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.

My body begins to resonate upon drifting to sleep as well as while awake.
I live in a Public Housing unit that has high [ EMF] electromagnetic frequencies that disrupt my body's neurological ions that crashes with the ions in the atmosphere.
My body is extremely sensitive to unseen magnetic ENERGY.
It's a form of Radiation Illness that most neurologist aren't educated in.
Medical codes exist for radiation illnesses yet the medical industry lacks the knowledge on recognizing the symptoms to apply the codes.
~Shahidah Huddleston

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@rubyinparadise

Thanks John! I take those already and will certainly continue to do so.
I’m also going to do a heavy metals test and possibly try a heavy metal detox though I’ve had no known exposure.
Neurologist was largely unhelpful sadly. I’m seeing a second neuro soon though. My doctor was also not helpful but thankfully I also have a naturopath and she is very knowledgeable and most importantly, she actually listens and she believes me.

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Just following up on all of this. I decided not to do the heavy metals testing / detox after looking into it further. They're not really evidence-based. (The exception is if you have mercury poisoning, which is a medical emergency and requires hospitalization.). I also stopped seeing a naturopath after I learned more. Much of what they do is not evidence-based. She wanted me to spend hundreds of dollars for tests that wouldn't have been useful.

I did follow up with the second neurologist who was fantastic. Very attentive, knowledgeable, and responsive. Did several MRIs including a brain scan, nerve conduction studies (2) and muscle tests (2). Thankfully everything came back normal, despite the twitching I was experiencing getting worse throughout 2022. I was ultimately diagnosed with Benign Fasciculation Syndrome - which gets worse with stress, insomnia, and anxiety. Managing those factors keeps the twitching down to a minimum. I also started hormone replacement therapy because in the middle of last year I also entered menopause, which can exacerbate insomnia and muscle twitching.

Regarding body vibrations when falling asleep or waking: I now believe this is most likely Sleep Paralysis, which gets worse with fatigue or chronic insomnia. Just two nights ago, I had an episode of full body vibrations around 5 am, which even included auditory hallucinations and flashing lights. It was wild. The last time I experienced this was in late 2021. I am not the only one in my family that gets these sensations, just drifting off to sleep or emerging from sleep. This is the best article I have found yet on the topic. Maybe it applies to some others here. (I hadn't slept well for a few nights, and the night I experienced this, was the first night I got a deep sleep and a full 8 hours - which, ironically, makes Sleep Paralysis more likely, due to REM deprivation from the previous nights!)
https://www.verywellhealth.com/symptoms-of-sleep-paralysis-3014781
I really feel for how much fear is involved in this process and I hope and pray that everyone here gets good news, and clear answers in their search.

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@rubyinparadise

Just following up on all of this. I decided not to do the heavy metals testing / detox after looking into it further. They're not really evidence-based. (The exception is if you have mercury poisoning, which is a medical emergency and requires hospitalization.). I also stopped seeing a naturopath after I learned more. Much of what they do is not evidence-based. She wanted me to spend hundreds of dollars for tests that wouldn't have been useful.

I did follow up with the second neurologist who was fantastic. Very attentive, knowledgeable, and responsive. Did several MRIs including a brain scan, nerve conduction studies (2) and muscle tests (2). Thankfully everything came back normal, despite the twitching I was experiencing getting worse throughout 2022. I was ultimately diagnosed with Benign Fasciculation Syndrome - which gets worse with stress, insomnia, and anxiety. Managing those factors keeps the twitching down to a minimum. I also started hormone replacement therapy because in the middle of last year I also entered menopause, which can exacerbate insomnia and muscle twitching.

