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Electric/Energy surge to brain when trying to fall asleep.

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GD10
GD10

Hi guys, I'm new to the site but glad I found somewhere to share my symptoms.

I'm getting a sort of electrical shock when trying to fall asleep. This electrical shock seems to be described on other sites as 'jumps' or 'zaps' or 'surges of energy'. It happens not when I'm sleeping but the moment I am about to fall asleep. Its like a sort of butterflies feeling in the stomach and then a rush/surge of energy to the brain which gives you a 'jump' and electrical feeling in the head and sometimes upper body. The more extreme they are sometimes produce a twitch in maybe the arm or leg. Its not painful but I guess is quite scary when it happens. These can happen numerous times a night.

Many friends/family I have spoken to say this is normal and they are familiar with the symptoms (I understand what they mean as it can be quite similar to when you suddenly wake from a bad dream) but mine seem to be a lot more often and extreme. I know my symptoms don't seem to be normal.

I've been having these for about 5-6 weeks now (some nights are worse than others) but generally its been more or less every night. This has turned into a vicious cycle because when you actually close your eyes at night to go to sleep you are actually waiting for the 'shock' to happen instead of trying to sleep. Obviously the less sleep you have, the less functional you are the next day and so on and so on. You then get sleep deprived which I believe also may trigger this.

The only other thing I can add to my symptoms is sometimes during the day I get a spaced out/empty/dizzy/cloudy feeling in the head (hard to explain). Sometimes this can turn into a sort of brain/head sensation where you feel you need to kind of 'shake it off'. Again, its hard to explain, something like if you have restless feet and you need to kick out of it but its in the head so you need to give yourself a shake to snap out of it.

I have read quite a bit about anxiety/stress and these symptoms may fall into this category but the issue I have with this, is that I have nothing to be anxious/stressful about! All is OK with job, money, house, relationship etc so I'm not sure how this all started. Could I be anxious about this illness? Again, a vicious cycle?

About me - I'm a fit and healthy 35 year old guy. I actually exercise quite a lot (go to gym/swim 4 times a week and have run numerous marathons over the past year). Although this fitness regime has stopped since I have started having these symptoms as I am feeling quite weak/tired due to not getting much sleep due to it. I have no major prior illnesses and I am not on any medication. I don't want to get in the habit of taking sleep medication.

I have been to the hospital and spent the night where they performed numerous blood tests/Heart ECG/X Rays/Urine and all came back OK. The only issue I had was slightly high blood pressure (but not high enough to be put on any medication). I have also been for an MRI scan and EEG epilepsy test. I will find the results with these in about 5 weeks time.

Anyway, that's my symptoms and hopefully someone might feel at ease that they are going through something similar.

Reading similar posts on the internet I don't think anyone has come to the conclusion on what in fact is causing these problems, even though a lot of the people actually been for tests and seen doctors. Has anyone experienced these issues?

Thanks guys, feel free to get in touch smile

27 likes, 695 replies

695 Replies

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  • carolineallard7
    carolineallard7 GD10

    Posted

    I also had same thing... For over two years. I got over it with a pill which i have forgot the name. But i can get back to you with it. But when i did not take it, it would start again.

    then, i found a wonderfull homeopatic doctor that made me take those homeopatic pills and after three, four mounths, i don t have them anymore even if i dońt take the pills now. But, i must admit, yesterday i had one little one!

    now, i almost do not ever sleep even if i don t have those shocks for waking me up as soon as i am falling asleep. So, i am pretty desprate about this situation as i am also losing memory, and much more...

    but, thank god i found have learned a meditation technique, which i do when i am in bed and i have learn to not create negativity around the fact that i don t sleep. The technique is called Vipassana. Courses are given for free in vipassana meditation centers around the world. 

    I wish you all to get better and find sleep again.

