Thread: Methods to stop "jerking awake" while attempting a WILD?

What you're experiencing is called a hypagogic (or hypnic) jerk; you've described it perfectly - the feeling that you're falling (as if you'd tripped or something) and then suddenly stopped, which jolts you awake. This occurs when you become very relaxed, to the point where you're almost asleep (or unconscious, whether you're trying to WILD or not at that particular time!). I've heard that it may be caused by irregular sleep schedules and excessive tiredness during the day; I can stand behind this because I only seem to get them if I'm really exhausted and am "willing" myself to fall asleep faster, just from the tiredness.

I'm curious now as to whether there's other solutions to help prevent these "jerks".

I feel like there is no way to stop the hypnic jerks because its so sudden. Its not like the pulling or spinning sensations you get during sleep paralysis because those usually last a lot longer and dont cause you to wake up, unless you get scared. The jerks people get on the other hand are so sudden and quick, that your body almost autimatically wakes you. If someone could find a solution for that, it would be awesome, but I feel like its almost impossible to stop it because its so sudden. Any thoughts on it would be great.

It's not so much stopping it as preventing it, I think. Yes, they'd probably be impossible to "stop" because your mind is often so close to sleep, it isn't clear enough to act that fast. But there's gotta be some effective preventative measures out there.

Puffin, that's what exactly what I'm wanting to know, if there's a way to prevent them (since obviously, once you're aware of it, it's too late to stop it).

Last night, I tried one of the WILD techniques I've been experimenting with, but without making a conscious effort to maintain lucidity. As far as I can tell, I was able to go straight into REM sleep, and then attained lucidity a couple of minutes into the dream (and then a couple of minutes later, when my dream was still "fuzzy" rather than trying to stabilize the dream, for some reason I thought "oh, my eyes are closed" and opened my eyes for real *headdesk*). The same thing happened this morning, where I was able to purposefully go straight to REM sleep, though without maintaining lucidity, and no problems with hypnic jerks.

I'm going to keep experimenting over the next few days, but I'm just finding it odd that it seems like they only happen if I'm still lucid while entering sleep paralysis/dream state.

I think the only way the prevent them is from getting a good nights rest then night before. I find it happens only when I'm pretty tired. But everyone is different, so some might just naturally get them more often.

I for myself never really experienced these jerks myself while being in bed (except for turning awake again without twitching upon noticing I have hypnogogic hallucinations, I'm going to make a thread about something I found out about that in this subforum later though). However I know exactly this jerks from the day, called forth when something is slowly turning me asleep while I myself don't want to sleep (happened in school a lot). I then fight falling asleep, and upon really falling asleep I immediatly have a dream where I either see how I'm falling downstairs or slipping on ice, or the likes, and I'm back fully awake. Given that I think it's at least partially a thing of mind wether these jerks happen, I suppose if you'd find something that would be causing it you could train to avoid it. I suppose for some WILDers trying to maintain minds awakeness while the bady falls asleep falls in this category, so if you could get yourself to feel pulled and completely relaxed by the transition you might be able to cancel out or at least reduce these jerks, since you'd take away the bottom you'd otherwise be hitting. It's just a theory though, so I can't say if it'll possibly work or not.