Muscle twitching Is frequent twitching of muscles during sleep a disease symptom?

Muscle twitching when dreaming: Even healthy sleepers move more than expected

That babies twitch in their sleep is nothing new, especially for parents. But adults also move during the night - much more than previously thought. That's what researchers have discovered. However, muscle twitching during dreaming may be a harbinger of neurodegenerative diseases.

Muscles twitch every six minutes during sleep

In a study by scientists at the Medical University of Innsbruck, it has been shown that even healthy people move more in their sleep than expected. According to the research group, which was supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, ten smaller movements per hour (ie on average every six minutes) are normal. However, muscle twitching during dreaming can also be a harbinger of neurodegenerative diseases, according to a post by "scilog", the magazine of the FWF.

In a new study, it has been shown that even healthy people without sleep disturbances move more in their sleep than previously thought. (Image: fizkes / fotolia.com)

Data was outdated until recently

According to the researchers, it has not been exactly defined how much exercise is in healthy sleep for a long time.

As Birgit Högl, Head of the Sleep Laboratory at the University Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck explains, the data was until recently largely outdated.

"What we know about 'normal' movements while asleep is in part still from the time when the sleeping person was being watched through a window and handwritten protocols were made," explains Högl in the online magazine "scilog"..

"Recorded were only visible and strong movements such as turning, jerking or violent knocking," said the expert.

"For the diagnosis of a sleep disorder, brain current curves, eye movements, muscle tension on the chin, arms and legs, various respiratory parameters, ECG, sound and infrared video are recorded simultaneously in the laboratory."

In the project "Motor Activity while Asleep in Health and Illness" standard values ​​for physiological sleep were raised.

Hundreds of women and men with healthy sleep examined

Because many sleep disorders are manifested in abnormally agitated sleep, normalized motor activity was the focus of this basic clinical project, which was supported by the FWF.

In total, 100 "healthy sleepers" between the ages of 19 and 77 were examined in the sleep laboratory.

The subjects were previously clinically relevant sleep disorders such as falling asleep and staying asleep, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking, dreaming of dreams, narcolepsy or other diseases with excessive sleepiness during the daytime, disturbances of the sleep-wake rhythm or signs of respiratory failure in the Sleep has been excluded.

More muscle twitching in men

As the "scilog" contribution states, the muscles in healthy people during the dream phase (REM sleep) are usefully paralyzed, as otherwise they would put themselves and others at risk of expressing the dreamed.

According to the researchers, the precision of the measurements has taught them much about what falls into the normal category.

"Even super healthy sleepers move at night more than we thought," says Birgit Högl in an interview with "scilog".

The scientists measured several muscle twitchings per hour in healthy people in REM sleep (dreaming) and in non-REM sleep - even more so in men than in women.

The clinical significance of small, irregular muscle twitches, as shown in the video and muscle leads, is still unclear. Maybe they are simply related to the constitution of the day.

Harbinger of neurodegenerative diseases

Conversely, muscle movements during the dream phase are heralds of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

According to the information, this sleep disorder occurs on average more than ten years before other physical symptoms.

According to "scilog", recent studies indicate that REM sleep disturbance occurs in up to six percent of over-50s. (Ad)