Regarding body vibrations when falling asleep or waking: I now believe this is most likely Sleep Paralysis, which gets worse with fatigue or chronic insomnia. Just two nights ago, I had an episode of full body vibrations around 5 am, which even included auditory hallucinations and flashing lights. It was wild. The last time I experienced this was in late 2021. I am not the only one in my family that gets these sensations, just drifting off to sleep or emerging from sleep. This is the best article I have found yet on the topic. Maybe it applies to some others here. (I hadn't slept well for a few nights, and the night I experienced this, was the first night I got a deep sleep and a full 8 hours - which, ironically, makes Sleep Paralysis more likely, due to REM deprivation from the previous nights!)
https://www.verywellhealth.com/symptoms-of-sleep-paralysis-3014781
I really feel for how much fear is involved in this process and I hope and pray that everyone here gets good news, and clear answers in their search.

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I had internal vibrations this morning at a level 7. They were in the pelvic area this time. I'm just at a complete loss. Talked with neurologist, no luck. I've been on HRT for 15 or more years. The only time I had hallucinations was when I took Cymbalta. I'd hear sounds like metal pipes banging together. I'd open my eyes and it'd go away. I'd close my eyes but still be awake and I'd hear them again. Also had the shock like symptoms in brain too. Documented symptoms for 2 years before a class action lawsuit against them. I got $3000. Better than nothing I guess.

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I’m so sorry for all you have been through.

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Hi everybody. I'm new here and wanted to post my experience of these perplexing internal vibrations. Mine started 10 weeks ago along with other symptoms (vertigo, sore chest) which seemed to imply that my HRT patches were no longer helping me. Been 4 weeks on estrogel and progesterone combo now and still having the blasted tremors every night upon the exact moment of falling asleep. Last night was awake the entire night with no sleep. I sometimes get little spikes of electric shock feeling darting up from my abdomen just before the tremors happen. The tremor itself is an abdominal one and always wakes me right up just as I fall asleep. Because I reckon that much of this is due to an imbalance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system - like I'm stuck in fight-or-flight the whole time - I've decided to try acupuncture and see if that can balance things out again. I should add that I also had Covid 16 weeks ago, not badly, but of course like many of you on here I'm wondering if there's a connection.

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@aashiana

For all those wondering if this could be related to COVID and/or the COVID vaccines/boosters - the answer is a resounding YES. There are other causes of course, that need to be ruled out. However, I got COVID very early and researched these vibrations and tremors, and at the time absolutely nothing explained the specific pattern I was getting. Now, you can find it all over the place as an acknowledged long-COVID issue.

For me too, I had a rather severe onset, felt like I was being shaken out of bed, every surface felt like it was vibrating. In the absence of any reasonable explanation or access to hospitals (we were in lock-down at the time) I believed it was environmental. After a few months I realized it was systemic and I had almost 6 months of not sleeping except short crashes due to the severity of my physical responses during "sleep". Eventually i did learn to fall asleep into it for a few hours at a time, and my pattern since then has been internal buzzing and vibrations beginning while falling asleep and worsening the longer I sleep - so I wake up feeling terrible and disoriented, with a variety of sensory issues as well (tinnitus, strange smells, blurry vision, tongue and jaw vibrations). The vibrations can continue to a lesser extent during the day but seem to lessen with physical movement and mental focusing on something (anything) - work, games, movies, conversation.

Lots of neuro consults with little to show for it, from long-COVID clinics as well. Diagnosis with autonomia (not POTS), short-fiber neuropathy, probably glial cell activation. The good news (and there isn't much) is that all the sensory issues and peripheral neuropathy that come with this are reversible - they come and go as the CNS symptoms improve or worsen. So that's one worry off the plate. It is not ALS or MS or Parkinson's. More good news. Still, it's been three years. Lots and lots and lots of long-COVID people have this, and it is exacerbated by boosters. The consensus seems to be brain inflammation as well as general body inflammation causing CNS over-activation of the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) system. Given that it has recently been demonstrated that we have COVID reservoirs in various parts of our bodies (including nasal cavities, brain, gut, heart/lungs) it is not that surprising I guess that our bodies are still "fighting".

