Explained: this is that feeling of falling as you are about to sleep

I think seriously everyone knows this feeling. I don't have it very often anymore, I just realized, but I used to have it a lot. I also found it super weird when I was staying over at someone's place. Because I would sometimes have it in the middle of a conversation. Or well, I thought I was having a pretty good conversation, but in reality, you were already a bit half asleep, rambling on. And suddenly: BAM, awake. You're just not sitting up straight yet. I used to always add: ‘I thought I was falling.’ As if it was immediately logical that I had a massive seizure out of nowhere.

That feeling is not weird at all and also not strange at all. We know that by now, but the big question is mainly: what causes it?

Once I read on the internet that your soul leaves your body when you sleep, and if you get disturbed, your soul falls back into your body. That would explain that feeling: your soul gets disturbed and crashes back into your body. Nice explanation, I must say, but I was still looking for something... More factually substantiated?

So I went on a quest and soon found out that this is called a hypnagogic jerk, also known as sleep myoclonus. Now the next point: it is not entirely clear what causes it. But (thankfully, there is a but) there are a number of strong theories that could explain it. I can already tell you: my theory about the soul is not among them.

The most plausible theory, that is to say: many assume that it has to do with this, is that you are still in REM sleep. Partially, that is, because your brain parts fall asleep one by one. Sometimes there is a kind of miscommunication, causing the parts that control your muscles to be asleep, but they still ensure that your perceptions are awake. Short-circuiting all around, because of that, your brain can think that you are falling and your body tenses up in a reflex all at once.

So it could feel like you are falling because your brain actually thinks you are falling. Additionally, it could also be due to certain stress or anxiety: it seems to occur more often when you are very tired or not lying comfortably.

Now, I used to have very little trouble with stress, but I was tired after a movie marathon and during sleepovers where we could go to sleep at twelve o'clock (that was of course super late). But anyway, the most important thing is: it is totally harmless. Phew.