     

    • dawn19609
      dawn19609 carolineallard7

      Posted

      Hello, I know it's been a few months but I'm experiencing this horrid brain zaps as well, literally every night. It's most pronounced when I'm falling asleep. It has never happened during the day. Can you please share with me the medication that worked for you? Also, any homeopathic pills? I need to do something because I am not sleeping much at all lately. Every time I wake during the night I will have a long serious of these zaps that keep me wide awake until morning. Thank you so much for any help you can provide.
    • dave14099
      dave14099 dawn19609

      Posted

      hi! desperate for answers - did you ever recover ? find any soluttions ?

      dave 35

      sydney

  • genius777
    genius777 GD10

    Posted

    I have been taking medication, because I used to have a psychosis. I have been of medication for 18 months, at times I get very angry, and symptoms return, so I take medication. These medication has left a tremendous impact on my nervous system. I may have used it in a wrong combo. Anyways it doesn't matter. Now I am having the exact symptoms, but my symptoms are anxiety related. Though actually I am not experiencing any anxiety anymore. Interesting it stays the same. Because I am a mad genius, I have learned a meditation technique that enables me to be mad and still reconcile, calibrate, and equilibrize to normal condition through doing excessive love meditation. You can rewire your neurological systems with intensive anti-thesis. When I fear, I visualize love, and all is cured. 
  • aaron50013
    aaron50013 GD10

    Posted

    Thank you so much! I'm so glad I found this. So I'd have this happen for about the last 3-4 years, but very rarely. And for the last month or so it's been happening basically everynight. I can't stand it, it makes me not want to go to sleep because I have no idea what's happening to me, and it follows exactly what you described.

    But I was wondering if anybody experiences sleep paralysis and or old hag syndrome. I've had that for some time now and when I asked my doctor he said I had a very mild case of narcolepsy. Not the type where you fall asleep randomly, but some other variant, or something to that degree. So I was wondering if this could have something to do with the sleep paralysis or a form of narcolepsy. If anybody had any ideas on that please let know!

    • nixthelatter
      nixthelatter aaron50013

      Posted

      Mine is always followed by sleep paralysis but it happens while I am wide awake watching TV sitting up and its terrifying! It takes everything in me to snap out of it and I always know its about to happen when I'm tired at the end of a hard work day and I start getting those pulses through my body. I have yet to find a cure to this beyond standing up and waking my self up by walking around etc...though I am intrigued by this idea someone mentioned a few comments up about this pulse being our brain trying to snap us out of a percieved sleep paralysis it can sense coming on, and it knows it is not supposed to happen yet. I'm merely speculating, but this seems feasible.

      I can tell you guys that sleep paralysis is only supposed to take place during our deepest sleep state- REM sleep, and its to protect our sleeping bodies from acting out our dreams during this deepest stage of sleep where our brains are super active, and its supposed to happen about every 90 minutes but this can be interrupted by various sleep disorders and can cause us to have this REM stage out of order or at the wrong time, and in super rare occasions, whilst still wide awake! (Not unlike what I experience) Apparently without REM sleep for enough time we would die! So our bodies will make it happen one way or another which leads to many wacky sleep disorders. Hope that helps some of you to better understand what's going on with some of us! Good luck!

  • aaron50013
    aaron50013 GD10

    Posted

    Also, I forgot to mention. I've had the sleep paralysis/old hag sydrome for years while I had never been on any medication. But the electric shock thing has only started a few months after being on percocet. I don't know if there's a causal link between the two, but I'm not sure. I have found information on "Brain Shivers" etc. for people on certain anti-depressants and the effect sounds very similar, the main difference being the time at which they occur. As we all know, the percocet is not an anti-depressant at all, but I thought similar things could be at the bottom of this. http://www.howtodothings.com/health-and-fitness/a4391-how-to-understand-brain-shivers.html
    • LaszloLH
      LaszloLH aaron50013

      Posted

      Not sure if these are the same. I had these after I stopped taking Cipralex (Escitalopram ). I had these for 6 month. I called them "ping" but on wiki they call it "brain shiver", "brain zap". had them every 5 minutes for weeks. No pain, only at the back of the head. Doen't go anywhere else. People here are discribing other things.
    • nixthelatter
      nixthelatter aaron50013

      Posted

      Mine symptoms with these pulses first occurred while taking a nerve pain medication called Neurontin, and I read that others on the drug experienced this too, but I haven't taken that in over a year and it still happens almost every evening! Weird, eh?

  • aaron50013
    aaron50013 GD10

    Posted

    Some have suggested the experience resembles a "funny bone" except that it shoots through the entire body, starting from the head.

    Immediately following this shock is a light-headedness which may last for up to ten seconds. It is thought to be a form of epileptiform activity [1][2].

    That page I posted has some good information. The first four lines are off of that page. I've heard some people even compare the feeling to "hitting a funny bone in your brain". So now I'm thinking it might have something to do with an imbalance in the chemicals in your brain. If this is frequently caused by stopping anti-depressants, than it might becaused by a similar phenomenon with some sort of natural chemical imbalance.

