Body vibrations when falling asleep or waking?

Posted by cricketlips @cricketlips, Jun 2, 2022

After many google searches for the reason I feel vibration in my head, shoulder and arm just before falling asleep and waking, I found nothing that satisfactorily explained it. Of course anxiety seems to be a common explanation but there was nothing specific enough to help me. I am currently reading Incognito by David Eagleman. It discusses the functioning of the brain as an organ. This morning, going through my routine to get ready for work, I thought of a way to understand the vibrations. Similar to the hypnic jerks we experience occasionally just before we fall asleep, I think the vibrations are intended to arouse me to stay vigilant. Which is the fight or flight mechanism in action. So there is the anxiety connection. Originating in the amygdala. I was thinking Parkinson's or MS but my symptoms don't indicate those conditions, thankfully. It seems counterintuitive to be anxious and sleeping at the same time but the brain can do that. The cerebral cortex sleeps but the life support systems of the brain must stay online, obviously. If you thought you were in danger, sleeping would put you at risk but at some point sleep becomes absolutely necessary. I think the vibrations I have been experiencing are caused by my sympathetic nervous system and not a neurologic disease. Thankfully !

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Sleep Health Support Group.

I have this problem when i sleep this is happen .Like my chest left side Up.When i sleep completely i cant understand when i wake up start when i stand completely cant understand anything.Also i have reflux such as LPR.I become tired of this situation and its too strange. I appreciate if anyone find information about whats source of this vibration try to help me .Kindly George

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@cst

Neurologist ordered nerve conduction study and following labs (blood work), which has thus far come back normal:

ANA with reflex to panel if positive

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme

Anti Neutrophilic Cytoplasmic Antibodies

Cryoglobulin

Glucose Tolerance 2 Hour

HIV 1 and 2 Antigen and Antibodies

Immunofixation with Interpretation, Blood

Lyme Antibody-Serum (Total)

SSA and SSB Antibodies, IgG

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I never see such as these tests.Pls update us with your test but the first one for me reflux is positie i have reflux A.but i never know ANA with reflex to panel if positive?!

Kindly
George

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@hcta

Hello
Thank goodness I am not alone
I have been having these vibrations in my chest for the past 2 years if not longer I am 55 year old women .I first experienced it about 2 years or so in my chest area and running through my arms and threw me in a panic that i had to call 911 . As soon as they arrived my heart rate was at 120 and they said it was panic attack ok so moving forward it started becoming an everyday thing .The min i go to bed all night long all I feel is the vibration in my chest and at some point I fall asleep just to be waken up with the vibrations. The minute i stand up it will go way. I probably went to the ER about 6 times for this and they don’t know what to say except for you have anxiety (I don’t ) I saw my Dr and he says it’s Gerd cardiologist ruled out my heart .So what is it ? Reading that it could be menopause hormonal changes ,sleeping positions ,or something to do with a damaged neck at the back upper spine, not to mention Anxiety is the first on the list .Im so confused which one is it .I have not had the covid vaccine but I did get covid 3 times . I would say this happens about 6 days out of the week all night long and it’s becoming annoying. I do have an appointment with a GI dr let’s see how that goes .Its just bazaar that it only happens when I am laying down to sleep . I did find that sometimes 3 pieces of tums helps . Magnesium and vitamin D3 b12 (only if it’s low b12 )daily is a must as well .I am just so tired of trying to get answers as to what is triggering these vibrations but I will not give up till I find out , it is mentally making me anxious.Please if anyone has anything that would be helpful please share hopefully anyone dealing with this gets healed .

