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Night Jerks ??

RoxiPoppyGirl

RoxiPoppyGirl

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
805
I wasn't sure where to put this so i just put it here in 'Homeless'.

Do any of you suffer really hard night jerks while on opiates. I don't mean little twitches, i mean hard core jerking. And i never take opiates later than 5pm because they keep me awake, so usually by the time i fall asleep it's been a good hours since i took and opiate.

I usually experiences it just as I'm falling to sleep and my body starts to relax. Sometimes the jerk is so strong it hurts my back and not to mention it scares the crap out of me.

I usually experience 2 a night, well... 2 while falling asleep. And than sometimes i experience more mild jerks, like my leg jerking.

This doesn't happen when sober. And i notice it more on Tramadol than any other med. But, i still experience it on all opiates.

2 nights ago i had a doozie of a jerk. I was just falling asleep and BOOM i had this massive jerk. The worst I've ever had and my whole body seemed to lift off the bed and it actually hurt my brain, well my head. And i have a bad back already and when i jerked last night OMG the pain in my back was awful. My arms all lifted in the arm and so did my legs.

It lasted only a second but it scares the living crap out of me and it also hurts pretty bad when it's a strong one.

Do any of you experiences this? And what do you think is the cause of night jerks in relation to opiates? It's really frustrating because sometimes it really hurts my body. I don't think they are seizures but who knows.

I read somewhere that when your body has a night jerk that when your body starts to relax and get very relaxed the body thinks you are dying so it jerks you awake. I don't know about that one. I don't think that is true.

Anyway. So yea... who's experiences this and anyone know why? I looked it up but could only find stuff on non-opiate night jerks.

RPG
 
Thanks for the info. I also looked it up on Wikipedia. It seems to be a normal thing but can also be symptoms of more serious diseases which i doubt it is in my case. But, it didn't say anything about Opiates causing it and why Opiates would cause it. Maybe it has something to do with to Opiates slow breathing down and the brain is trying to pop the body awake because breathing is getting to slow.

Maybe?

RPG
 
I've had these for a long time. I've found a zinc supplement tends to ease them, and a small dose of ibuprofen before bed.

If you ever get the one where you wakeup parylized it is important not to panic. The brain is protecting you from flailing around in your sleep and hurtng yourself. The most effective trick I've found for this is to focus on your breathing. Don't TRY to breathe manually, chances are you'll panic and attempt to hyperventilate, which will just cause it to lock you down stronger, just focus on the rhythm and the fact that you're still alive. Usually then it will pass
 
Yeah i get these quite frequently as well , usually shortly after i take my evening dose .. 1 time my back jerked so hard i literally arched up off my bed , it was extremly painful and kept me awake for another good hour till the pain subsided .. had to use my BT meds ..

i can also get spasms throughout the night as well when im really relaxed which can be a pain and thats usually a warning sign that a big one is coming as soon as i attempt to fall asleep , so if im going to i normally take 1 of my bt pills instead of 2 that way when it happens it doesnt hurt as much then after it i can take my 2nd one so i can get to bed.
 
Get the same here and they are worse when I take more trammy than DHC (i rotate the two)
I jerked and kicked my girls leg so hard she scored a massive bruise, i carried on floating :-)
I dont get anything like this when i'm having a break week and certainly gets worse with a big dose. I think the breathing slow down thing sounds feasable.
 
I have on those like every night. Usually happens in my right leg. The last time it happened I ended up kicking my cat off the bed by accident.
 
Cockney: Yup, i have them on Tramadol more than any other drug/med and more frequently as well on Tramadol. But, all opiates cause them as well. It's just Tramadol causes it way more. I wonder why. Maybe it has something to do with the Tramadol's seizure threshold or something.

It sure is annoying and I wish they would stop. I really don't look forward to them because most of them really hurt my body. And sometimes I think "OMG, is this the beginning of a REAL seizure"? Of course it isn't but sometimes it feels like that and it really freaks me out.

And on that link the other poster gave me, it also said the body does that when it's starting to relax and your body thinks it's dying so it jerks you awake. I've read that theory twice on line and i also heard it on the news once. Very interesting indeed.

So, yea I'm like you Cockney, it happens more so and stronger on Tramadol but also all opiates cause me to have night jerks as well.

I wonder if a muscle relaxer would help with it. ike taking a Soma before bed. I bet it would work, or at least lessen the strength of the massive jerks.

RPG
 
^It happens sometimes, I've unapproved one of the posts.

As for the night jerks you're experiencing, I have them occasionally but it's always been when I'm sober and not when I've taken opiates.

How much tramadol do you take?
 
I would sometimes get myclonic jerks before starting opioids. I think they are normal part of falling asleep. But now they are more weird that I am on these meds (morphine, or oxy). To me they feel like I am dreaming that I am falling down and land hard on concrete or something that's when I wake up in a jerk so to speak. I also once on opioids started getting these mini-nightmares before falling asleep - it's weird, I can't remember a thing, but I know I have them, sometimes they are like I can't breath or something, other times I am scared of something. I would usually have 5-10 of these mini-nightmares before finally passing out. I would wake up after every one of them with this 'zap' sound in my head. very strange. i never tried tramadol.
 
This is really a drug thread more than anything else. I think you might get better replies in OD, or perhaps healthy living if not there. But we'll try OD first. You'll get a new audience at the very least.
 
oddly enough I remember this happening to me quite often when I was a little kid (far before I ever tried drugs)

I would have a dream that I was falling, and when I hit the ground I would wake up and feel as though I had actually fallen onto my bed.

For some reason I believed I was abducted by aliens or something, haha (remember I was like 8 years old... :-P )
 
Nice thread. I've been wondering about these also. I get some pretty bad ones that jerk my arm so bad it feels like my shoulder is gonna pop out of socket


yaaay! 200 posts!

edit: Went to bed after reading this and haven't been able to get to sleep because of it :( The past few days have been pretty bad with it. I've been taking suboxone the past few days so I'm guessing that's what's causing it for me. I can actually feel it about to happen. Kind of a warm unpleasant feeling in my stomach just before my entire lower body jerks. It's definitely scary....
 
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my Father and I both make jerks right before we are about to sleep has always been that way....kinda weird but doesn't bother me half the time I don't know I do it cause I am doing RIGHT as I am falling asleep. I found this out when I was in a hotel with my dad and he was next to me I was like 6 at the time so I wondered why he did that and he told me what I have said to you and he said he usually doesn't notice he does it but sometimes he does and I am the same way now.
 
I think this is what happens to me rarely when I dose at night, particularly when I do heroin instead of my now usual suboxone. About 5 years ago, I was robbed, and they hit me over the head with The Club (to lock up a car's steering wheel). Often as I'm drifting off to sleep, I'll get a sudden jerk to my head which feels just like getting hit in the head with that club, but without the pain. My vision goes white, and my ears ring, and often it takes a few seconds for me to realize I'm not being attacked.

Is this most likely some kind of PTSD symptom (I don't have any others, although right after the attack, if I was getting home late at night, I would get very nervous as I was getting out of my car, and constantly look over my shoulder) or is this another kind of myoclonic jerk?

~CTdopeLove
 
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