A Dream of Falling

When falling asleep, a healthy person may experience an alarming jerk that brings him suddenly wide awake, often with the vivid impression of a frightening dream, e.g., one involving a fall. Many peopie ask their physicians about these jerks, get some such explanation as, "It's your muscles relaxing suddenly as you unwind." This explanation sometimes helps, but it makes no scientific sense. The fact is, medical science knows little about the phenomenon.

Brain Researcher Ian Oswald of Oxford University's Institute of Experimental Psychology got interested in it while running sleep experiments. His volunteers were plastered with electrodes for electrocardiograph, breathing and brain-wave records. So he got instantaneous evidence of a burst of high-voltage activity in the brain, and disturbances in the heartbeat and breathing. Dr. Oswald reports in Brain that his first jerk-recording subject was a healthy, athletic type of 22, with no history of head injury or brain damage. But he had several such jerks nearly every night while falling asleep in a normal setting, and usually had one if he sneaked a nap on the job. Often he had a sensation of something "hot and bright" flowing through his body.

An Army officer, 32, had body-racking jerks every few minutes for an hour or two, three or four nights a week, but did not seek medical aid until his wife insisted. She could not stand the antics, such as holding his legs straight up in the air, that he used in trying to ward off the spasms.

Dr. Oswald polled 50 of his friends, found that only seven rated themselves free of falling-asleep jerks; 25 had them about three times a year; the rest reported increasing frequency up to more than once a week. Finally, Dr. Oswald had some himself. One was accompanied by the sensation of a sudden flash of light, another by "the sight of half a brick hurtling toward my face."

Still not clear from the research is the cause of the jerks. They are often triggered by a slight noise. Several of Dr. Oswald's informants thought they were associated with periods of anxiety. (In his own case, three out of four occurred in one night when he was trying to stay alert for a cry from one of his children who had an ear infection.) All the jerks came before deep sleep set in.

Some neurologists have equated the jerks with epilepsy, but since they are so nearly universal, Dr. Oswald doubts the connection. Anti-convulsion drugs are sometimes prescribed for severe cases; if they work, it is probably because they bring on deep sleep faster. Reassurance, suggests Dr. Oswald, may also be a good prescription.

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