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I have had the same thing since 2019. I keep a journal and record what time they wake me and, on a scale of 1-10, what level they are. This morning, 8-29, they were a level 7. They were in my pelvic area. Mine are in my torso area although sometimes I have them over my whole body. I can lay my hand on my side and actually feel the vibrations. It's like I swallowed vibrator.. They had stopped for about 4 months but started back about 2 weeks ago. I had an appt with pain management and saw a different doctor I see once in a while and here's what she told me when I told her the vibrations had started back. She said it's a blood vessel. Since blood is constantly moving very fast throughout the body, and a blood vessel could easily get pressed against something and instead of flowing freely it's interrupted and causes the vibrating feeling. When I asked then why had they stopped for 4 months and started back she said it could be caused by anything that causes that blood vessel to move....position of body change, weight loss, and I have lost around 25 pounds. They do the same as others, go away the minute I stand up and that is most definitely a position change. Sometimes when I wake up with them I can turn over and they will go away, sometimes they do not. I've not had the covid shot nor have I had covid. I'm thinking since it affects so many different body parts, some people have them in their head, hands, feet, arms, legs.....it can't be anything environmental because not everyone has had the same things as covid, covid shot etc. It has to be something going on inside the body. I've posted before I think mine is from an injury to the phrenic nerve when I swallowed a huge gulp of air while taking my meds. When I googled causes of vibrations, swallowing a gulp of air and injuring the phrenic nerve would do it. I thought back to taking the pills about 2 weeks before. I even had an endoscopy to see if anything could be seen. I hate the fact that they have started back now and I know my nights will be interrupted by them for who knows how long. I'm not a drinker nor a smoker. I take multivitamin, magnesium, E, Q10, blood pressure meds daily. I wish somebody would at least do a trial and survey to try to get to the root of this issue. There has to be a common element among all these people that are experiencing this. If it isn't environmental, because there aren't enough things in common, then it is physical and I would LOVE to find something I could do to make it stop.

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@carol1024

I have had the same thing since 2019. I keep a journal and record what time they wake me and, on a scale of 1-10, what level they are. This morning, 8-29, they were a level 7. They were in my pelvic area. Mine are in my torso area although sometimes I have them over my whole body. I can lay my hand on my side and actually feel the vibrations. It's like I swallowed vibrator.. They had stopped for about 4 months but started back about 2 weeks ago. I had an appt with pain management and saw a different doctor I see once in a while and here's what she told me when I told her the vibrations had started back. She said it's a blood vessel. Since blood is constantly moving very fast throughout the body, and a blood vessel could easily get pressed against something and instead of flowing freely it's interrupted and causes the vibrating feeling. When I asked then why had they stopped for 4 months and started back she said it could be caused by anything that causes that blood vessel to move....position of body change, weight loss, and I have lost around 25 pounds. They do the same as others, go away the minute I stand up and that is most definitely a position change. Sometimes when I wake up with them I can turn over and they will go away, sometimes they do not. I've not had the covid shot nor have I had covid. I'm thinking since it affects so many different body parts, some people have them in their head, hands, feet, arms, legs.....it can't be anything environmental because not everyone has had the same things as covid, covid shot etc. It has to be something going on inside the body. I've posted before I think mine is from an injury to the phrenic nerve when I swallowed a huge gulp of air while taking my meds. When I googled causes of vibrations, swallowing a gulp of air and injuring the phrenic nerve would do it. I thought back to taking the pills about 2 weeks before. I even had an endoscopy to see if anything could be seen. I hate the fact that they have started back now and I know my nights will be interrupted by them for who knows how long. I'm not a drinker nor a smoker. I take multivitamin, magnesium, E, Q10, blood pressure meds daily. I wish somebody would at least do a trial and survey to try to get to the root of this issue. There has to be a common element among all these people that are experiencing this. If it isn't environmental, because there aren't enough things in common, then it is physical and I would LOVE to find something I could do to make it stop.

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if it's a blood vessel then it should be synchronous to heartbeat.
Easy to measure (I'd bet it's not)

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@bsi15

if it's a blood vessel then it should be synchronous to heartbeat.
Easy to measure (I'd bet it's not)

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Having a blood vessel do that isn't going to affect your heartbeat. Your heart will still beat the same whether the vessel is so called sputtering or not. BUT....when there are vibrations with pauses you would think that your heartbeat would have a pause too. I have tried to see if that was so but could not feel a skip in heartbeat that coincided with the pause. I think that is something that needs to be done in a controlled setting with more sophisticated equipment. But no, the vibrations do NOT interfere with the regularity of the heartbeat because I wore a monitor for a month once to see if it would pick up anything. It wasn't a Holter monitor. I wore one of those too and had to write down when I had palpitations. With this different monitor, I pushed a button everytime I had palpitations. I would have the vibrations at night and push the button thinking it may pick it up. It didn't. My cardiologist said the vibrations have nothing to do with nor do they interfere with the heartbeat. The monitor did not pick up ANY vibrations at night. Even though I had to push a button, that was only to draw attention to that particular time and incident. The whole months recordings were looked at.

