I assume most people either experienced or have seen people with the following phenomenon: in the early phases of sleep sometimes involuntary twitches occur that usually accompany the pause of breathing (I'm aware that there's a chronic sleeping disorder called sleeping apnea but I think it's different because what I'm asking about now is acute). I wonder if the twitching is some sort of emergency signal, so that the person would wake up (to some level not necessarily full awake) and start breathing. Is there any data that these (the pause in breathing and the twitches) are connected or they are independent? Also I'm also interested why this acute pause of breathing occurs?
Edit:
I've researched myself on this topic and it seems that what I've described is more likely a form of Obstructive sleep apnea.
Answer
Jerk-like muscle contractions occurring while drifting off to sleep are normal and are referred to as "sleep starts" or sleep myoclonus (National Institute of Health - NINDS).
Sleep Education explains the symptoms:
Sleep starts usually consist of one strong jerk that affects much of the body. The arms and legs are most likely to be affected.
So sleep starts may be quite vigorous, but may consist just of small lip movements too.
The American Sleep Association mentions that:
Sleep myoclonus will rarely disturb the subject or any bed partner to the point of waking and disrupting sleep [...].
In fact, sleep starts are associated with tachypnea, i.e., an increased in breath rate (Vetrugno & Montagna, 2011)
Hence, your hypothesis that a myoclonus is a mechanism to wake a person up (for whatever reason) seems unsupported.
Reference
- Vetrugno & Montagna, Sleep Medicine 2011; 12: S11–S16
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