It doesn't happen every morning but on some mornings I wake up and I shake like crazy. It doesn't last very long. I also don't feel good when It happens. I have no other health issues. I think it may be related to being over weight??? I don't know... It scares me!!!

Have you taken you blood pressure when this happends?

I don't believe it is a result of being overweight. I have been overweight all my life and this just started this year. I feel as though I am freezing and shake uncontrollably for approx an hour. It happens when I first get to sleep. It wakes me up after being asleep only about 1/2 hr or so. I can feel my muscles tightening up.

I have not taken my blood pressure at this time.

If you have a blood pressure cuff I would take your blood pressure just to see what it is doing..I'm not sure why you would be having this. I think it would be a good thing to get it checked out by a DR..

I'm glad there is somewhere out there that also can relate to this stuff.


My head sometimes "vibrates" or shakes during sleep or on sleep onset. It can be one day to being like a wind up toy or a blender the next. It's not like a seizure where I'm unaware. I can stop it if I break its pattern by moving or sitting up. Sometimes I can feel it while I'm dreaming but am too tired to fight it so I just let it vibrate away. It can get so bad that it feels like my head is pulsating at 40 beats per second and my head is going to pop off. Strange thing is, it doesn't really "hurt", I'm amazed by it because it feels like it's doing some violent stuff.

I sometimes have electric "zaps" too, that take my breathe away right as I'm dozing off to sleep. I'll see a picture or start to dream and this rush of adrenaline or something will SURGE through my entire body and it hurts. Sometimes it's major like someone plugged me into a light socket, those ones scare the crap out of me. They usually leave me feeling like I just got hit by a truck and confused for a few seconds. They used to happen only once a night, then I would fall asleep. But sometimes they happen 10 times a night and I will be terrified of sleeping and stay up for hours until I fall asleep exhausted.


These things aren't Hypnic Jerks like I've read. I've had those and they are so benign that they hardly affect sleep. These don't seem like seizures either because I can stop them if I move or wake up, and I don't get any Migraines or headaches, just rattled nerves from not knowing what this is and feeling powerless.

I also notice if my sleep cycle is off, if I smoke too much, if I am really tired, or if I'm having stress or anxiety...........these things happen much more.

My Doctor says it is severe anxiety and repressed emotions, I can't really disagree. The Autonomic Nervous System can go crazy from anxiety to the point of making symptoms like these. Usually syndromes or symptoms that have no real physical cause is where anxiety and emotions are the culprit.

But I just want them to stop. The vibrating thing is kinda scary but it doesn't freak me out to the point of panic. The electric "JOLTS" though, are another story. When they take my breath away and I gasp for air right before hitting dream state, I feel like I'm going to die.

Please don't talk to me about sleep apnea either, this stuff happens while I've been awake and just laying down and half conscious. I'm tired of the Sleep Apnea crowd always trying to convince people with this stuff it's always APNEA, give it a rest already.

Nocturnal Myoclonus makes the most sense as far as PHYSICAL diagnosis, but I have gone through months where this stuff didn't happen, the only difference is now I'm in a bad cycle. So can Nocturnal Myoclonus be transient?

Anyways, just wanted you guys to know that you're not alone and this is not some imaginary thing. To be honest, Doctors and Neuros are still in the dark about many things and can be downright USELESS entities. Either because they're too intellectually LAZY to research or they just don't care or know. So people like us are forced to come to forums and discuss it to find a pattern or answer. It's really messed up, because I am reading that a lot of people experience this, and it's seriously a frightening experience.

I have essential tremor, but somehow I shake at night as well. I take Clonapin for the tremors at night, just in case their seizure related, per my neuro. I take inderal for the tremors and xanax for anxiety. Tonight, I took everything, including ambien for sleep and I got about four hours sleep, of course I drove my wife into another room with my shaking in the bed.

During the day I shake and have tremors, some days are better than others, but you just have to adjust and not push too much.

