Thank you Oliver Sacks

[flea]

I have wondered about this for many many years, asked the b.org hivemind once, and before that the Sayers list I frequented, two of the most erudite gatherings I have ever encountered, and nobody knew. And then Sacks just drops it in to his recent New Yorker essay:

"Sometimes, as one is falling asleep, there may be a massive, involuntary jerk - a myloconic jerk - of the body. Thogh such jerks are generated in primitive parts of the brain stem (they are, so to speak, brain-stem reflexes), and as such are without any intrinsic meaning or motive, they may be given meaning and context, turned into acts, by an instantly improvised dream. Thus the jerk may be associated with a dream of tripping, or stepping over a precipice, lunging forward to catch a ball, and so on. Such dreams may be extremely vivid, and have several "scenes." Subjectively, they appear to start before the jerk, and yet preumably the enitre dream mechanism is stimulated by the first, preconscious perception of the jerk. All of this elaborate restructuring of time occurs in a second or less."

My myloconic jerk dreams are usually stairs, occasionally stepping off a curb.

Also, in flea trivia, celebrity name-dropping division, I once served dinner to Oliver Sacks, when he lectured at my college. He asked what the fish on the plate was, and I had to go ask, and the cook said "molly molly" which I repeated, and Sacks looked perplexed then came up with "mahi mahi." And I felt dumb (I'd never heard of it.)

Comments

[askye.livejournal.com]

I have those same kinds of dreams. Usually I'm falling off a curb or a chair.

Mahi Mahi is also known as dolphin or dolphin fish, no relation to the mammals except they kind of look alike.

[fatoudust.livejournal.com]

Huh. This is interesting. I did not know this.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

For some reason I had remembered those as 'myoclonic' -- no wonder I haven't been able to find them referenced anywhere.

I actually disagree with Sacks' supposition that they are improvised. I'm far far more likely to have one if I've had a fall or a near-fall during the day previous.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Huh. I don't fall (or nearly fall) very often, and I have them often. (Whacking my knees into the baby gate? Now that's often). I always assumed that the subconscious mind knew the jerk was coming and planned the dream accordingly, as Sacks argues.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I've heard of these! (And they are myoclonic -- myo = muscle + clonic = turmoil.)

I have them all the time while dozing, and sometimes when I am still conscious enough to know that it is just a muscle jerk. When I am dozing, yes, they usually become part of a story (my specialty is tripping down stairs). When my brain is still basically awake, I just go, "huh, weird" and roll over.

I did not know that the story-izing is retroactive, but the speed at which dreams happen (for me, usually 500% faster than real life), it does not surprise me.

[makaidiver.livejournal.com]

Cats have them, too. I wonder if all mammals do.

[susanw.livejournal.com]

Probably--IIRC we're all pretty similar at the brainstem level.

In addition to the usual stepping off a curb or missing a stair dreams, I've had falling while skating and tripping while carrying Annabel.