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

I get these jerks or jolts fairly often particularly at the time when i'm just drifting off to sleep. The sensation isn't painful but alarming as it sometimes feels like my heart has missed a beat or has just re-set. The feeling or shock seems to come from chest or throat. I tend to think it's allergy related because i get it more after a big night out on the alcohol when I also tend to smoke. The funny thing is that it will occur 24 hours after the big night out not immediately.

I won't be of much help but I get electric shocks/ zaps in my head when I sleep, too. More so when I have sleep paralysis or nested dreams when I nap. I may wake for a second, fall back asleep and get those zaps. It used to terrify me when it first happened, many years ago, but now I just succumb to them because they feel good. I feel like it is a trap to lure me back into deep sleep. It works everytime.

Hey,

First, I want to thank everyone for commenting on this experience. I too had these strange sensations that kept me up all night and I found this site to help me better understand what could be going wrong. That being said, I went to the hospital twice and both doctors confirmed that my vitals were normal.

As frustrating and oddly relieving it is to hear that nothing is wrong despite feeling like my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was short of breath, I simply wanted to know what was happening to me. What my doctors believe it was was a sudden set of anxiety/panic attacks from induced stress.

The attacks make you feel like you're having a heart attack and the strange sensation during the night is a wild response of adrenaline your body initiates to protect itself. It is important to remember that everyone has different intense experiences and there is no shame in going to the hospital to get checked out. At the end of the day, it feels utterly refreshing to hear you are OK!

That being said, if you do go to the hospital and get the all clear, just take a deep breath and realize that you may be undergoing a potential anxiety/panic attack from induced stress or other potential traumatizing events in life.

If my experience and the many experiences described in this forum sound like yours, just remember everything will be okay. See a medical professional, get some well needed rest, and know you are not alone with these feelings!

31 yr old male here. I'm gonna be detailed in the hopes that it helps someone. Been suffering from brain zaps pretty bad for a few months but have had hypnogogic jerks all my life. I even thought it was a monster shaking me as a toddler. I've suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for the last 10 years, largely due to paxil withdrawal and possibly a bad reaction but it has been a lot better for about a year.

Symptoms are various and may or may not be related.

• Jerking as I fall asleep has transitioned into more violent full body spasms with adrenaline. These spasms are very fast jolts from my spine up through my head.
• They can be painful and cause numbing or tingling in extremities. I sometimes feel the need to catch my breath. I literally feel like I'm dying just trying to go to sleep.
• Occasionally it happens when awake while meditating. Meditating is like fighting off the urge to jolt the whole time but getting better.
• I get lightheaded very easily, especially when I workout.
• I had a zap one night and woke up with tinnitus that never went away.
• Heart skips and odd rhythms, sometimes painful
• Occasionally have random other short lived neural symptoms like odd pressures, headaches, and temporary hearing loss.
• I will often grab my forehead or have odd ticks and jerks when it happens when I'm awake and I look like a crazy person on meth.
• I feel like my memory has gotten worse

Solutions

I'm healthy and don't have a lot of issues other than past anxiety, which has been better. I exercise and eat healthy, no sugar or drugs or alcohol. Doctors always tell me its in my head. I've gotten all kinds of tests and they say I'm abnormally healthy.

• Cutting out caffeine helped. I notice when I'm stimulated and try to sleep it happens more, even if I have some sugar before bed. Stay away from processed stuff for good measure, like MSG.
• Keeping my phone playing something helps. Light helps prevent the zaps but it also prevents good sleep.
• When I stay the night with my girlfriend the zaps are much better or non existent, which points to stress relief or maybe a neurotransmitter release.
• When I'm stressed it gets worse, sometimes one after the other.
• Sometimes the intensity seems random so I try different things to see what affects it. I don't notice a lot of other patterns but I'm always looking.

There are so many random symptoms and possible explanations its hard to list them all.

I think I was prone to hypnogogic jerks and that was increased by getting off Paxil when I was put on it for a long time. I also tried weed and had a bad reaction with a lot of anxiety. I cant get near the stuff. I was on adderral for a couple months 5 years ago and it made then even worse.

I've also seen inner ear issues tossed around, which could be part of it. There often is a pronounced feeling of falling fast.

Being really tired + stimulation makes it worse.

I'll keep trying to figure out what is going on but doctors are useless on this. I'm practically a joke at my doctors office.

Last night was the most difficult night i ever had....mustve had about 30 zaps last night.....i dont want to deal with this anymore guys...im scared to fall asleep every night.....

Hi, I've been having these for almost 2 years, not very often at first, but often recently. Sometimes it would be literally every night. And like you say first thing that comes to mind when falling asleep is knowing the shocks will come the moment you start falling asleep.

I haven't been seen by doctors yet, but there's one thing I tried - Ashwaganda. You may have heard of it. I've been taking one per day, and for over two weeks now it hasn't happened not even once. It's not a drug, it's just a ginseng, have a look.

I'll try to reply to some people on here and hopefully some people can try it.