I have predominantly right sided weakness and perephiral neuropathy. I tend to lose my balance frequently and have bouts of dizziness. I'm not sure how all the meds inter-act, so it could be affecting my condition as well.

I have had every test known to mankind (all negative for tumors, lesionss associated w/ms) and may be headed to the Mayo clinic in Jacksonville, FL to try and finally figure this thing out.

This is probably stupid but my partner shakes at strange times and the doctors told him he may have parkinsons. Nothing dangerous just means u shake

i have experienced the same thing, and only my side of the bed was shaking, my husband said that it happened to him the other night, and no longer thinks i'm crazy, i have looked more into this, and decided to look up out of body experiences that may cause the shaking when waking up, it's called astro projection. thought i'd give my input here as a possibility. hope all is well

as i read these, i can almost say without a doubt that some of the symptoms that i've read here have to do with astro projection, which is, as i've posted prior to this one, is an out of body experience what happens is, the "spirit" of the person goes literally out of the body, and then if it re-enters too fast, it causes the body to shake. i sound crazy, even feel crazy typing this, but i have done some study and research and have found this to be a logical explaination for this type of thing

Thats really facinating although scary. Its ok, i think a lot of us feel a bit strange sometimes lol. I get SP and telling my partner and my mum about it i felt like a right fruit loop lol

Phew - a relief at least to find this thread and realise someone else is suffering from similar symptoms. But no one has come back with an answer about what it might be.

I'm otherwise very healthy and happy. Can't really think that stress is causing this problem. But the shaking is happening more often now. It always seems to be at the same sort of time of night though this may be related to a time I wake up anyway. Usually 3 or 4 am. If I move then the shaking stops. I first of all assumed that someone next door had a washing machine running but then it happened when I was away from home.

It definitely feels a bit like a low sugar sort of shake. My heart rate when it happens seems to be fairly normal. Everything seems normal - apart from this odd internal shake. Bizarrely although it's internal it feels like it's the bed that's shaking.

Anyway - maybe visit to the doctor is in order. Did anyone else find anything out about their own symptoms?

Hi - I'm new here. I have been shaking during the "light to deep sleep period" most nights for about 5 months now. I think it is a symptom of Parkinson's disease. With Parkinson's, you shake during "rest" then it stops when you're moving around.
here is one link:
http://www.pdf.org/Publications/factsheets /PDF_Fact_Sheet_1.0_Final.pdf

Please start researching this. PD happens when cells in your brain stop producing "Dopamine", which transmits chemicals to control muscle movement. The only way to diagnose it is to be given the medicines, then if your symptoms improve, there is a good chance you may have PD.
If anyone gets any info from their neurologists, please share it with us and help to give us some hope...

im new here! I do too have shakes at night before i go to bed. I found out it was due to stress and anxiety through out the day. Another thing was not maintaining a regular sleep schedule. You should get atleast 7 hours of sleep minimum. I was getting only 4 to 5 hours a day plus stress from work. Another thing you should do is maintain a healthy diet. Not eating right also caused my shakes at night.

to unknowing, plz make sure that you know what's going on before you said that this is parkinsons disease just to be on the safe side see a doctor before you decide something like that for your own peace of mind plz keep us informed of anything that you find out.

I have been experiencing for the last 3 months or so, shaking on waking up. I don't believe it is a physical shake but an internal shake. I feel as if my whole body including my eyeballs(!) are vibrating. At first I thought it was my bed shaking, ie, my cat or my husband fidgeting but it has gotten increasingly worse as time goes on and I do feel it is now internal . My husband has not felt me shaking. Also this only happens at night, not during the day.

I don't worry about this but on visiting my GP for another matter it was brought up. He has me attached to a cardio memo machine which records my heart rate whilst shaking. I think this is a very drastic measure as i'm sure my heart is not the problem. During the shakes my heart rate appears to be normal, neither increased or decreased.

I have since spoken to another Dr and he believes it could be a rare form of hypnopompic state. This is when your body shakes on waking up. He also said it could be mild epilepsy. I really hope not as my job includes a lot of driving (in English law, if epileptic, you cannot drive for 2 years and only then when clear of seizures!!).

