why do we randomly feel like freefalling during our sleep?
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They are called hypnagogic jerks no one really knows why we get them but one main hypothesis is it is a reflex left over from tree living primate ancestors that slept in trees, and that it might have been beneficial in preventing them from falling out of the trees when they slept.
I can’t remember the full detail but I remember asking this many years ago and what I was told is it is linked to the function in your body that ‘paralyses’ movement when you are sleeping.
From what I remember at some point as you fall asleep your brain essentially shuts down body movement (I think the example I was given is that you can be dreaming that you are walking but your body doesn’t move in that way) and sometimes if you are still just awake when this function is happening it can cause the feeling of falling.
ELI5: When you are falling asleep, your brain does a lot of special tasks that help make sure you relax and are rested for the next day. Sometimes, especially when we are really tired, or have a lot of things going on in our life (stress), our brain might make a small mistake and think that the relaxing of our muscles for us to fall asleep is actually us falling down. You know how when you trip, your arms reach out? That is something we do to keep us safe when we fall. Because the brain thinks we are falling down, it also thinks we need to catch ourselves to keep us safe.
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