CCF Neuro MD