electricity

[timetes]

can some one help me with this. Every nite just as I go to sleep I feel an electrical shock. Im not sure what it is. I keep telling everyone its below the floor from the apartment below. How could someone see electricity if it were coming thru the floor? It's starting to make me ill. I move the bed and for a while i can sleep then this jolt and i get zapped again. Could some one see electric current through night vision or some sort of new vision tec. I feel like im getting cooked.

[farmboy]

You sure it is real? I remember reading about some condition like this, but it has nothing to do with actual electricity.

[timetes]

I know... friends of mine said there was a show on it. But why dont i get it when Im at a friends house. I thought at first it was one of them laser guns some jerk was messing around with.... but right before i get zapped i actually hear a thump on the floor. I kinda feel like im getting microwaved...cant explain it. But I have to figure it out because it is making me sick. its like chinese torture...

[swansont]

The scenario you describe is exceedingly unlikely. The floor is probably an insulator (some combination of wood, carpet and tile). I would be looking to physiology and psychology rather than physics.

[YT2095]

most peoples bodies "Jolt" upon falling asleep, sometimes the brain isn`t quite asleep enough not to notice this and so it startles you a bit. it`s quite normal though.

it Might be an idea to set up a Voice activated tape recorder in the room just to make sure there isn`t some sudden Sound occurring that`s waking you up before you have chance to recognise it as well.

[timetes]

Thank you for your reply's. But it looks like no one can figure this out, since no one knows how to stop an electric charge in motion to reverse it or render it "a dead charge". Last night was one of the worst....i got zapped in the face. I shut the tv because the box and tv shoot these bright lites out at times and hurts my eyes. Even the remote control i put in a draw......

[iNow]

Post #4 implies otherwise. There must be a source, and it must be transfered somehow through a conductor. If either of those are missing, you should see a psychiatrist instead of a physicist or electrician.

[swansont]

Or a neurologist.

[iNow]

timetes - I think you probably need to obtain and provide more information. Based on what you've said thus far, it's simply not very plausible. It may, of course, be something else (something more physical than neurological), but it's nearly impossible to tell based on what you've shared here.

[Reaper]

Maybe his bed just has a high amount of static charge, what exactly do you use as sheets? I can guarantee you that what ever it is, it's not from the floor...

[big314mp]

I'm gonna have to agree with YT.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia#Sensory_phenomena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk

 

I'm thinking that you are just more conscious of the "jerk" when you are falling asleep.

[electricman6913]

put a humidifyer in your bed room it will cut down on static. alsp try a fabric softner with static gard next time you wash your sheets.

Edited January 5, 2009 by electricman6913
adding

[PlayStationX]

there is an old Chinese saying that goes like this:

- "if you can't fix it with rubber, it's not worth fixing."

 

simply put rubber everywhere and dress up as Bat-man.

[timetes]

thank you all. When I get up I get a shock when I grab the door knob. I thought it may be the electrical outlets....im considering covering the two. Also, when I use a wool fleese blanket lately and I get zapped or the bump onthe floor I smell burning. A rubber matt does not work only this wool fleese. thank you again and very interesting web sites. I was wondering about maybe a speaker on the ceiling below? But that shouldnt cause a shock.

[Psycho]

It just sounds like static electricity, especially off a door knob, it isn't an electrical output as you wouldn't suddenly get shocked randomly, however you would when you touched the bed, it would also have no correlation with sleeping.

 

Simple solution, move your bed to another room for 2-3 days and keep everything else the same, such as bedding, temperature (as much as possible) and other factors, if it still happens it obviously isn't the room.

[insane_alien]

maybe try a humidifier, if the air is humid you are less likely to build up significant charge.

[minus_Ph]

I vote static electricity...

Is this worse in the winter?

Great suggestions: Humidifier, antistatic laundry stuff.

Take a fluorescent bulb to bed in the dark. If you see flashes in it you have static electricity. Move your legs around in the blankets while holding one end.

That will answer the Inside/Outside your head question right off.

~minus

[timetes]

I want to thank some of you, who ever you are. If i never came to this site one late night after suffering from zapps or waves, I would have never realized what was wrong.

thanks.

[timetes]

I still get this phenomenon of weird shocks.

 

just found this site that shows that it may be a weapon

 

http://www.emfs.info/The+Science/highfields/Inducedcurrents/

 

a magnetophosphene

[Klaynos]

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4091496

http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0031-9155/46/11/301/m11101.pdf

 

I still don't think this is the cause of your issue...

[timetes]

It just sounds like static electricity, especially off a door knob, it isn't an electrical output as you wouldn't suddenly get shocked randomly, however you would when you touched the bed, it would also have no correlation with sleeping.

