You’re slowly drifting off to dreamland. Your body is relaxing and you feel yourself losing consciousness, letting sleep take over. You’re comfy, cozy, and — BAM! You jolt awake having just felt like you’re falling. What gives, body? Why can’t you just let us fall asleep without putting up a fight? A couple things could have happened to cause you to jerk yourself awake. There’s some science and some symbolism at play, so let’s get down to the bottom of the dreaded jolt.
If you’ve dreamt about falling to your death at least once, welcome to the club. According to DreamDictionary.org, the average human will dream about deadly falls about five times throughout their life, and you’ll often wake up right before you hit the ground.
Cathleen O’Connor, PhD and author of The Everything Law of Attraction Dream Dictionary, told HuffPost in 2011 that falling dreams are usually triggered by the lowering of our blood pressure and heart rate as we drift off to sleep. But if we experience falling dreams later during our sleep period, these often symbolize that an aspect of our life is literally going down hill.
“Like any dream symbol, understanding the relevance of a falling dream to your waking life is key,” O’Connor said. Pinpointing an aspect of your life that is making you feel vulnerable or self-conscious will not only make you feel better while awake, but can also prevent future falling dreams.
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But if you’re plagued with that sudden jolt just as you’re drifting off, you shouldn’t read into that much. You’re just experiencing a “hypnagogic jerk,” which is a simple muscle spasm that occurs just before you doze off.
According to LiveScience, this phenomenon is named after the hypnagogic state, the transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep. These jerks, also called “sleep starts,” can be influenced by light fluctuation, sounds, or any other external stimuli, and can be accompanied by dreams and/or the feeling of falling. They might wake you up, or you may go on sleeping like nothing ever happened.
LiveScience even reports that about 60-70% of people experience hypnagogic jerks, so there’s no need to worry. A ghost isn’t poking you and you’re not being brought back from the dead (like someone we know).
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Although scientists aren’t exactly sure why sleep starts happen, it’s commonly thought that during this transitional state, nerves simply “misfire,” thus jerking you awake. It’s annoying as all get out, but it’s completely normal.
So whether you’re falling mid-sleep or falling just before you enter slumber, there’s no real need to panic. Your body’s just doing its thing and could be alerting you to make some different life choices. Noted, subconscious. Noted.
