My bed shakes like crazy.

[skypilot]

Some nights as I'm dozing off or in the morning when I'm half asleep I can feel these weird tremors going through my bed. It would really freak me out if I hadn't read about this kind of thing when I was a kid. Apparently, it's caused by something called clonus which is an extremely rapid succession of contraction and relaxation of muscles. I seem to have this happen to me during certain stages of sleep and I'm telling you that my bed comes alive. Any of you experience this?

No "Exorcist" jokes, please.:)

[elehhhhna]

1. Only at the Notelmotel w/ plenty o'quarters.

[skypilot]

3. No "Exorcist" jokes...

...and no cheap motel jokes either.:)

[kedrys]

2. My s.o. thought I was going for a walk last night

Evidently, my legs had a mind of their own. Sometimes it wakes me up, but it didn't last night - makes for interesting breakfast conversation...

The really interesting thing is that if you try to replicate the motion, you can't do it. It's almost as if the clonus uses muscles over which you have no conscious control. Weird.

[skypilot]

8. The weird thing is...

...that there is no one part of my body that seems to be experiencing clonus. When I feel the bed starting to tremor I make a point of paying special attention. It must be some kind of diffuse, whole-body clonus that gets absorbed by my mattress. At least, that's what it feels like. The tremors are unmistakable.

[purr]

4. the only odd thing

I get at night is when Im starting to fall asleep my whole body will jerk. Feels really weird.

[Ravenseye]

7. That's common

Alot of people describe it as feeling like they're falling. It's when your body all of a sudden just relaxes for sleep. I forget all the technical stuff about it but basically the suddeness of it can actually make you react to it by tightening back up.

something like that. happens to me all the time.

[trotsky]

12. Oh, is that what causes it?

Interesting. Makes sense, though - it happens more often if I'm sort of sitting up when I nod off, like in a reclining chair or on a couch. I bet the relaxing makes my body feel like it's sliding off.

[Ravenseye]

16. Yeah, I often think i'm falling off the bed.

I'm a fairly violent sleeper....tossing turning, etc...It's rare in the mornings if the sheets on my side of the bed are still in place.

So often when it happens and it feels like i'm falling i think i'm falling off the actual bed. I guess that's the most common response. The feeling that you're falling. So your body tightens up for impact.

Pretty weird evolutionary adaptation. I'd have to assume it comes back from when we were tree dwellers or something.

[trotsky]

17. Makes perfect sense when you think of it like that.

If you don't wake up and then fall out of the tree, chances are you won't leave a lot of offspring. :)

[Ravenseye]

22. Yeah exactly!

Natural Selection at work. Now that we don't sleep in trees anymore there really isn't much reason to lose that trait. All it does is jerk you awake a little bit, but you go back to sleep. It'll keep you alive in the trees able to have more offspring, but once we made it to the ground there weren't any pressures to remove that trait so we still have it.

[TNDemo]

5. I got a middle of the night call from my daughter from college

who was freaked because her bed had been shaking. Maybe that's what was going on.

[skypilot]

10. Probably.

If I hadn't read "The Exorcist" when I was a kid I would be freaking out like your daughter. There is a part in the book where the mom talks to the doctor about her daughter's shaking bed and the doctor thought it was clonus. That's how I first heard about it. However, I never experienced it until I was much older.

[trotsky]

Nope, I just get the "jolted awake" experience.

Like when I'm slowing falling asleep and start to dream, then dream that I just slipped on some ice or something... BLAM! I'm awake with a full-body muscle contraction, like I was preparing for impact.

Takes awhile before that switch kicks in that turns off your muscles when you sleep.

[skypilot]

11. This definitely isn't...

...the "jolt awake" feeling (although I have that too). The BED itself shakes. It's weird but kinda cool also.

[meegbear]

6. You know if you can master that, you'll be very popular

:evilgrin:

[MadHound]

9. If I'm tired, and have really physically exerted my body

As I start to fall asleep, my body will really start to twitch and jerk, to the point where it is almost like a seizure. I've woken up my wife more than once with that. Lasts anywhere up to a half hour, and then all muscles relax and I fall asleep.

[MissMillie]

13. Is this related to Restless Legs Syndrome?

I suffer from RLS. It can be just terrible when you're over-tired. I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, but my legs are so antsy that I just want to climb out of my skin.

[skypilot]

14. It is not a body part that experiences the tremors.

The BED itself shakes. My body feels totally relaxed and no part of it will feel antsy or jumpy. If there is some kind of rapid contraction and relaxation going on then the speed of these spasms must be incredible. I don't feel them in my body at all. They seem to get picked up by my bed though.

[kedrys]

15. Does it happen anywhere else, like a couch or comfy chair?

Maybe your bed has a weird resonant frequency with the muscle spasms...

[skypilot]

19. It does occasionally happen...

...if I doze off in a chair. In fact, that was how I first experienced it. That was quite a long time ago but that is why I've always remembered the word clonus.

[johnnie]

18. Does it feel like there is something walking around?

Or does the whole bed "vibrate"?

[skypilot]

20. The whole bed vibrates.

It feels as though someone is holding one end and softly, but rapidly, jerking it back and forth.

[Ellen Forradalom]

21. Kick Matcom out.

Matcom, go to the couch.

[redqueen]

23. Good Lord... I would completely freak out...

I know... rational explanation... but I saw The Exorcist when I was too young... I doubt my rational side would be able to overcome my irrational side.

:scared:

[skypilot]

24. I'm glad I read that book when I was a kid...

...because I remember the part where the doctor tried to explain the shaking bed by saying that it might be caused by "clonic" muscle spasms. For some reason I always remembered that, so when my bed started shaking when I got older I knew why--or, at least, I think I know why.

[bertha katzenengel]

25. Yep. After the Landers/Big Bear and Northridge quakes. Not aftershocks.

I was having terrible emotional troubles anyway, and then those huge earthquakes hit, 18 months apart (I think).

I was awakened for MONTHS by aftershocks -- but it wasn't aftershocks. But I woke because my bed was shaking. It was either this phenomenon you describe, or it was my heart pounding from terror. I must've been having dreams of aftershocks. I'd bolt upright and turn on the light, terrified there'd been another aftershock. I'd turn on the TV to get the latest reports, but no report would come on. This went on for months.

Good luck, skypilot. :hi:

[skypilot]

26. Sounds like a kind of nervous condition thing.

I think that's what it is with me also, even though I feel relaxed when it happens. There's some strange dynamic going on that I don't quite grasp.

[bertha katzenengel]

30. maybe too personal a question, but . . .

are you seeing someone professionally? It can help.

[skypilot]

32. I am not.

It is something that I have experienced off and on since I was a teenager. It has never really bothered me. I just posted about it today because early this morning by bed was shaking especially vigourously.

[bertha katzenengel]

33. I hope it quits. It's unnerving as hell, isn't it?!

Good luck, skypilot. :hug:

[skypilot]

34. It is unnerving when it first starts.

Any sudden noise, movement, sensation, etc. is unnerving when you are half asleep. I've gotten to the point where I will simply lie there and just kind of take in the experience. It's very strange and fascinating.

[leftofthedial]

27. I always blamed her

myself

[skypilot]

28. Huh?...Who?...What?

*

[leftofthedial]

29. bed shakes, it was her fault

sudden awful stink, it's the dog's fault

simple rules you can live by

[Misunderestimator]

31. Are you able to turn your head 360 degrees and projectile

:puke:? And do you speak in a really low scary voice at times?