 

Simple solution, move your bed to another room for 2-3 days and keep everything else the same, such as bedding, temperature (as much as possible) and other factors, if it still happens it obviously isn't the room.

 

recently i have been getting this while driving,locally......if i keep the visor down it helps.....not sure if the sun has anything to do with it....

Once...yrs ago I got zapped on the nj parkway....with kids in the car....out of no where zap....well.....nothing was wrong....but it has cause me to stay off highways.

 

sometimes when I walk....i wondered about cell phones?

[Edtharan]

Once...yrs ago I got zapped on the nj parkway....with kids in the car....out of no where zap....

It is likely static electricity. Sudden zaps like that are typical of static electricity.

 

What occurs with Static electricity is that when you rub certain materials together, one of them will rub off electrons from the other. This builds up a charge and is this is large enough you can get quite a zap (approx 4,000 to 30,000 volts per centimetre).

 

Fortunately voltage is not too damaging (however a large current is really bad). I have been hit with static discharges of around 10cm in length to the head (that is 40,000 to 300,000 volt discharge) from a Van de Graph generator and I am still around to tell the tale with nothing to show for it (no injury, even at the time it occurred, but it sure as hell hurt).

 

Wool is a good material to use for generating static electricity. It is a common school room experiment to rub wool onto a plastic rod to generate static electricity (I have got a spark several centimetres from it myself).

 

You mentioned a wool blanket, so this is likely a source of static electricity. Also, cars can generate quite a lot of static electricity, as the wheels roll on the road, they rub off electrons, and these can build up on the car. Also as the car moves through the air, it can also generate static electricity. Because the only contact with the road is through the rubber wheels, and rubber being an insulator, the charge that builds up on the car does not drain away quickly. I have personally got many large (>1cm) sparks off of the family car, so this is likely the source of your zaps from the car.

 

Also, getting zapped of a doorknob (again, this is something you said happened to you) is a typical place to get a static zap from (walking over carpet can build up a charge on you and this gets discharged to the doorknob). I typically get one or two such zaps a day like this.

 

If you were getting zapped from an electrical outlet, it would be very different feeling than static electricity. The voltage from static zaps is what causes the pain of the zap. I have had low voltage (and fortunately fairly low amperage too), non static "zaps" and they didn't feel like a zap.

 

If the cause of your problem was from an electrical outlet (but still get them checked by a licensed electrician to be sure), you probably would not be here to talk about it. Also the sensation would be quite different, you would be describing it more of a pulsing feeling, with muscles tightening.

 

Why people get thrown across a room by these kinds of shocks, is because the electricity causes their muscles to contract with a lot of force, it is the muscle contraction that causes them to be thrown (they throw themselves, but because they didn't consciously do it it feels like it is an outside cause).

 

This can be very dangerous if you touch something that might have a live current in it as your hand can contract around the object and you can't let go. This means that you remain attached and the current keeps flowing through your body and doing damage (it is the current, not voltage that does the damage).

 

As your descriptions of these effects is nothing like these kinds of shocks, and the description is more like a static zap (that weapon you linked to would induce a similar effect to an electrical outlet, and not like a static zap and that is nothing like what you are describing).

 

The other thing it could be is some kind of pinched nerve, which is aggravated when you lie down. But as you have felt this at other times, it makes this a much less likely scenario.

 

Based on your descriptions of the sensation, the places where it occurs and the materials you come into contact with, it is very likely just a simple case of static electricity.

[DanielFB]

it sounds to me like you have been getting electric shocks from somewhere. the only thing i know that would help would be to avoid psychiatry. this will just lead to problems such as medications and over involvement. you don't want them to interfere with your life. As a service user myself, i know that the odd electric shock is far preferable to medication. believe me.

[insane_alien]

avoiding psychiatrists is not the best of advice. they only prescribe medications if it is necessary.

 

his problems are likely psychosomatic possibly stemming from a period when he had a trapped nerve or something that actually caused shock like feelings.

 

the fact that he is suffering from paranoia and a persecution complex(he believes someone is attacking him and him alone with advanced weaponry) indicates that psychiatric help WOULD be useful.

[timetes]

avoiding psychiatrists is not the best of advice. they only prescribe medications if it is necessary.

 

his problems are likely psychosomatic possibly stemming from a period when he had a trapped nerve or something that actually caused shock like feelings.

 

the fact that he is suffering from paranoia and a persecution complex(he believes someone is attacking him and him alone with advanced weaponry) indicates that psychiatric help WOULD be useful.

 

are you kidding ...... and your in the sciences.....you must be from the dark ages......

 

something is zapping me and it is a physical jolt and painful.

 

another thing.....there are lasers out there used for games....and weardo's out there using infred stuff....all given freely to law and fire officials....

so do not make me out to be a nut......there are gadgets out there without any regulation..

 

heres one:

this one......is upsetting to see