  • Gilotine58
    Gilotine58 GD10

    Posted

    Thanks to the original poster. I have been experiencing very similar symptoms for the last 3-4 years. But only in the last couple of weeks has it progressed where the "spaced out" feeling during the day has become constant and to the point where I do not want to be in social situations or, really, outside at all. I've been hoping that rest and sleep will help, but so far, they have not. 

    I'm interested to hear any updates from the original poster and the first reply. 

    I do have a few differences in my symptoms and other observations. My "electrical rush" seems to start from my chest/heart and not the stomach. Part of me thinks that it is a heart related issue, but I've been to a specialist for preliminary tests and nothing was wrong. Also, I actually do not get the rush all that often. Usually only after a night of drinking alcohol. But I get the "spaced out" feeling a lot. Further to that point, what makes me think this may be anxiety/mental is that generally, the spaced out feeling goes away after a few glasses of alcohol. And I begin to feel more "into it" or focused. But if I over do it with the alcohol, then the next day I am sure to have the spaced out feeling throughout the day. So, obviously, I have been not drinking recently, but yet, the symptoms haven't gone away so far. 

  • must35488
    must35488 GD10

    Edited

    As in this thread and many other sites, the person who posted seems to discontinue from the engagement to the replies he received leaving no progress on how we can benifit from our shared symptoms. i hope this message can re-kick this engagement so we can all update each other on the progress of the shared symptoms in this thread.

    what i may add to the symptoms that have been mentioned by GD10( brain electric shock and cloudy brain feeling during the day) is that i witness pin and needle prick sensations on different parts of the body and arm and leg jerks as well( when trying to fall asleep, or even during the day when am just resting or lying down)

    went to nuerologists, psychologists, but with no cure or clue of what they think i may have. they just give you anti-deppressents and sleep pills ( i guess thats becuase they think you are crazy with the symptoms you are telling them, so they guess lets just make him forget by giving you happy pills and pills that make you sleep, lol) but thats not solving the underlying problem that we have.

    with all the sites that i have visited, there doesnt seem to be a medical break through with these conditions, so i guess thats making it harder on us. but i hope with sharing each others experience it could somehow ease the pressure off a bit.

     

    • jeremiah71762
      jeremiah71762 must35488

      Edited

      Everything I have read seems to lead to some sort of Seratonin imbalance.  I read that withdrawl from anti-depressants that flood your system with Seratonin seem to cause the problem temporarily.  I also read that Sycadelic drugs such as LSD and DMT produce very similiar side effects.  I have experienced odd sleeping habbits my whole life with hallucinations during a heavy sleep paralysis within minutes of falling asleep.  I experience symptoms similiar to Narcalepsy regularly.  I have a lot of trouble focusing on anything and my memory seems to be lacking due to my trouble focusing.  I also experience these strange tremors while sleeping that start at either my brain or spine and shoot through my entire body.  I have tried waiting it out and it seems to entirely hinder my ability to hit a sleeping state when the electric shocks begin.  All of these symptoms seem to be connected.  They cause a strange altered state of consciousness between conscious and unconscious.  I would like to know if you experience the same.  
    • anna40932
      anna40932 jeremiah71762

      Posted

      I was waiting on some one to touch on this before I commented. I'm 43 right now but about 10 yrs ago I had episodes like this for about 3months straight, every day. But with just one major difference, and I'm going to take this one step even further here. At the same time as the jolt of electricity hit my head I could feel and hear a suction, and then a whoosh, Pop! Then all of the sudden I or my conscious was floating right above my head at the exact spot of the Pop. Followed by whoosh, suction, Pop and being woken up back into the "physical state" of being awake, even tho I actually woke up as soon as the electricity hit my head. It was a very odd sensation but I knew instantly what it was. It felt exactly like what you can imagine your soul popping out your head while your body is paralyzed. It felt free like I could do anything but, at the same time kind of scary bc I had the feeling that I shouldn't be aware of this happening and esp. not to engage in it and explore. Wish I had the wisdom as I do now and I would try to get a handle on it and see if I could explore. Althought I had the feeling that it was a "no-no" and that I should immediately get back in my body. I wasn't on drugs and I had all the same symptoms as most you guys. Maybe my mind was open to more at the time and that would explain why no Dr. can find a solution. Maybe we all just experienced our consciousness popping out of our body's while we sleep. And then again, maybe not. That was just my experience.
    • susan95644
      susan95644 anna40932

