- Sleeping is a time for your body to recover from a hard day's work.
- While sleeping, it's not uncommon to experience seemingly weird things, like sleep talking or even sleep eating.
- Some people also experience sleep paralysis and some have dreams within dreams.
Sleep is a time for your body to enjoy some peace and quiet. It's also a time for your body and brain to heal itself from a day's hard work. But have you ever woken up to a roommate talking to themselves or worse, snoring louder than a freight train? Or maybe, you yourself have noticed some weird things upon waking up like being unable to move for a moment or being jerked awake by a hard fall in your dream.
These confusing and not so peaceful things can seem somewhat alarming. But rest assured, INSIDER spoke to several doctors to find out what weird things can happen during the night that are actually pretty normal.
You feel like you're falling.
You know that sensation you get when it feels like you're falling off of a ledge and suddenly, you're jerked awake? The official name for this is the hypnic jerk, according to Dr. Sujay Kansagra, Mattress Firm's sleep health expert.
According to Sleep.org, up to 70% of people experience them occasionally — but no one knows exactly what causes them. "Although no one is quite sure what causes it, it's considered a normal variation of sleep as long as it doesn't lead to insomnia," Dr. Kansagra said.
You get chatty.
"Sleep-talking is another common sleep occurrence and also occurs in two out of three adults," Dr. Kansagra told INSIDER. Whether you speak a random word here or there or have a full-on conversation, he said, it's considered normal.
Some people search for meaning in what their partner says during the night, but research suggests that sleep talking doesn't reflect actual memories or emotions— so don't get too upset if you hear something you don't like, he added.
You sleep eat.
"Just like some people sleepwalk, some people sleep eat," Dr. Kansagra told INSIDER, "This disorder is due to the brain being stuck in two different stages, deep sleep and awake — at the same time."
In this state, he explained, people can do all sorts of unusual things and be unaware that they are doing them.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider