vanderwerkend@lonex.radc.af.mil (Dan Vanderwerken) (02/26/91)
I often find that the medical community doesn't have solid answers for questions like these...maybe because twitching doesn't cause serious harm/death, and if it's not that serious why worry about it? I've twitched and jumped a few times in the past just prior to falling asleep and this is what I've noticed: * I usually twitch in response to a dream. For example, my most violent jumps have been a response to a dream that I've fallen down (just as I'm drifting off to sleep). * I stayed up all night prior to my first college chemistry class...as the professor was exploding hydrogen filled balloons, I started to drift off to sleep. I dreamed my hand was burning and I "jumped" awake. * You probably twitch more than you realize when alone, but when asleep with someone else, they notice your twitching and tell you about it. Therefore, you know of more occassions when you've twitched with someone else in bed as opposed to sleeping alone. * At 29 years old, I'm still fighting acne. I'm now taking an antibiotic (Minocin) daily to combat this dreadful ailment--which works fairly well. Since no one (to my knowledge) has died of acne, I think medical scientist are bending their brains on more deadly diseases and leaving acne alone for the most part. Likewise, the real money is not in _curing_ acne, but in _treating_ the symptoms (pimples). I've not noticed pimples coming in symmetric pairs, so I have no observations on this issue. -- Dan Van Der Werken | God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that Rome Laboratory | in him we might become the righteousness of God. (315) 330-3145 | II Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
young@alw.nih.gov (Jeff Young) (03/01/91)
In article <1991Feb26.143844.12561@lonex.radc.af.mil>, vanderwerkend@lonex.radc.af.mil (Dan Vanderwerken) writes: |> I often find that the medical community doesn't have solid answers for questions |> like these...maybe because twitching doesn't cause serious harm/death, and |> if it's not that serious why worry about it? I've twitched and jumped a |> few times in the past just prior to falling asleep and this is what I've |> noticed: |> |> * I usually twitch in response to a dream. For example, my most violent |> jumps have been a response to a dream that I've fallen down (just as I'm |> drifting off to sleep). |> |> * I stayed up all night prior to my first college chemistry class...as the |> professor was exploding hydrogen filled balloons, I started to drift off |> to sleep. I dreamed my hand was burning and I "jumped" awake. I believe that it's called eidetic imagery, a pseudo-dream state that you enter into before falling asleep. I always find myself in motion and at some point the floor disappears causing me to jump. -- jy young@alw.nih.gov