      Posted

      Mine wasn't like I was floating above myself looking down, although that happened to me once when I got raped by a guy who said he could rape me and then I was stupid enough to listen to other people who wanted me to see him again.  So I felt like I was leaving my body and my soul was traveling around the world - anywhere but there.  No, mine was like something like a surge into my head, not like electricity any more but now like something fluid.  One time, either last night or the night before, there was a similar surge going from my wrist into my hand, and I touched my hand with my other hand and felt the flesh was fatter as the surge moved down toward my fingers, aand immediately normal thickness again as the fat part moved down to my fingers.  Then it stopped and I was awake with only the memory of the strangeness that my left hand felt when touching my right hand.  But then last night, which happens sometimes, I got a swollen gland under my ear, and it was thick and it hurt, so that I turned over on my other side, and then the same thing happened on that side, so I lay on my back, but for some reason that wasn't comfortable, so I got a blanket and put it all folded up under my pillow, to raise my head, because the swelling under my ear was going toward my face and on the right side it felt like it was going up into my brain, so I screamed a little and sat up, and then gravity brought what felt  like fluid down from near my hairline back to the fatness under my ear.  So I thought I should take a chlortrimeton antihistamine, and I got out of bed and looked around until I found where I had put them in case of an allergic reaction.  There was a little drying up of my nose, but the lump under my ear remained there, but sleeping with my pillow on top of the folded blanket I was finally able to sleep early in the morning almost before my firstt alarm clock went off and I got up right after the second alarm clock went off, but slept in-between them a little.  I was aiming to just rest even if I couldn't sleep last night, so I got dressed and got in my car and stopped to buy coffee along the way, because the traffic can get bad and one time there was a car accident someplace and all the cars came onto the road in front of me and made me late for work.  So at my lunch break I called my doctor and told him I had a swollen gland under my ear that is swelling on the side of my face a little, and he said to call him tomorrow and maybe he can fit me in.  I used to have a small swollen gland under the same ear when I was a child, and it finally went away after I got some pennicillin from a doctor after the first time I had sex.  A former high school sex education teacher had talked me into it, but she had neglected to remind me to use condoms.  So the small swelling under my ear went away and stayed away for years, but came back a few years ago.  I don't know what can cause it, but if it is going to swell on the side of my face I don't want it to creep up to my hairline and into my brain, like a former college friend had told had happened to her when she got an infected tooth and couldn't get out of bed for a week or two and friends finally got the door opened and found her there and got her antibiotics and saved her life.  She isn't my friend since then, because she was kind of violent and threw a glass bottle at a stone wall for no reason that i know of when we were considering becoming roommates and I think I was going to tell her soon after that i didn't want to be roommates with her, but then my childhood fiance came in to surprise visit me after not seeing him for 10 years, just after she talked me into going to her psychiatrist  appointment and the man asked me what was going on in my dorm and I don't know what I told him, but he prescribed 200 mg of stellazine and  I took 1 pill when I got back to my room and she came in and tried to kiss me.  Just then, my childhood fiance showed up at the door so I got my muscles, which were considerably slowed down, to say the words "Take her away from me," and she left with him and I proceeded to get albeit slowly to my class and when I next saw her she was very angry at me and told me never to try to contact her again, so I didn't have to find a way to tell her I didn't want to be her roommate.  So all this happened a long time ago, and now all I have to do next is get to bed so I can get up and get to work again tomorrow, and call the doctor and tell him if the gland under my ear is still swollen in the morning.  I am not afraid of electric shock sensations shooting through my head, because I have gotten the knack of sitting up in bed and screaming mostly silently now in order to stop them and if I just rest I will get enough rest to get to my job and do the job.  I do not have to sleep, because then I get some new sensations associated with the swollen gland under my ear.  B ut I will probably sleep.  I suspect the swollen gland is due to buying some cold orange juice and leaving it in the sun in my car all the time I was at work and then drinking it after I came out of work, after it got all warmed up.  Today I drank orange juice that was cold before I went to work, so that juice that I drank may help to cure the swollen gland under my ear.  I didn't want to drink it befo re work yesterday because I wasn't thirsty after I bought it and I was afraid I would have to go to the bathroom and not have time to go.  I don't mind sharing my story, because the whole world isn't going to see it and it was a long time ago and even if the other people involved see it they have moved on to other things and might be interested in finding out my side of it, and the doctor who thought I was the other girl must have seen the other girl before and slowly worked her up to that large amount of medicine, but he was very sick and was dying shor  tly afterwards and may not have been thinking clearly when he wrote me a prescription that clearly I didn't need.  Also, it prevented me from having any quality time with my childhood fiance.
    • pred311
      pred311 jeremiah71762

