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5 year old twitching and jerking during sleep
I have a 5 year old son. In March of last year he experienced an episode where he had repetative jerks of his whole body-similar to what I call "sleep starts"-but they happened repeatedly about every 20 seconds or so. They started about 20 minutes after he fell asleep. They did not fully wake him up, but, after they went on for several minutes, I woke him up, hoping to stop them. When he went back to sleep, they started all over again and again I woke him up after about 20 minutes, just to have them start all over again when he went back to sleep. This went on for several hours and, just when my husband and I were about to take him to the ER, they stopped as quickly as they started. My poor little guy was exhausted and actually sore the next day. We took him to his Dr. the next morning and the doctor said they were myoclonic jerks. He ordered an MRI, the results of which were normal.
I had never seen my son do this before, although, every night for at least the past couple of years, right as he fell asleep, he would twitch for about 15-20 minutes. This was usually fairly minor twitching of his arms and legs that never had any sort of rhythm to them. It was actually how we knew he was finally asleep.
He had not had any more of the myoclonic jerks, as far as I know, since last year, although he did continue the nightly twitching as he went to sleep. Last week he had another episode of the myoclonic jerks that lasted for about an hour, this time starting about 4am instead of right when he went to sleep. I again took him to the doctor who has now ordered a sleep-deprived EEG that we are to have next week.
Right now my son and I are sharing a bed, as we are in the process of moving and my husband has the rest of our furniture at our new house in another state. I have noticed that my son twitches off and on throughout the night. I know that he's always been a restless sleeper-all over his bed, frequently waking up, although not coming to full wakefulness, just sort of sitting up, 1/2 asleep and then laying back down. He is very hard to get up in the morning, even if he's been "asleep" for 10-11 hours per night. On the weekends, when he doesn't have to get up for preschool, he will often sleep 13-14 hours if I'll let him. It seems to me that he doesn't really settle into a good deep sleep until the early morning hours. He often complains about being tired during the day. He struggles with focus and hyperactive type behaviors (although he hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD or anything) and his teacher says he doesn't have as much "stamina" as the other kids. He easily falls asleep in the car, especially in the evenings on the way home. When he gets ready to go to sleep he doesn't complain about strange feelings in his legs (such as in Restless Leg Syndrome) although he sometimes, during the day, will talk about really feeling like he needs to stretch his legs.
Sorry for the long question (I just wanted you to have all of the background info), but does anyone have any idea what might be going on? Should I be talking to his doctor about having a sleep study done? Could it be that all of this is normal and has been happening most of his life and I just didn't notice it as much since we didn't share a bed that often? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I had never seen my son do this before, although, every night for at least the past couple of years, right as he fell asleep, he would twitch for about 15-20 minutes. This was usually fairly minor twitching of his arms and legs that never had any sort of rhythm to them. It was actually how we knew he was finally asleep.
He had not had any more of the myoclonic jerks, as far as I know, since last year, although he did continue the nightly twitching as he went to sleep. Last week he had another episode of the myoclonic jerks that lasted for about an hour, this time starting about 4am instead of right when he went to sleep. I again took him to the doctor who has now ordered a sleep-deprived EEG that we are to have next week.
Right now my son and I are sharing a bed, as we are in the process of moving and my husband has the rest of our furniture at our new house in another state. I have noticed that my son twitches off and on throughout the night. I know that he's always been a restless sleeper-all over his bed, frequently waking up, although not coming to full wakefulness, just sort of sitting up, 1/2 asleep and then laying back down. He is very hard to get up in the morning, even if he's been "asleep" for 10-11 hours per night. On the weekends, when he doesn't have to get up for preschool, he will often sleep 13-14 hours if I'll let him. It seems to me that he doesn't really settle into a good deep sleep until the early morning hours. He often complains about being tired during the day. He struggles with focus and hyperactive type behaviors (although he hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD or anything) and his teacher says he doesn't have as much "stamina" as the other kids. He easily falls asleep in the car, especially in the evenings on the way home. When he gets ready to go to sleep he doesn't complain about strange feelings in his legs (such as in Restless Leg Syndrome) although he sometimes, during the day, will talk about really feeling like he needs to stretch his legs.
