Ask Dr. Harris . . .

Occasionally I wake up in the middle of the night and the bedroom seems to be going around and around. It lasts a minute or so and then eases up. It is very frightening. Is this something serious?The symptoms you describe are commonly seen in a condition called Benign Positional Vertigo, or BPV. Vertigo is a type of dizziness that gives you the sensation of spinning around. The same phenomenon occurs when you twirl yourself, stop suddenly, and it seems like you are still twirling. It is your inner ear that controls your sense of equilibrium and it is this sensory organ which is usually responsible for symptoms of vertigo.

More commonly, vertigo occurs due to an “inner ear infection,” or labyrinthitis, which is a viral infection of this inner ear organ. The condition lasts for a few days to weeks and symptoms occur day and night. Since your symptoms seem only to occur while sleeping, I doubt this is an inner ear infection.

The sensory organ of the inner ear contains fluid which moves in response to the movement of your head. In BPV, small abnormal stony-like grains form in the fluid and irritate the inner ear. In your sleep, you likely rolled over mobilizing one of these little specks which gives you the sensation of vertigo until it settles down and symptoms subside. As the name implies, the condition is benign, but there’s no way to extract these little stones. There are head manoeuvres some docs (like ENTs) can put you through that can potentially tuck the tiny terrors away so they are less likely to bother you.

There are some, very serious causes of vertigo though that are far from benign. These include strokes and tumors. So whenever you get vertigo you should seek medical attention so your doctor can sort it out.
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