Feeling like I'm falling

[gildog]

I have been looking at this board for a while and really like it.  I have really bad anxiety and depression.  I do take medications and it keeps it at bay but as you may know it doesnt always work.  Last night I fell asleep on the couch and two times I woke up with the feeling that I was falling and I caught myself and woke up.  Could this be due to anxiety?  Thanks for your help.

[little_blue_jay]

Yes I get those jerks too, they vary in where they happen with me, not every night though. Sometimes it's one leg, sometimes one arm, sometimes it's my whole body! It really started scaring me badly, I was getting afraid to fall asleep, until one night I got out of bed and searched the internet (yes yes I know I shouldn't search symptoms on the computer! but in this case it helped me calm my fears!) and found that it is a harmless and normal occurence when sleep is near, it is called a "hypnic jerk", sleep experts have studied it and don't really know why it happens, but they do say it is normal, and once I read that I calmed down about it, cuz I have bad anxiety, I was getting scared that it would happen every night, plus I have this fear that my heart is gonna stop in my sleep, I actually had started thinking that that jerk was my heart stopping and my body had to jerk it back into action, I know that might sound absurd to some people but that's what I thought, until I read that the jerk is normal.

I also have the falling sensation and my naturopath told me I have BPPV, which is a type of vertigo, sometimes I have it real bad when I turn over in bed, and I know I'm safe and not going to fall but it is frightening nonetheless. Perhaps get your doctor to test you for BPPV?

Keep us updated on how you're doing and good luck!

[bachsmom]

i feel like im falling sometimes when im awake or falling asleep. sometimes at school at my locker, or sometimes as im falling asleep.
i also get a jerk in my back. any ideas?

[shelzmike]

The short answer is yes. I get this too. I used to get it more often when I was worse off, but now that I am much better, it only happens if I fall asleep when I am not planning to (or when I fall asleep somewhere other than my bed - like when I am rocking the baby to sleep).

While I am not a doctor, I do know what this is (most likely) attributed to. See, anxiety is nothing more than over sensitization of our sympathetic nervous system, which is directly linked and acted upon by adrenaline, which for the most part, causes all the symptoms of anxiety. Just because you are asleep does not mean that this system is not working. In most cases it is at much a lower level, but as a natural defense - it is still on alert. You may be surprised but there are little things that you may not be aware of that are causing you to wake up quickly and feel like you were falling - such as a noise that you are not consciously aware that you hear.

I am not sure why, but if you wake up very quickly from a near-unconcious sleep state, your equilibrium (inner ear, eyes, etc.) management is a couple of half steps behind, which gives us the feeling of vertigo (falling or dizziness).

Finally, you may be experiencing these feelings in the wrong order. What I mean is that you may jolt awake because you feel like you are falling, but in actuality, you are jolting awake FIRST, and then (because your anxiety can jump in instantaneously) feeling dizzy or like you are falling. It just happens so fast and you are semi-conscious at the time that your brain processes the feelings backwards.

What I always do is simply tell myself - I am obviously not falling and it is just my anxiety and I am able to feel better rather quickly. Good luck.

Mike