Morning Tremors

Every so often as I am awakening in the morning, I have a brief episode of tremors. It only lasts for a short time ( about 30 seconds) and it only occurs in that "twilight zone" between sleep and wakefulness. It It has gone on for literally years, at about the same frequency, both before and now after CPAP therapy. It happened during my sleep test, and showed up as muscle movement on their data. My sleep doctor is totally mystified. Has anyone else ever had this? Anyone have any ideas what might cause it?
Thanks!

Papillon2 wrote:... My sleep doctor is totally mystified. ...

Is you sleep doctor a neurologist? I would think not. The transition from awak to sleep and back from sleep to awake involves a LOT of transitions within the central nervous system. It's not unusual for symptoms to be magnified during this transition time.

There are two basic types of tremors. One is "intention tremors". These typically occur when you reach for something with your hands / arms / legs. The act of reaching requires a lot of control (to not overshoot or undershoot). It's pretty normal that some tremors occur during this effort to control movement.

The second type of tremors occur all the time. Those tremors do not result from the effort to control movement, but result from flucuations within the nerves. Parkinsonian tremors are an example of this type of constant tremors. It often appears as if someone is "shivering" in one or more parts of their body.

During this 30 seconds or so, do you tend to experience tremors when you reach for something. Or is it fairly constant during this period.

I also imagine you recognize that if this has been ongoing for years, but has not really changed all that much, it probably is just how your body functions. During this transitional time there are lots of changes in how the brain controls the body. It is quite likely that under both sleep and while awake those controls keep things "locked down" without tremors. But during the transition there is a period when such control is not fully in place.

Try to jump right out of bed and not stumble around. Most of us feel quite awkward and out of balance for a bit. During that period when we awaken is when some of those controls are not fully in place.

Sounds to me like you could be hypoglycemic - a.m. tremors are common in people with the problem. Get a blood test from your MD, and try having a small amount of protein first thing. If it does the trick, you may have found the answer, but do get checked out.

Thank you both for your input. You've given me some good food for thought!