      Edited

      Hi to all, I have few suggestions that worked for me. Taking in consideration stressful lifestyles we live, polution of air, water and food,,  often very uncomfortable situations due to the poor society awareness,  inevitably, sensory parts of out body will react, effecting dramatically our health.I will try to be brief. All of these suggestions are my personal development aspects and I would highly recommend to consult someone professional (I personally suggest NATUROPATH OR HOLISTIC DR vs big pharma sign contractors...regular MD's) . Please research all of my suggestions, as I had to during a long period of time. Research Becoming more aware of yourself, your Health aspects,  how we function as whole, in our complex system, mindfulness and importance of spirituality. I want to tell you that you are All beautiful, amazing people, that I love you All and recommend you to spread the Love around , care one for another , take path of understanding and accepting everyone in your life , substituting  feelings of Fear and worry  with feelings of LOVE !!

      Use meditation excepting this life in a most positive way!!

      These are my lifestyle, nutrition and supplements recommendations:

      1. First thing in a morning:

      squeeze 1/2 lemon (organic preferably ) and slowly add about 1/2 teaspoon of non aluminum baking soda. Once it stops foaming, add cup of water  , and drink it.

      Research  pure water options (very important !!! I USE ONLY DESTLLED WATER)

       https://www.drdavidwilliams.com/distilled-water

      After drinking this mix, I suggest not eating for at least 30-40 min...even 1 hour, so your body gets alkaline

      Next

      2. Buy a good quality PROBIOTIC! !!!!!!!! 50billions and up! I suggest "Garden of Life" or similar Raw quality Probiotics

      Take it after baking soda /lemon water  (30min-1hr)

      Drink it with a cup of cold water so it reaches intestinal tract.

      Gut/intestinal health and intestinal flora are probably the core reason for most of illnesses and poor health, and everything around  effects it- pollution of food/air/water, nervousness,  stress, etc.

       https://alternativementalhealth.com

      I usually don't eat after probiotic for at least another 30-40min.. so it can renew the flora of our intestinal tract..you decide

      3. Firsth thing to eat is to Make a smoothie only with fruits, don't add proteins. ..yogurt. ..etc. I try to use organic:

      Apples, kale, carrots,  fresh coconut water, coconut pulp, mixed red berries  (I buy big bag of frozen), bananas, mangoes, oranges, kiwi...etc...your choice,  start a day healthy.

      4. DON'T EAT JUNK FOOD, sweets, and basically dead food, because your body needs quality fuel !!!!

       https://www.drberg.com/blog/the-healthiest-diet-explained-by-dr-berg

      Drink a lot of water-hidrate

      Eat salads and raw foods with natural dressing. .olive oil, lemon, I like dijon mustard with salad...etc,

      Use Himalayan pink salt !!!

      less or no red meat

      Fish, salmon, red snapper,  fish with low Mercury lavel

      Use coconut oil for cooking and eating

      Lots of Garlic!!!

      Probiotic Yogurt

      Avoid coffee !!!! Very bad for stress and your health in general.  If you really  "must" drink coffee for some reason,  at least make Keto coffee :

       https://www.ruled.me/ketoproof-coffee/

      Eat in good company,  spread good vibes/Love

      5. For reduction of stress:

      L-lysine 1000mg + L-Arginine 1000mg combo 3  times a day

      Together  they work like benzo's , reducing cortizol (stress hormone) up to 30% in our body)

      I recommend taking it 30min before meal

       https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17510493/

      6. vitalins, minerals:

      Magnesium at least 400mg /day

      Potassium for better body function

      B complex

      B1 is very very good , I recommend  200-400mg/day

      B6 for stress reduction(B12)

      B3 Niacin fueling  is excellent for anxiety reduction

       http://phen375vs.com/niacin-nicotinic-acid-flush-hgh-cholesterol-therapy/

      Valerian root for stress

       https://draxe.com/valerian-root/

      Omega 3-6-9...investigate,Flax seeds

      Remember! Investigate everything , there are so many lies/ miss guidance, it's no surprise people are getting more aick every day! Peace and Love

    • lindathepinda
      lindathepinda pred311

      Posted

      Very good suggestions though I would replace the distilled water with tap water. Distilled water draws minerals out of the body.
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