Hypnic jerk is my thing, and im male - and have all the halmarks such as chronic insomnia, but just started melatonin.

But wow - yeah it scares the heck out of me, yet the wiki says "benign" so that is thankful...

A morbid dark, intrusive thought that has happened to me when these occur is that my heart stopped due to sleep apnia and that I was startling myself back alive...

however these occur even when I am not yet asleep and in twilight mode.

-

SIDS ;;

This reminds me of what the believe the cause of SIDS to be: a pocket of co2 around the infants breathing-bubble where they are just recirculating the CO2.

So, I wonder if the infants dont yet have the ability to startle themselves back awake... but adults do.

I have had two people close to me who have had SDIS babies, and its horrifying.

A small crib fan may prevent CO2 bubbles...