About the only thing that helps is anything to reduce inflammation, including a wide variety of supplements and some foods, anything that helps nerve and brain health and regeneration, avoiding alcohol and sugar, a keto or high-fat diet for nerve health, paradoxically getting more sleep which is very hard to do, and dealing with the inevitable mental health issues caused by the despair and lack of sleep. Our best hopes long-term rely on eradication of viral reservoirs, reduction of resulting inflammation, nerve regeneration after that. No-one knows if there will be irreversible damage that causes the vibrations to continue since we've never gotten to the point where these other covid-related factors have been addressed.

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Coming to this late (new member) but can I just thank you for this most helpful and encouraging post. You've given me lots of ideas to try there. Much appreciated.

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@zeen8391

Hello, I have been looking everywhere for something that has been happening to me but I couldn't find anything, but this thread is somewhat like what I'm experiencing. Maybe someone could give their input on why or what is happening. So sometimes when I sleep for a very long time or don't sleep enough I experience my whole body begin to tingle/vibrate/buzz. It's very hard to explain, but it's not like when your arm falls asleep and it begins to tingle, it's more of a very very pleasing tingling/buzzing. This can happen when I'm almost asleep or if I just wake up in the night and go to sleep again, but it happens when I 'am awake. Also i can kinda intensify it if I close my eyes harder or look up. When you close your eyes hard you can kinda hear it / feel it in your ears and that's the feeling * 100.

Also it's one of the most pleasant feelings I've ever felt, and it might sound a bit weird but it almost feels like an orgasm.

I personally think it has something to do with sleep myoclonus where my mind is awake while my body is being sedated

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Happened to me last night. I'm 17 male and I've been having this happen to me over the years. I find that it happens on the nights where I cannot sleep in bed until after a few hours of trying. Then when I close my eyes, I feel as though my brain is distorting itself from reality (buzzing, vibrating etc) very hard to describe the exact feeling but it does feel good. I also am able to intensify the feeling by looking up, or if I open my eyes the feeling goes away completely. Idk if this is just me but this also sometimes leads me into sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming. Another thing that happens to me other than this is when in the same scenario, instead of my head buzzing, i'll feel like I'm falling (but not the type of fall that you see other people talk about) the fall feels more vivid, and I am able to move, however as the fall progresses, it slows my ability to move. I am also able to exit and re enter this state for as long as I don't give in completely to the fall, and fall asleep. This usually then is accompanied by sleep paralysis if I give into the fall. Super weird but honestly cool. I'm really intrigued as to knowing what this is and am glad I'm not the only one who experiences this.

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I have had this happen as long as I can remember. Happened to me teo nights ago. I feel like my body is falling and my body moved. I have experienced this too. A gew times walking on the stairs. Never been a problem to me as I always walk down the stairs carefully.

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Carol1024- your symptoms sound most like mine. I recently went to a neurologist and did an MRI and we are ruling things out. I have a herniated lower disc and I’m starting to wonder if it has something to do with my spine. If they ever tell me what it is I’ll post it.

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@whatsshakin

I have had these internal tremors for years. The first time I noticed them was after my first pregnancy. It turned out I was anemic and b12 deficient. I supplemented and they went away. They came back after my net pregnancy and I was also b12 deficient with low iron. I supplemented and they went away.

Last year I developed POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia) and these tremors returned even though my b12 levels and iron were fine. b12 and iron deficiency cause neurological symptoms such as vibrations and pOTS is a neurological auto immune disease.

Someone in another forum mentioned that it is related to shallow breathing and that possibly makes it worse. I have heard it is related to GERD. I cannot get any answers and nothing helps. I do take clonazepam when it is incredibly bad. I always get these tremors when I am having a poTs flare.

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I have the same symptoms, I've done several tests and nobody detects anything... tremors, tinnitus, imbalances and tachycardia as well as GERD... muscle weakness and feeling faint, do you also experience these symptoms?
if you have any news let us know thanks

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