I am not on any major medication except for Citalopram 40mg, which is for mild depression (too much stress at work). Nor do I suffer any medical conditions.

I shall keep you posted. At least now I know I am not alone in this. Everyone believes i'm going crazy ha ha, so did I at one point.

Hey, I thought it was just me! For a couple of years now, I've had this. Like an earlier poster, I used to think it was my cat scratching at the bottom of the bed, or something. I gradually started to realise it was me... it’s got much worse over the last year. Doctors treat me with shoulder-shrugging.

I think it's helpful if we describe our symptoms VERY carefully, as it’ll help us all see if it’s the same thing... mine happens in the following very specific way:

It ONLY happens (as far as we know) when I wake up – and even then, by observing it carefully I've established it doesn’t actually start till maybe 10 seconds AFTER I wake – kid of in step with my increasing wakefulness. Then it begins and gradually increases in amplitude till part or all of my upper torso (sometimes including my arms and even hands/fingers) is vibrating internally like a bad shiver – though I’m not at all cold.

I used to think it was my heart, which obviously worried me – but pretty sure now it isn’t. Taking a pulse from my carotid artery reveals a slow, steady beat. Also, activity quickly kills it off – if I just get up and walk a few paces to the bathroom, it stops. Well, actually, I can still feel it, but it’s very faint. Then after a while it fades away. I think if it was my heart, activity would make it worse, or I’d feel dizzy or anxious or something.

Doctors are reluctant to put me on a 24-hour heart monitor “because there’s a big demand for the machines, and the one night we’d put you on it, it wouldn't happen!” Then they laugh like Doctor Hibberd out of The Simpsons.

This NEVER happens during the day etc.

Any neurologists reading this...?

Hi Hogweed, it sounds like you suffer the same symptoms as me. I've never actually tried getting up when it happens. I let it finish then drift back to sleep. Today, I was attached to a cardio memo machine which is recording my heart rate. I have to wear this for 24hrs a day for 1 week. When it happens I press record. After 3 recordings I am to go back to the hospital to see what's going on. I know it's not my heart and my doctor is being way over cautious but I suppose it's better to know than have a bad heart. Anyway I shall keep you posted, as I said before it's so good knowing i'm not alone in this.

As a child I used to wake up to my bed shaking, after something would wake me up suddenly. I used to think it was an earthquake or someone (evil) was under my bed shaking it LOL I didn't learn what the heck it was until recently. Well, I still don't know, but I am reading alot online. I am assuming it is a kind of myoclonus, but I think I will visit my doc to make sure. They say that severe myoclonus could be due to a brain tumor or some other type of bad thing...but I've had it since a child. I only get it when someone or something wakes me up, like I am drifting off to sleep and my son screams "MOM! MOM! YOU KNOW WHAT?" LOL!!! haha Then my whole body vibrates.
For those of you who say only parts of you shake, like your mouth or a limb, then I read that its probably a type of this. For me, it might be nocturnal myoclonus.
For the one lady, its called Astral Projection....but I assuming the vibrating you are talking about would usually be self-induced...so I would check with a doc before only thinking its that.
And for that one person who talked about the whole "waking up gasping for air", I suffer from that too, although now, instead of not being able to breathe at all, or literally "gasping", I just feel like I can't breathe too good, but if you just relax it will go away, its called a laryngospasm. Although the electric feeling I read is due to a sleep disorder...I can't remember which one. One way to get breathing normally again, I use a fan. That seems to calm me. Once i had this while awake, and I was vomiting (I know, gross!) and had inhaled it. But other then that, I always have them while sleeping. They say that it is due to silent reflux disease....reflux with no symptoms. So go get checked! I need to do that....LOL
I also suffer from RLS, but it never wakes me up.
I also get heart palpitations, I am not sure what from now. I am allergic to aspartame, and used to get them from drinking diet pop, but now I get them for who knows what reason.
I tell ya, I am only 30, but I feel so old! LOL acck!