Erika, my Olhipie has very sensitive knee reflex and if just tapped in the right place he will kick pretty quickly!! One of his nephews was goofing off and wanted to see his leg kick and when it did...right in the groin!!

Every time I see this thread, I want to say, "I know a few "Body Jerks"..

I've never had one while I was awake but I have had a few that jolted me out of a good sleep. It's scary!

I too get these problems - have been for a month and a half straight. Consult a doctor as I am not one, but trazadone has helped me get to sleep, but not with the twitching/jerks.

It is most likely something related to myclonic jerking. Myclonic jerking is normal in most people, although as I have experienced it can get very bad to the point of causing sleep deprivation. The worst part is the catch 22 of the jerks - they get worse when you sleep less, which in turn makes you jerk more, and so on and so forth. One thing I am pursuing is a special version of them called hygonic jerks. Same jerks as before, but happen EXACTLY the moment you begin to fall asleep.

Not sure how severe your problem is but two posts that explain a bit:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ht=sleep+jerks

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ht=sleep+jerks

Lastly, depending on where in your body it is coming from you may be able to help with a couple of different meds:

DISCLOSURE: do a sleep study and talk to doctor to figure out exact underlying problem and best course of action BUT -

pramiprexole and/or requip are used often to treat Restless leg syndrome. Restless leg syndrome can occure anywhere in the body, even your abdomine trunk, and torso. Pramiprexole is an anti-parkensen's med and requip is anti-seizure. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE PARKENSEN'S OR SEIZURE DISORDER but they do help some.

Also, I know many have had success with klonopen, although it can cause dependency and lose it's effectiveness over time. Lastly, another med, not exactly sure how it works is Keppra. I believe it is an anti-seizure as well.

In any case, talk to your general practitioner, and consider a sleep study to see if you have restless leg syndrome or another disorder that is similar called periodic limb momvement. Again, with periodic limb movement you may have symptoms in abs, trunk, neck, or head/ combo of them all.

One other thing (SORRY LONG POST), if these things do not help or if you don't want the $$, time, and worry of a sleep study a simple vitamin deficency may be to blame. Simple blood test would tell.

Best of luck, and let me know if I can help answer more questions.

I'm up at 3 AM because I didn't take all my magnesium with dinner. I didn't have water at the table with me when I ate at Whole Foods, so I didn't take all the capsules. So now I'm up, took the capsule, and am waiting to be able to go back to bed and stop jerking for a few hours.
I tried the anti-Parkinson's drug. Did not help and had side effects.
Klonopin does help but my neuro 25plus years ago agreed I should get most of my help with magnesium.
I have to take 1000 mg a day or jerk all night, as well as twist. The twist is a new version of the disordered movements. It does affect my low back and actually affects my whole body if I get a strong jerk.
One fear of going to the ER is that they would not give me magnesium there if I were admitted. That happened once, two years ago, and I jerked all night and never slept.