Aha, I had a nagging feeling there might be something like that going on.
Any idea what the involuntary spasms are about? I did another hour of sitting, and while I didn’t have the tingling and such this time, the spasm came back as strong as ever. In fact, I’m inclined to discontinue things until I can figure out what the deal is with them.
Even laying down, breathing calmly, I’m just twitchy as hell. It stops as soon as I stop meditating.
EDIT: Here’s something from wikipedia.
Cortical reflex myoclonus is thought to be a type of epilepsy that originates in the cerebral cortex—the outer layer, or “gray matter,” of the brain, responsible for much of the information processing that takes place in the brain. In this type of myoclonus, jerks usually involve only a few muscles in one part of the body, but jerks involving many muscles also may occur. Cortical reflex myoclonus can be intensified when patients attempt to move in a certain way or perceive a particular sensation. [italics mine]
This seems like a pretty bizarre explanation, but I have yet to uncover anything better. Wait, that’s probably intended to be read “when patients perceive”, not “when patients attempt to perceive”.
I don’t have any hard knowledge about them but my wild guess is that they’re similar to hypnic jerks, basically your brain noticing it hasn’t heard from your body lately and pinging it to make sure it’s still there. The more serious twitches that get linked to kriyas are probably something more exotic, but what you’re talking about doesn’t sound like that.
If you’re tired, sleep better and they might go away. If not, see if you can make meditation less of a relaxing brink-of-sleep-inducing experience by some of the tips David mentioned above.
The exceptionally large amount of twitching you’re having now could also be linked to the previous hyperventilation. Note the part of the Wikipedia page that says alkalosis can cause “tetany”—that’s involuntary muscle contraction. See if it goes away after a while breathing normally. Note that breathing normally during meditation is hard, at least for me.
Aha, I had a nagging feeling there might be something like that going on.
Any idea what the involuntary spasms are about? I did another hour of sitting, and while I didn’t have the tingling and such this time, the spasm came back as strong as ever. In fact, I’m inclined to discontinue things until I can figure out what the deal is with them.
Even laying down, breathing calmly, I’m just twitchy as hell. It stops as soon as I stop meditating.
EDIT: Here’s something from wikipedia.
Cortical reflex myoclonus is thought to be a type of epilepsy that originates in the cerebral cortex—the outer layer, or “gray matter,” of the brain, responsible for much of the information processing that takes place in the brain. In this type of myoclonus, jerks usually involve only a few muscles in one part of the body, but jerks involving many muscles also may occur. Cortical reflex myoclonus can be intensified when patients attempt to move in a certain way or perceive a particular sensation. [italics mine]
This seems like a pretty bizarre explanation, but I have yet to uncover anything better. Wait, that’s probably intended to be read “when patients perceive”, not “when patients attempt to perceive”.
You’re unlikely to have epilepsy. That’s serious stuff.
Meditators commonly report twitches (here is an annoying New Age page about them, because it was the first one I could find).
I don’t have any hard knowledge about them but my wild guess is that they’re similar to hypnic jerks, basically your brain noticing it hasn’t heard from your body lately and pinging it to make sure it’s still there. The more serious twitches that get linked to kriyas are probably something more exotic, but what you’re talking about doesn’t sound like that.
If you’re tired, sleep better and they might go away. If not, see if you can make meditation less of a relaxing brink-of-sleep-inducing experience by some of the tips David mentioned above.
The exceptionally large amount of twitching you’re having now could also be linked to the previous hyperventilation. Note the part of the Wikipedia page that says alkalosis can cause “tetany”—that’s involuntary muscle contraction. See if it goes away after a while breathing normally. Note that breathing normally during meditation is hard, at least for me.