My legs suddenly kicked while I was sleeping

One of the things people have to do every day is sleep. If you don’t sleep during the day or don’t sleep well at night, you will feel groggy and lack energy the next day. So a good sleep quality is what everyone wants. But many people have various minor problems when they sleep at night. Some people kick their legs suddenly when they sleep, and sometimes they wake themselves up by kicking. So why do our legs suddenly kick when we sleep?

When sleeping, the legs suddenly twitch and kick, and then wake up after kicking. The academic term is sleep twitch. It refers to the sudden and involuntary twitching of muscles all over the body when a person is about to fall asleep. This process is often accompanied by a feeling of free falling or even vague dreams, which lead to awakening. Hypnic twitches mean that you haven't fallen asleep completely and wake up after a whole body twitching. Tics are more severe when muscles are tired or sleep deprived. 100how Tip: Twitching only means that a person has been awakened from the first stage of sleep. As long as he remains calm for 10 minutes, he will enter a true sleep state.

Causes of hypnic jerks

1. Sleep system error

There are different opinions on the causes of hypnic jerks. One theory is that something is wrong with the sleep system. When a person goes from being awake to sleeping, their heartbeat slows down, their body temperature drops, their breathing slows down, and their muscles relax. The "reticular activating system" in the brain is responsible for controlling the transition from wakefulness to relaxation. If the reticular activating system goes awry, hypnic jerks can occur.

2. Ancestral inheritance

The "brain illusion of falling" is believed to be a product of evolution. This theory holds that the human brain evolved from the brain of reptiles and therefore retains some of the reptiles' stress response patterns. When the muscles are completely relaxed, the brain interprets it as free fall. Out of instinctive protection, the brain instructs the muscles of the whole body to act immediately, so the relaxed muscles suddenly tighten again. This is sleep twitching.

3. Sleeping tablets

Sleep spindles are a special type of brain wave, which is characterized by sudden and violent fluctuations in brain waves, which may be accompanied by sudden twitching of local muscles. Sleep spindles can protect sleep when external sound stimulation occurs. The more frequently sleep spindles appear, the stronger the body's ability to resist external interference with sleep and the higher the quality of sleep.

Unlike sleep twitches that cause you to wake up after kicking your legs, the twitches caused by sleep spindles will not wake you up, and you won't know you have a twitch.