Sorry for the long question (I just wanted you to have all of the background info), but does anyone have any idea what might be going on? Should I be talking to his doctor about having a sleep study done? Could it be that all of this is normal and has been happening most of his life and I just didn't notice it as much since we didn't share a bed that often? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Has there been any update from the original poster? I could have written this myself. My son has these movements off an on all night sometimes hundreds of them a night. He sleeps 10-12 hours and would take naps if given the opportunity. He acts hyper in the afternoon/evening and I believe it is due to being tired and trying to stay awake. He can make himself stay awake but if we are in the car for more than 20 minutes he is asleep. He has been diagnosed with benign rolandic epilepsy but this is not the same as his tonic seizures. He has a sleep study consult scheduled for August. He is 6.5 years old now
Daily53, I am a.mother.of a.6 year old little girl and would like to know if your daughter has sleep seizures or just staring seizures,my daughter has sleep seizures but I often sometimes see her staring into space so long I have to call her name to get her out of it, she'll shake her head and say sorry I was in a daze...I'm.really worried
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My 4yo has seizures but sge only has them every blue moon and they are usually staring seizures. She was just diagnosed with Epilepsy and they gave her medication for it of course. They gave me the wrong amount and she ran out and I will not be able to get it until the 15th. She hasnt had it for 2 days and this morning I noticed her kind of trembling while she was sleeping. When I tried to wake her up she seemed real drowsy, but she was responding. She is not sick and doesnt have a fever so I am curious to know if that is the effect of the medicine or just lack of sleep?
Hi everybody. I wanted to share with you all that the answer to the problems your children are having is Jesus Christ. Please for the sake of your children don't just ignore this message. My son (5 years old) and my grandchildren (3 and 2 years) recently began to have consistent twitches/jerking in their bodies during sleep, it seemed like the twitches just flowed through their bodies. It usually only happened once they fell asleep and could last up to 20 seconds or more (a rough guess). This all started when my granddaughter (3yo) woke one night about 5 weeks ago, terrified and watching something walking around the room, which her mother could not see. This continued each time she fell asleep for the next few days. We are Christians, so we realized this was a spiritual problem, so when she was asleep we commanded the spirit/s to go. She woke while we were talking to the demon and she did the same thing she had been doing previously, but after a short while she stopped and fell back to sleep. She never recollected anything that happened while she was asleep during any of these episodes. She was much brighter the next morning and back to her happy self. Unfortunately my daughter told me when she went to check on her 2yo the previous night while putting 3yo back to bed, the 2yo woke up and looked in the corner of the room and said "what's that" - my daughter couldn't see anything. He also woke the following day during his nap time afraid of something my daughter could not see. Since that time both of these grandchildren have begun to twitch and jerk in their sleep regularly. We spend a lot of time with my daughter and grandchildren as they visit often, and within the last week, my 5yo son has also begun twitching and jerking in his sleep. He was sleeping with me 3 nights ago and his twitching went on for most of the night (while I was awake) and it seemed to flow up and down his body. We have continued to pray for the children throughout, but more intensely these last couple of days, and last night my 5yo son had no unusual twitches/jerking at all (apart from the usual twitches everyone gets during sleep). My grandchildren's twitches have slowed down considerably and will probably be gone within the next few days. This is a spiritual problem. Please for the sake of your children and/or yourself, find a Holy-Spirit filled Christian or Holy-Spirit filled church where you can ask the pastor or the Christian about deliverance. If you want to, you can go and look at a site I look at which is called "Dove Ministries", the evangelist on that site is a man by the name of Bill Subritsky, he has a live programme for healing once a month where people from all over the world can Skype him and he will pray for them for healing. People are often delivered while they are receiving their healing. Please reach out to Jesus Christ so that your children can be healed and yourself if you need it.
hi this just happen to my 5yr old daughter,how is your son.hers lasted 20 sect,while she was going of to sleep.
hi i just decided to google this,because my daughter who is 5yrs old,just had this exact thing happen to her,while she was falling asleep,it lasted 20 sec,and it was about 3-4 times.
