PLEASE also look up hypnic myoclonia.

OK, I've noticed that the jerks bug hubby all nite as well. I try to remember to take a muscle med so I don't throw him into earthquake zone. LOL I mostly twitch and slight jerk now but have what I call convulsed as my entire body comes unglued. Weather & stress & overdoing it seems to trigger it worse.

I too have these little jerks and twitches. Mine continue even when taking muscles relaxers. I used to get them really bad in my legs and wouldn't be able to sleep. Now I can be sitting and talking to someone and one of my legs will fly up or I will get a sort of tremble through my body. Most of the time it happens in my shoulders or neck because that is where most of my problem is. The leg jerking happens more when I am trying to go to sleep. I am so glad I am not alone in this, thought I was crazy!

I have the same thing at night especially. I take Requip and Flexeril. Has helped but not eliminated the problem. It also happens during the day, not as severe. As ALL of you have said, depends on the weather and my level of stress/tiredness. Good luck and God bless you all. Lyn

Hi, can't believe I have not joined this community sooner. I did some research on this twitching problem. I have osa. and the twitching would wake me and keep me from sleeping soundly. I found a medication used for parkinson's, these people have major twitching problems also when they are resting or about to fall asleep. My mom suffered from the same thing I did. In researching Mirapex, medication to help parkinsons disease, one of the side effects was it helped people with fibromyalgia pain feel better too. They call it off labeling. Mirapex is not made to treat fibromyalgia. Google mirapex and check it out. I have been taking Mirapex for about 7 months now. My twitching has stopped, and it has helpted alot with fibro pain. If I forget to take it, I get the twitching back. Good luck.

I have the same thing. Mine usually starts when I'm just about asleep and it will wake me up. I don't think I've managed to jump 4", but I have gotten close. My doc says that this condition is a cousin of restless leg syndrome. He gave me Clonazepam (a generic Klonopin). It really helps relax my muscles and takes away the jerking.

Hi! I've got two good ones for you when it comes to twitching and jumping in bed. I had the spasms/twitching so bad once that I hit my husband so hard in his eye that he got a black-eye - I never woke up (I'm not kidding). Also, I passed out after not sleeping for 2 days and I forgot to take my jewelry off - well to make a long story short - the spasms/twitching/jerking caused me to hit myself in the forehead with my wedding set - the diamond put a deep cut there! I talk to the doctor about this every time I see her. Flexeril and other muscle relaxers have done nothing for me but I'm currently on Requip & Skelaxon for the spasms/twitching/jerking. Hope this works because this often happens to me throughout my body during the day too.

I have the twitches, jerking, and even have head (sometimes left arm) tremors. The tremors sent me to a Neurologist for further testing (still undergoing tests). Goldengirl2...on the Mirapex, do you know if this helps with Tremors, I know that they are one of the main symptoms of Parkinson's.

I am so glad I finally found this thread. I jerked so hard one night it woke up the whole house and set the dogs off to barking. (they sleep on the bed). It would be funny if id didn't disturbe so much of my sleep. I take a muscle relaxer to sleep but until it kicks in... I'm like a jumping bean.

I get this also, although my twitching is less severe. I've heard that it is a symptom of Fibro for many people. It happens to me more when I'm tired or cold or with bad weather, as others have said. I try to do some stretching when it happens, that usually helps and a hot bath can help as well. But you're a lot worse than me, so you might need medication (I've heard Klonopin works).

I did this from 1990 - 2006. Mine was diagnosed as myoclonus and I was prescribed Klonopin. This worked unless I became overly tired and then I had to supplement it with either Trazadone, Skelaxin, Benadryl...

However, I am not doing this anymore. Mine turned out to be from eating gluten. There is new research on the web about how gluten can damage the brain and cause ataxia, brain fog, nueropathies, myoclonus, etc.

This article is an excellent resource, but there are many articles on the web about gluten ataxia now. I copied in a small part ...

http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/72/5/560

Gluten sensitivity as a neurological illness
M Hadjivassiliou, R A Grnewald and G A B Davies-Jones
Department of Neurology, The Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Glossop Road, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK

GLUTEN ATAXIA
Systematic screening of 143 patients with so-called "idiopathic sporadic ataxia" showed that 41% had gluten sensitivity as defined by the presence of circulating antigliadin antibodies20 (IgG with or without IgA). The prevalence of antigliadin antibodies in 51 patients with familial ataxia did not differ from that found in normal healthy control subjects (13%). The mean age of onset of the ataxia was 54 but we have recently seen three patients with early onset (under 20 years of age) sporadic idiopathic ataxia and gluten sensitivity. Recently four patients have been described with CD presenting as gait disturbance and ataxia in infancy.21 Alhough the ataxia tends to be slowly progressive, in some cases it can take a very rapid course with the development of cerebellar atrophy within a year of the onset of the illness (fig 1). Ataxia and myoclonus is a much less common presentation (only four patients in these series). We have encountered two patients who in addition to ataxia had evidence of chorea but normal genetic testing for Huntington's disease. Gluten ataxia primarily affects the lower limbs and gait. Extrapyramidal or autonomic features are rarely apparent and these features distinguish it from the cerebellar variant of multisystem atrophy (MSA). Screening of patients with clinically probable MSA (cerebellar variant) for the presence of antigliadin antibodies showed the prevalence to be similar to the normal population. Brain MRI usually shows cerebellar atrophy; sometimes with evidence of white matter abnormalities. Up to 40% of patients also have a sensorimotor axonal peripheral neuropathy that can often be subclinical. In a few cases oligoclonal bands are present in the CSF.


Many of the symptoms typical for FM or CFS can be attributed to eating gluten.

Please check this out for yourselves ... Marcia

My daughter and I both have twitches. I have Fibro, but she doesn't. Doctors didn't know what to do, but what's new. I noticed the only think wrong in her blood test was that she was low on magnesium. So, both of us started taking it. Twitches and jerks are gone.

my twitching comes when i get ready to sleep
Bernadette

I started having muscles twitch after i started my wonderful pain medicine - well, the doc says it is :) it is a SE of the drug - sometimes I don't get them at all, sometimes they come and go on for 10 minutes or more - very frustrating

It sounds like restless leg syndrome to me. Why don't you discuss this with your doctor (restless leg). I have the same thing but not often enough to warrant medication. Even though it's called restless leg syndrome, I too get the whole body twitch thingy...