Sleep is a basic human need. We sleep every night and yet we do not know much about weird things that happen to us when we sleep. When we wake up the next morning, we do not even remember much of what had happened. You decide to fall asleep and give your body some rest, but your body can decide otherwise and do whatever it wants.

Here’s a list of weird things that happen to us while asleep: 

• Hypnic Jerks- You wake up feeling like you are falling from a cliff or you have tripped. It’s scary, and you need a few minutes to calm down, but it’s nothing to worry about. It has been claimed that this is caused because of stress and sleep deprivation. Another explanation states that when we fall asleep, our brain cannot figure out if we are dead or just asleep and hence sends impulses to the muscles to check if we are alive.

• Sleep Paralysis- Those who have experienced Sleep Paralysis¹ know how scary it is. You wake up to find that you cannot move your body, you feel suffocated like there’s weight on you. Like this isn’t scary enough, you hallucinate too. This happens when a part of our brain wakes up before the others. Again, stress and sleep deprivation² are responsible.

• Talking while asleep- People who talk while sleeping creep others out and do not remember anything when they wake up. Sometimes, they speak foreign languages too. They utter incomprehensible phrases and do not spill any of their secrets. This happens when the speech center in their brain gets activated while they are asleep.

• Sleep walking- Sleep walking, also known as somnambulism³ is a disorder where people walk around while asleep. They do normal things like getting snacks from the fridge, go to the bathroom, etc. Things can get dangerous if they hit something or get out of the house or start driving their car. The reason for this is again the activation of one part of the brain.

• Gritting one’s teeth- Also known as Bruxism⁴, people grind their teeth while asleep. This can be caused by stress or misaligned teeth. This habit can annoy the person sleeping next to them and can also cause damage and pain in that area. A person can get a mouth guard to protect their teeth from this.

1. Denis, Dan. “Relationships between sleep paralysis and sleep quality: current insights.” Nature and science of sleep (2018): 355-367. ↩︎
2. Orzeł-Gryglewska, Jolanta. “Consequences of sleep deprivation.” Int J Occup Med Environ Health 23.1 (2010): 95-114. ↩︎
3. Kavey, Neil B., et al. “Somnambulism in adults.” Neurology 40.5 (1990): 749-749. ↩︎
4. Shetty, Shilpa, et al. “Bruxism: a literature review.” The Journal of Indian prosthodontic society 10 (2010): 141-148. ↩︎