Muscle jerks when trying to fall asleep

[jjhnn8600]

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I've lurked for awhile, but I'm so tired of worrying and crying and my life being ruined.

My twitching started in Sept, and it's gotten better actually, it was worse before, almost constantly before and now more sporadic. However, I'm in the process of weaning klonopin and I'm doing a slow wean, and I'm getting the crazy muscle jerks at night, like in that minute before I am about to fall asleep, and they are often incorported into dreams. Sometimes it's a foot, or shoulder shrug, or thumb/fingers, and a few times it was like a squint. A few times my trunk did, like doing a crunch for ab muscles. All these are very slight, not violent and not painful. They are scaring the crap out of me and not allowing me to sleep.

My doc assures me it's from the klonopin but it's not every night. I'm sorry I feel so hopeless. I was fine one day until I wasn't and it hasn't left me since then. I'm so sad. Does anyone else experience these jerks at night and are they ok/part of BFS?

Please help me, I can't live like this.
Thank you,
Katie

[Yuliasir]

Hi Katie
it might be from klonopin but also every healthy person can have it, it is called sleep jerks and comes from the certain brain processes, 100% normal. on the edge of sleep

[johnnythejet]

Muscle jerks when falling asleep are fairly common and nothing to worry about. I've dealt with those often and like Yulia said, they are common among "normal" people as well. My girlfriend actually has a very frequent jerks every time she falls asleep. She doesn't even realize she has them but I can always tell when she's dozing off because of the jerking. It's quite funny.

[aztwitchy]

tons of people jerk before falling asleep..completely normal....my dog does it LOL....only difference between the dog and me though is he still hasn't googled his symptoms so he isn't worried about it. lol

[G-Dog]

Yep me too! They are definitely amplified by stress and also very common!! I think a guy here "Mario" recommended doing nothing (or close to nothing) for the 1 hour period before you go to bed! Works for me every time.

[jjhnn8600]

Thanks everyone for your replies. So even the types I mentioned are ok? The trunk flexing? Face?

[LApea]

Extremely normal. I told my GP about this and he said they are completely normal and common.

My husband has them every night and so does my little 8 month old baby.

I once was falling asleep on my back when all of a sudden my torso jerked up and actually off the mattress. It was so strong that I probably looked like the exorcist rising off my bed.

Try a little relaxation exercises and meditation before bed, it may help,

[jjhnn8600]

Thank you again. It just seems weird that none of this happened before to me, and then one day I was twitching and the next I'm jerking before falling asleep... like where has it been for 35 years? I hate this worry taking over my life.
Thank you for your kind replies.
Katie

[stephane28]

I have this often now and I almost neverhad it before.
You can consider as a reassuring symptom: muscles jerks before falling asleep is not a symtom of any severe diseases. So if you have this it's just one more evidence that what you have is benign. The same if you have numbness in your hands/fingers often when you wake up during the first seconds. Have a lot now, never before BFS started.These both symptoms are typical symptoms of PNH and not of ALS/MS/or any other disease you might be scared of

[BFS-twitcher]

I just past the 1 year mark of being dx with BFS and yes after the twitches started I got the sleep jerks at night... It freeked me out As well! This never happened to me before...

I'm sure you will start to feel various other symtoms that will concern you as we'll but soon you will realize that your symptoms are like many of us here on this board.

When I read your post, it reminded me of exactly how I felt 1 year ago. I'm still not entirely confident that I don't have a major illness but Inhave definitely reduced the stress associated with BFS.

The best advice I could give you is DON'T GOOGLE SYMPTOMS! It will keep you in a bad place mentally!

I feel for you... I still get random pains for secods at a time that travel from different areas of my body and I'm still not use to it.

Good luck and know that you truly aren't alone in this.

PS: while writing this my face jerked lol

[glitterwater]

I would google on thing....dr. Heather Ashton and her research on klonopin withdrawal symptoms. It will put you at ease to see this listed as a common withdrawal symptom.

[nickston]

I'll do you one better. I used to get these while i was wide awake, and without klonopin. They eventually went away. I think they were anxiety induced.

[jcmommie]

Hi Katie,

I had muscle jerks, quite violent ones, when I was attempting to wean from klonipin. I had them during the day when I was relaxed and sitting down, and of course at night before falling asleep. My husband said I also had them during sleep. I believe they happened because I was trying to wean too fast. I was at 2 mg. daily and now only take 0.5 mg, at night. No more jerking, but it took awhile for my nervous system to adjust. The slower the weaning, the better for some of us. I am not sure what would happen if I went off it completely, but no plans for that right now.

[jjhnn8600]

Thank you all so much. They have quieted down this past week, but twitching has kicked up...