Hi,
First of all I am not a doctor but a worried father of an eight year old son. My son is going through the same and keep shaking after every 10-20 seconds. I did through research and observed is food intake routine to figure out the issue as doctors didn't find anything and said everything is normal. I am a big time follower of Ayurveda so I did extensive research and observed my son's food intake throughout to determine the issue.
What I found is pretty interesting. Since I am a single parent of my son, my grandmother prepares his food always. And I found she was feeding him fired food all the time with very less (or no fiber at all), also popcorn (which has very high amount of salt, one more thing my mother give him milk right after he is awake. Oily food, high salt intake and dairy product (in moderation it doesn't hurt though) weakens the heart, blood flow and nervous system which sent my son into stress, anxiety and fear.
Here is what I did which showed significant improvement.
For the first day I gave him only warm water and fruit juice at the max, this helped to expel oil from his body that he got via fried food.
for the next two days, I have him only juicy fruit i.e. Oranges, Pineapple, Papaya, Watermelon and fruit jucies.
third day onward I introduced very light food combined fruits. for e.g. wheat cereal, Khichadi (indian dish you can google for recipe) try.
Most importantly I started spending more time with him, playing with him and started following a routine where I give him warm glass of water the moment he wakes up and then take him out along with him for brisk walking or mild running to increase bloodflow in his body. Most important thing is keeping him happy all the time to reduce his stress level.
I hope this will help.
First of all I am not a doctor but a worried father of an eight year old son. My son is going through the same and keep shaking after every 10-20 seconds. I did through research and observed is food intake routine to figure out the issue as doctors didn't find anything and said everything is normal. I am a big time follower of Ayurveda so I did extensive research and observed my son's food intake throughout to determine the issue.
What I found is pretty interesting. Since I am a single parent of my son, my grandmother prepares his food always. And I found she was feeding him fired food all the time with very less (or no fiber at all), also popcorn (which has very high amount of salt, one more thing my mother give him milk right after he is awake. Oily food, high salt intake and dairy product (in moderation it doesn't hurt though) weakens the heart, blood flow and nervous system which sent my son into stress, anxiety and fear.
Here is what I did which showed significant improvement.
For the first day I gave him only warm water and fruit juice at the max, this helped to expel oil from his body that he got via fried food.
for the next two days, I have him only juicy fruit i.e. Oranges, Pineapple, Papaya, Watermelon and fruit jucies.
third day onward I introduced very light food combined fruits. for e.g. wheat cereal, Khichadi (indian dish you can google for recipe) try.
Most importantly I started spending more time with him, playing with him and started following a routine where I give him warm glass of water the moment he wakes up and then take him out along with him for brisk walking or mild running to increase bloodflow in his body. Most important thing is keeping him happy all the time to reduce his stress level.
I hope this will help.
I was hoping this wasn't a symptom of lyme. I was worried because my son has the sleep twitching too, and I'm 99.9% certain that I have lyme; I had an insect bite (surrounded by a large bulls-eye rash) 14 yrs ago. At the time, I assumed it was probably a spider bite. My hubs and I debated whether I should go to the ER since it was unlike any bite we'd ever seen, I never went (wish I had). Since then, I've been plagued by a myriad of lyme symptoms - too many to list. I have had an ELISA test which came back negative, but I know they are not completely accurate and produce a lot of false negatives. I've been bounced from doc to doc and diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Anyways, I get random muscle twitches all throughout my body and they get much worse when finally relaxing at night, and hubs says I twitch in my sleep. I've been worried that my son's twitching might be a lyme symptom, since the spirochete can cross the placenta; and if I have it, there's a chance that he may have been infected in utero. I hope this is not the case.. Oh, and I live in Wisc, which has a very high incidence of lyme.
While sleeping, my children do a lot of twitching, thrashing, and sitting up when they are having digestive problems. As babies they suffered a lot from acid reflux. We finally found that a supplement of digestive enzymes and probiotics helped them a lot and makes it so they are not nearly so restless at night.
