u/esoteric_logophile

Just an interesting question that I’ve been asked before and recently came up again. Do you tic in your dreams? Not “do you tic while you sleep”, but as the dream version of you that you may (or may not) see when you sleep.

Someone asked me this a couple of years ago and I had never really thought about it or paid attention before; since then I’ve noticed it a couple of times.

My tics are generally mild so I often don’t realize I’m ticcing, which is why when I dream, that version of me doesn’t often tic; if I do, it’s not noticeable. But, recently I had some very deep sleep with intense and vivid dreams, and woke up and realized that I had some severe tics in that dream, which reminded me of this question.

If you have never noticed it before, try to think about it before you go to bed or try to remember how you were in your dreams. I just think it’s an interesting question and really weird the way our brains work.

So… Do you tic in your dreams?

This is just out of curiosity, but do you tic less when you are ill or do you tic more? I’m currently dealing with a cold and am finding that my body and brain are just too tired to tic much at the moment and I wondered if others experienced something similar or not. It feels like my brain is too busy fighting the cold to even think about misfiring signals that lead to tics.

I also think I tic more either before or after (especially after) I get over a sickness. This thought is partly because my tics got so much worse in my early 20s (I’m 26 now, so that was around 21-22) after I got very sick with a really bad case of laryngitis, which pushed me toward diagnosis after years of wondering and mild tics that went under the radar.

I also have a chronic illness, and tic more when I’m in a flare for that, but not a cold/flu? I find it interesting… How does your Tourette’s impact you when you are sick?

If anyone has research articles on this to share, those would be interesting to read as well.