Myoclonus refers to an involuntary, quick muscle jerk and for example hiccups are a form of myoclonus. Another example of a myoclonus occurs when you are sleeping in the form of a sudden jerk. Sleep myoclonus is definitely the most common type of a myoclonus and may awake someone from deep sleep. The following is some more information about sleep myoclonus to help you understand the problem clearly.
- In most of the cases, myoclonus occurs as a result of a neurological or nervous system disorder like epilepsy or as a reaction to any medicine or medication. To control the symptoms of myoclonus, it is always best to treat the underlying condition or cause.
- People who experience myoclonus may often describe it as a jerk, shake or a spasm which is sudden, involuntary, brief, shock-like, localized to one part of the body and variable in frequency or intensity.
- Sleep myoclonus mainly affects the fingers, lips, toes and eyes and is barely perceptible to anyone watching the person in their sleep. It is a very common condition but in no way is it related to insomnia.
- In some people the presence of myoclonus in sleep may indicate one or more other sleep disorders including sleep apnea, narcolepsy and other types of movement disorders.
- The treatment of sleep myoclonus is usually centered around tranquilizers which have the ability to inhibit contraction by relaxing the muscles.
- In case when the condition has an underlying cause like a nervous system disorder, then the treatment may be related to treating the nervous system condition.
- In most of the cases, this condition will not disturb the subject or his/her bed partner to the point of disrupting sleep but may indicate the presence of serious sleep related disorders like restless leg syndrome and periodic leg movement during sleep.
- It is basically a brief twitching of the muscles and may occur either separately or sometimes even in groups. It can both be random or may occur in a sequence.
- It is important to understand that sleep myoclonus is not life threatening and thus one has no reason to worry or go visit a doctor in its rare occurrence.
- Some of the more complex types of myoclonus might also indicate towards the presence of some diseases which are related to nervous system.