While sleeping, my children do a lot of twitching, thrashing, and sitting up when they are having digestive problems. As babies they suffered a lot from acid reflux. We finally found that a supplement of digestive enzymes and probiotics helped them a lot and makes it so they are not nearly so restless at night.
My son is 17 yo. first time he had them when he was about to have his apedix remoove he was under big stress. He was sleeping then wakes up and start ucontroloblle hands and legs jerking it last for about 10 min, he is in obsolut cancheus condition when this happens. After one year pas we were at his comp. , it happen again that day last thesame 10 min, the pattern of those jerks are thesame, Now, enother year after we went for aur hollydays to florida and it happening every night, he gous to bed sleeps for 40min to 2.00 hour and it starts again. He talled me that after each episode he has a lot of energy, During each episode he would wake up and becouse he is very scert he starts walking back and force, while his jerks with his hands and legs, they look to me like shock-like contractions. Us usuale they last 10 - 15 min, when they stop hi gous to bad and sleeps normal untill the morning. Sims to me it happens only when we are on the trip or vacation. Is anybody expirience something like that?
It's been many years since your post! Did you ever come across any answers? It's alarming to me as my son had similar episodes. Turned out he had Lyme disease and coinfections. We live in California where I didn't know it exist. I hope you've found your answers by now. I'd love to hear an update if you have one.
Be well
Be well
i have the same issues. i feel like i have things crawling inside my legs at night..(its worse when i have sugar and pregnant..i cant sleep at all..) its hard for me to go to sleep..my mind constantly goes on and on.. when i do fall asleep i get woken up by my jerking or i feel as if i am falling.. i do this alot. my husband thought i was abused at some time in life. i always feel tired. its much easier to get help when your young if you have insurance. i dont have any so i wish my mother would have checked this out sooner. instead i have to live with this.. so what ever this may be..please for the sake of your childrens future..it will not go away.. get help. thank you.
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Hi how are ypu? My 5 year old beagn having the same symtpoms when falling asleep with the jerking and twitching for the first 15-20 mins and then its intemittent throughout the evening. How is your child doing now? What was your end result? Thank you for sharing your story.
my daughter who is nine has a similar set of issues esp twitching as she falls asleep, esp if she is tired or has been especially physically active during the day. her ped seems unconcerned as it has not escalated or affected her daily life. any insight would be appreciated, thanks!
My son is 10 months old and has these frequent jerks in his sleep as well. He was born at 37 weeks. It appears he is just restless. I try to wake him up because the jrking will not stop for at least 15 to 30 minutes, but I am never successful. He is extreamly tired but cannot fall asleep until the jerking stops. Please let me know your sons prognosis.
Hello,
My son who is 8 years old has the exact same jerking while sleeping. I spoke with his doctor about it and he said they were normal. He mentioned it was his body trying to relax, but I've become a little concerned, as they happen frequently (like every 10-20 seconds). Sometimes, he'll be fine and sleep for hours without having them, then other times, he'll have them for several hours. I recently began to notice them in the early AM when my son comes to our bed. The jerks don't bother him, but they keep me up. One time, I also noticed his eyes moving while shut and soon as I moved him, it all stopped. He's an active boy and it doesn't seem to affect his sleeping, as he goes to bed around 9pm and is up between 6-7am. I have sent his doctor a message again and want to know if he should have a EEG test done.
If anyone has any insite/info regarding a similar experience with your child, your response would be appreciated.
Thanks & God bless!
Karen
My son who is 8 years old has the exact same jerking while sleeping. I spoke with his doctor about it and he said they were normal. He mentioned it was his body trying to relax, but I've become a little concerned, as they happen frequently (like every 10-20 seconds). Sometimes, he'll be fine and sleep for hours without having them, then other times, he'll have them for several hours. I recently began to notice them in the early AM when my son comes to our bed. The jerks don't bother him, but they keep me up. One time, I also noticed his eyes moving while shut and soon as I moved him, it all stopped. He's an active boy and it doesn't seem to affect his sleeping, as he goes to bed around 9pm and is up between 6-7am. I have sent his doctor a message again and want to know if he should have a EEG test done.