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@carol1024

Having a blood vessel do that isn't going to affect your heartbeat. Your heart will still beat the same whether the vessel is so called sputtering or not. BUT....when there are vibrations with pauses you would think that your heartbeat would have a pause too. I have tried to see if that was so but could not feel a skip in heartbeat that coincided with the pause. I think that is something that needs to be done in a controlled setting with more sophisticated equipment. But no, the vibrations do NOT interfere with the regularity of the heartbeat because I wore a monitor for a month once to see if it would pick up anything. It wasn't a Holter monitor. I wore one of those too and had to write down when I had palpitations. With this different monitor, I pushed a button everytime I had palpitations. I would have the vibrations at night and push the button thinking it may pick it up. It didn't. My cardiologist said the vibrations have nothing to do with nor do they interfere with the heartbeat. The monitor did not pick up ANY vibrations at night. Even though I had to push a button, that was only to draw attention to that particular time and incident. The whole months recordings were looked at.

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same for me in 2015 when I wore ECG-cables at night. The chest-vibrations didn't show in ECG.
At that time I searched the internet and found several people with vibrations but none
were heart-related, as far as I remember.
That gave me relief, I did nothing, and it slowly (almost) disappeared.

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@bsi15

same for me in 2015 when I wore ECG-cables at night. The chest-vibrations didn't show in ECG.
At that time I searched the internet and found several people with vibrations but none
were heart-related, as far as I remember.
That gave me relief, I did nothing, and it slowly (almost) disappeared.

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the vessel - I had thought you considered a vibrating artery ,
maybe partially obstructed ,but maybe I misread

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@bsi15

same for me in 2015 when I wore ECG-cables at night. The chest-vibrations didn't show in ECG.
At that time I searched the internet and found several people with vibrations but none
were heart-related, as far as I remember.
That gave me relief, I did nothing, and it slowly (almost) disappeared.

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I did a sleep study too hoping they would show up. All that did was get me a cpap machine for sleep apnea. 🤣
I started a group on Facebook called Good Vibrations and thought maybe people would join to discuss the different types and at least there would be a platform where all the info was should anyone want to investigate it. I may have deleted it because after 3 months nobody joined but I will check it today. I think I'll make it a private group too so if anyone else here that has these internal vibrations wants to join, I would love to hear your experiences. 😊

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I think I was the one to start this thread several years ago now. I have been reading all the responses ever since looking for a common factor but have yet to seen one. But think we can rule out that it is not caused by medications, trauma, heart issues, infections, gender, age and medical conditions like high blood pressure of diabetes. Some of the replies do vary from only happening during the drifting off to sleep and waking up and being gone as soon as we fully asleep or fully awake. This is the unique symptom we are concerned with. To date I still have vibrations every time I go to sleep but they are very mild compared to when they first started. The fact that I am now not worried they are harmful and ignore them makes them mild. They can be stronger when I am stressed (but that doesn't cause them). So I agree with the post that something physical is triggering vibrations, like a fault in one the phases of sleeping which require rising and falling of so many neuro and chemical pathways. Since in most cases the condition is annoying and not harming, the medical field doesn't have much interest in pursuing. They are more inclined to look at conditions that are harmful to many and also would make them money in drugs to treat it. I am sorry to read that so many people have to take medications for so many health issues and suffer even when trying to get off the medications. We still have a long way to understanding how our bodies function. Keep posting and updating and maybe we will be able to figure it out together.

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@edornton

I think I was the one to start this thread several years ago now. I have been reading all the responses ever since looking for a common factor but have yet to seen one. But think we can rule out that it is not caused by medications, trauma, heart issues, infections, gender, age and medical conditions like high blood pressure of diabetes. Some of the replies do vary from only happening during the drifting off to sleep and waking up and being gone as soon as we fully asleep or fully awake. This is the unique symptom we are concerned with. To date I still have vibrations every time I go to sleep but they are very mild compared to when they first started. The fact that I am now not worried they are harmful and ignore them makes them mild. They can be stronger when I am stressed (but that doesn't cause them). So I agree with the post that something physical is triggering vibrations, like a fault in one the phases of sleeping which require rising and falling of so many neuro and chemical pathways. Since in most cases the condition is annoying and not harming, the medical field doesn't have much interest in pursuing. They are more inclined to look at conditions that are harmful to many and also would make them money in drugs to treat it. I am sorry to read that so many people have to take medications for so many health issues and suffer even when trying to get off the medications. We still have a long way to understanding how our bodies function. Keep posting and updating and maybe we will be able to figure it out together.

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I was wondering how to measure it.

So they could do a study.

I could hear it beating with a stethoscope but didn't record it.
Maybe a stethoscope-sensor with a sound-recorder ?!

That might also record breathing-frequency, which would
be useful for other deseases.

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