In <dstout-2701951011040001 at 149.142.143.218> dstout at mail.nuc.ucla.edu (David Stout) writes:
>In article
><mattfei-2601952055010001 at davenport-college-kstar-node.net.yale.edu>,
>mattfei at minerva.cis.yale.edu (Matt Feiszli) wrote:
>> Does anyone have any information on twitching/jerking while trying to
>> fall asleep (or could someone at least tell me what to call it)? Does it
>> correlate with things like stress, anxiety or activity before sleep?
>> Thanks for any information.
> Last year I audited a graduate neuroanatomy course at UCLA where Prf.
>Scheibel talked about this reaction. The response is called a myoclonic
>jerk and is related to loss of muscle tone and the areas of the brain
>responsible for balance. I don't remember all the details but the general
>idea is as follows.
>As the brain begins to synchronize firing and enter the sleep cycle, the
>neuronal firing that maintains muscle tone is reduced. The loss of tone
>activates another neuronal pathway which sends messages to the area of the
>brain that maintains balance (forgot the area name). This area interprets
>the signal as a loss of balance and triggers a reflexive jerk in the large
>muscles used to keep the body upright and balanced.
>This reaction occurs when the area controlling tone falls asleep before
>the area controling balance. As far as I know, nothing else is involved,
>ie emotional state, etc. Obviously external factors will effect your sleep
>cycle, but I don't think they affect the jerking.
>dbs
This sounds good, but one can't overlook a simple discharge
especially if a person is very acitve. Rest would be "abnormal" so really
the body is simply adjusting to non-actvity. If you are an active person,
it could be justintermittent discharges of of electrical activity kind of
like miniature end-plate potentials. There is also the possibility of early
dreams which I myself have almost immediately into sleep which can also
trigger reactions.
Hope I was of some help,
Jonathan Byrd