If anyone has any insite/info regarding a similar experience with your child, your response would be appreciated.
Thanks & God bless!
Karen
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Can you let us know what happened after? My 9 yr old is going through the same thing as your son did. Am so worried! Thanks!
Hi wssquared77, how are you and how is your son doing? Can you provide some more details regarding the jerks he is going through - how often they occur and is it a continuous one or keeps repeating in an on and off pattern? Have you observed whether these jerks do continue even after he falls asleep? Is there anything that you do or it stops on its own? Usually, hypnic - sleep jerks or twitches are normal and can occur when he tends to fall asleep or while trying to wake up from sleep. He might also probably be suffering from stress and anxiety, which can also be a trigger factor. Also probably be having Rhythmic movement disorder. He needs proper rest and relaxation. It is better to consult a Neurologist and a Sleep specialist for further evaluation. Take care and update on the progress.
I just sent you my info as a message, please check you inbox. My 3 1/2 year old daughter has been having the exact same issue for the pass 3 nights. Love to know if you've found anything out about your son. I hope he is doing well. Please let me know how is is doing and if you learned anything new. Thank you so much.
Your situation leaves so much to say, so if I sound abrupt, it is just to not write a book.
Daytime sleepiness and lack of stamina - classic for those with disrupted sleep.
Trouble with focus and hyperactive behavior - ditto.
Excessive need for sleep - can indicate quality of sleep is poor
RLS - is not just in evenings, it can be any time one is sitting still, and feeling a need to move around - "stretch" their legs is a common description.
Myoclonic jerks - movments during sleep when rythmic are sometimes diagnosed as periodic limb movment disorder.
A sleep study would tell you and the doctors exactly what you are working with. You would know how disrupted his sleep actually is. Short of that, it may be helpful to video tape a few minutes of his movements. A pediatric neurologist may recognize what they are and know what to do without a study.
Before going to that length, has he had complete iron studies done or at the very least, a ferritin level? Some movement disorders have been linked to anemia and it may not show up in the routine blood counts as it may be in the storage iron. Even what is considered in the normal range may not be adequate for those prone to these movement problems. I am not knowledgeable about pediatric levels. In adults a ferritin level of at least 60 is optimal when dealing with sleep movement issues and/or RLS.
Your mother instincts are good. If you resolve his sleep, you may improve many other aspects of his life. Best wishes.
Daytime sleepiness and lack of stamina - classic for those with disrupted sleep.
Trouble with focus and hyperactive behavior - ditto.
Excessive need for sleep - can indicate quality of sleep is poor
RLS - is not just in evenings, it can be any time one is sitting still, and feeling a need to move around - "stretch" their legs is a common description.
Myoclonic jerks - movments during sleep when rythmic are sometimes diagnosed as periodic limb movment disorder.
A sleep study would tell you and the doctors exactly what you are working with. You would know how disrupted his sleep actually is. Short of that, it may be helpful to video tape a few minutes of his movements. A pediatric neurologist may recognize what they are and know what to do without a study.
Before going to that length, has he had complete iron studies done or at the very least, a ferritin level? Some movement disorders have been linked to anemia and it may not show up in the routine blood counts as it may be in the storage iron. Even what is considered in the normal range may not be adequate for those prone to these movement problems. I am not knowledgeable about pediatric levels. In adults a ferritin level of at least 60 is optimal when dealing with sleep movement issues and/or RLS.
Your mother instincts are good. If you resolve his sleep, you may improve many other aspects of his life. Best wishes.
1 Comments
My daughter 5year old healthy. She suffers from the jerky type jumping when sleeping goes on and on. Extremely tired all the time can be really hard to wake for school very lethargic with this in mornings. She can sleep 12 hours and still be sleepy. Also leaves drool patches on bed most mornings. Has had tonsils and adenoids removed as this is what we originally thought was the issues but no we were wrong. Any advice or suggestions would be great.
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