Myoclonic Jerks Several Times a Night??

[TexasLady42]

I am hoping for some advice. For the past year I have been having problems sleeping as when I start to relax and am about to sleep my body jerks. Sometimes it is my upper torso area or it will be my whole body. It startles me awake and causes alot of anxiety. It can happen several times a night and I worry that it is seizure related or something is wrong with me.

I have been to a Neurologist, and they did an MRI of the brain and spine..all was normal. My doctor never really gave me a diagnosis? He gave me a prescription for Baclofen to relax my muscles.

Can you tell me if I should be worried? It is scary me..plus I do suffer from anxiety and I also am in my early 40's and was wondering if this could be hormone related?

I have read about sleep starts..but mine can occur 5 or 6 times before I can sleep..is that normal?

Thank you very much for your time, I truly appreciate it.

Worried wart here!

[jilsos]

Hi everybody.  I wanted to share with you all that the answer to this problem is Jesus Christ.  Please for your own sake 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 your own sake find a Holy-Spirit filled Christian or Holy-Spirit filled church where you can ask the pastor or the Christian about deliverance (deliverance is only prayer to God (read Jesus) and talking to demons telling them to go in the name of Jesus - there is nothing more extreme than that.  If anyone suggests anything strange, don't believe them - find a real Holy-Spirit Christian/church).  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 you can be healed.

[roysgal]

I been having trouble with my body jerking as I drift off to sleep.  It is not just a one or two time thing.  My body jerks in a series of 3 times back to back more than 5 times.  It is increasing.  Its gotten to where I much rather stay awake then go to sleep.  I am also kicking my husband during these jerking spells.  I am at wits end.  I don't know where or who to turn to.

Rachel

[Lisacj]

Mine started when I was in my late 20's.  They originally thought I had Restless Leg Syndrom because it was only in my legs.  When the medications for that did not work, they did many tests and tried many different medications.  They finally came to the conclusion that I have Myoclonic Eplipsy.

Almost 15 years later, my siezures have changed from when they first started.  Now I get them in all different parts of my body (including vocal  seizures sometimes).  There is no rhyme or reason to when I will get them, or what part of the body they will hit.

I can go months without one.  I did go through a period of time about 6 years ago, that I had to be hospitilized because they were all night and out of control.

I have heard that the way to tell if you are having plain myoclonic jerks or you have epileptic myoclonis, is if you feel the 'aura'.  From what I have read, all epilepsy comes with an 'aura'.  I do have the aura.  It's hard to explain, but I know when I'm going to have seizures and what part of the body they will be in.  The only way to know for sure is to consult a neurologist and have an EEG.

If you do have myoclonic eplipsy, don't worry.  I can be controlled with medication.  These seizures are nothing to be afraid of, just extremely annoying.

Best Wishes!
love,
Lisa

[Red931]

This just happened to me again 10 minutes ago. I was just falling asleep with my CPAP on and I jerked up from the pillow to the point that i was just about sitting up. I had not slept well the night before and have been overtired all day.

I guess I need to be checked out for this condition.

[Red931]

This has been happening to me lately as I have not slept well for over two weeks. I have sleep apnea and my mask was leaking but replacing the mask has only solved part of the problem.

I was taken to the ER this past Monday with palpitations and they saud they were most likely caused because of my lack of sleep also as it has never happened before and all tests came back normal.

I guess I had better find a way to get some sleep. This post was very informative for me. I hoped it helped you as well Texaslady.

[Dr Vinod]

Myoclonic  seizures are brief, shock-like jerks of a muscle or a group of muscles. "Myo" means muscle and "clonus"  means rapidly alternating contraction and relaxation—jerking or twitching—of a muscle.

A jerk is an involuntary myoclonic twitch which occurs just as the subject is beginning to fall asleep. Physically, resemble the "jump" made when a person is startled.
Jerks are usually felt once or twice per night.
When a subject is deprived of sleep and is trying to fight sleep,  jerks can occur more often. This normally happens to subjects who have deprived themselves of sleep for longer than 24 hours, or to those who have recently awakened after insufficient sleep.

You have to go for an EEG and corelate your symptoms.
Some episodes of myoclonus are normal. Some myoclonic seizures occur in reflex epilepsies.
I think your case nothing much to worry as neurologist thinks it is mild.
Take care!