This has been going on for about 5 years now. Whenever I try to fall asleep on my back, as I grow tired I will get a jolt and a flash of light that shocks me awake. If I stay on my back these jolts will continue. As soon as I turn onto my stomach I can continue to fall asleep normally.
I suppose this resembles sleep paralysis, but I am never paralyzed. I also read sleep apnea patients experience similar jolts which is a surge of adrenaline telling them to breathe, but I am sure I have good breathing. Mine is also much more of a head jolt.
Hmm… this sounds like something you want to tell a specialist about. It doesn’t sound really serious, but it’ll get in your way if you wanna LD. I also assume it makes it hard for you to sleep.
Maybe you should talk to a sleep specialist about this. They’ll be able to tell you why you’re seeing these flashes.
Also, someone else here might be able to help you. Do you feel anything other than the flashes of light? Like a jolt of pain?
I don’t know about the flash of light but sudden jolts could be a myoclonic jerk:
a sudden, involuntary twitch of a muscle. It may be a contraction, called positive myoclonus; or a relaxation, called negative myoclonus. The most common time for people to encounter them is while falling asleep (“sleep starts”) but myoclonic jerks are also a symptom of a number of neurological disorders. Hiccups are also a kind of myoclonic jerk specifically affecting the diaphragm.
I sometimes get it more if i’m lying on my back. The moment I fall asleep, my body jolts me awake. It’s not so bad if i’m on my side though.
I’ve had similar things happen now i think about it, but it’s not like a body jolt, more of a mental jolt. If i’m on my back I can be right at the point of falling asleep and I will be suddenly fully awake, like if someone jumped on you or a loud noise.
The only thing i can really compare to this is when i try to sleep on my back after 10 minutes my back makes a loud crack sound so i just sleep on my side curled up in a ball use my back as a shell like a turtle
Something like that happened to me when
I was a kid.Yes it did.I got a big shock and everything.
Till this day I still wonder why my mother
told me that it was okay to make pop tarts in
the bath tub.
When I was going to university, and fell asleep sitting up in lectures, I would often feel a zing inside my skull that woke me up, until I was just too tired and fell asleep anyways. This zing was painful, in a way - rather like an electric shock. It felt like someone had hit the reset button on my brain.
I think it was that I would fall asleep, my head would fall forwards and then I would jerk awake and pull it back up.
Yes its more of a mental electric shock. Sometimes it cna be painful and intense, other times its just the light flash. There is always a bright flash of light accompanying it. Usually its like a really compact checker or zig zag pattern of white light. And the jolt goes through my head. I am a 22 year old male so I dont think its menopause. LOL
Sometimes a sound like the door makes a creak will bring it on. If there is no sound it will just start happening by itself. The weird thing is that if I stay on my back it will just keep happening every few minutes, but as soon as I turn on my stomach it will stop.
This only happens at night though, when I wake up early in the morning and decide to go back to sleep I have no problem sleeping on my back.
I dont think its that much of a problem that I need to seek a specialist, but I have yet to find someone who has these same experiences yet, so that might be my next move.
Maybe it’s just a chemical in the body that automatically responds when something’s not right, like your getting hurt and wants you to change position.
Possibly its somehow connected with sleep paralisis.There might be some kind of “electricity leak” to your mind/conciousness.Not sure though if its that- but i guess it could- a lot of body processes bases on electricity and SP too.
Maybe the flash of light is HI and it startles you awake because you’re more vulnerable or can’t relax lying on your back? I also have less trouble sleeping on my back later on in the night or next morning. Except for the light it sounds very similar to what i experience.
I get that too, in my head and all over me when i’m awake if a sudden noise makes me jump (it doesn’t take much to shock me).
use my back as a shell like a turtle 
