Exploding head syndrome December 13, 2006
Posted by Bertalan Meskó in Health, Invention, Medicine, Syndrome, science.trackback
Don’t worry, it’s not about a horror movie. Exploding head syndrome is a moderate psychological condition. Wikipedia article says:
Exploding head syndrome is a rare condition that causes the sufferer to occasionally experience a tremendously loud noise as if from within his or her own head, usually described as an explosion or a roar. This usually occurs within an hour or two of falling asleep, but is not the result of a dream. Although perceived as tremendously loud, the noise is usually not accompanied by pain.
Usually, it’s described as a loud bang, a clash of cymbals or a bomb exploding. The problem is that most of the patients can’t even realize they have exploding head syndrome and won’t go to doctor. But on the other hand, currently there isn’t any efficient treatment. Reducing stress may help; Clomipramine has been used in three patients, who experienced immediate relief from this condition.
It is also important to know if there is something else that is causing the imagined sound. Instead of being exploding head syndrome, it may be a result of one of the following:
- Another sleep disorder
- A medical condition
- Medication use
- A mental health disorder
- Substance abuse
So what can help? If this condition doesn’t disappear, try to help your doctor. Fill out a sleep diary for two weeks so you can ease the work of you doctor as it’ll be possible to retroactively examine your sleeping patterns.
By the way, it can also be connected to migraine as a publication says:
A 26-year-old patient is described with a unique migraine aura. She described an 8-year history of episodes occurring 1 to 2 times yearly of exploding head syndrome followed by sleep paralysis followed by a migraine headache. She also had identical headaches without aura about once per week.
References:
I have been experiencing this EHS (exploding head syndrome) a few times and yes it does feel like a firework or electricity charge running up my body and ending in my head with a loud crash! I know its going to happen. My partner has been experiencing the same thing sometimes at the same time, he gets white flashes too. We have sometimes been sleep deprived due to overdoing it at the weekend. It hasnt happened for the last few days. I was just so relieved to read that we are not the only ones and that there is some sort of explanation, i dont want to take any medication for it and now i know i feel better that it is not serious, but it does make you wander what is going on in your head. Thanks for clearing that up
Allison 36, UK
what a relief to find other people with this experience. i thought i was nuts at waking 3-4 times a night with a loud noise in my head.
it does make you wander whats going on in your head.
i read it could be so many things causing it, ive give up looking the cause.
ive seen coloured orbs, and shapes, not white ones though like most people report, could this be due to me being psychic?
any thoughts on that most welcome.
chris 32, uk
Chris, Michael Breus is your man at http://www.theinsomniablog.com
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How many of the people experiencing exploding head syndrome are located or work near power lines? I am wondering if my living near a power station has anything to do with this occurence.
I couldn’t find any relevant article about it in Pubmed…
how just darn interesting. I have had this phenomenon since I was about 17 years old. I have never heard of anyone else suffering from it, so you can imagine that I’ve never told anyone.
It never actually bothered me, I always just assumed it was some random firing of an errant neuron or two, rather than an aural hallucination. Similar to the imagery you see on your “inner screen” in hypnagogic sleep.
Thanks very much for the explanation. How fascinating. Shall we start an Association of American Head Exploders? hahahahaha.
Dear Fortescue, don’t laugh, it’s not a bad idea. You could find many people suffering from this syndrome…
a few months on, and the problem has dissapeared. but looking back, i do recall, i was taking A.L.A (alpha lipoic acid) at the time.
i wonder if this compound contributed to the effects.
Stress and/or extreme fatigue seems to be the most common thread here. I don’t live near any power lines/stations and I am not psychic, but I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and I take meds for anxiety and blood pressure. I have also been working long late hours recently to meet a most challenging deadline. I usually wake with a start, heart racing, looking at my husband to ask, “Did you hear that?!” I am happy to learn that its not life-threatening, I am not the only one going thru this and that I’m not crazy.
My experience is best described this way–the flash is like the flash you see when you turn on the light switch and the [filament in the] light bulb blows and the pop sound is a sudden, loud, “WHOP!”
I also have a visual description: a thick, bright, white, severely “zig-zaggy” lightning bolt with a trumpet (formed from the same electricity of the lightning) on the ends. Its positioned horizontally in my head, behind my eyes with the trumpets poised to blare a sudden, super-charged blast of sound thru my ears outward!
I am so happy to find that I am not the only one who has had this. I’m 44, female, and I am going through several major surgeries. One night between surgeries my daughter was sleeping with me when I awoke to a “gun shot” noise…. I immediate jumped and it woke my daughter - asking if she heard that. She assured me there was no noise… not being able to return to sleep, I started getting a headache. Within 3 hours I was extremely nausua’s and felt like I had a migraine. Glad to know it’s not serious!
It could have been really strange.
I’m glad if the article helped you…
This happens to me also, the description of the light bulb is near but it is an EXTREMELY intense BANG!! I am a 55 yr old retired female and certainly overdo the mental stimulation as am addicted to my PC.I am also suffering a lot of stress but it has happened over the last few years. I also put it down to a few synapses colliding on a very overcrowded highway. Its reassuring to know its not harmful!
Not harmful, but can be very disturbing…
Have you ever told your doctor about it?
I just came across Exploding Head Syndrome while recently researching this affliction that I have been experiencing for about 15 years! Boy, am I relieved to learn I’m not alone and there is explanation even though its a very poor one. I am diagnosed with chronic PTSD (multiple rape survivor) and always thought it was related, but I usually never experienced a flashback during a one of these episodes. Countless of doctors never came up with EHS either! It basically happens just before I fall sleep, a VERY loud roaring noise and BIG BANG with a white flash that causes my eyes to abruptly open. The only thing is during & afterwards my body becomes completely frozen in fear. I’ve told doctors its like every cell in my body is on high alert and full of fear. I’ve had them up to 5-8 times a night, about 3-4 times per week then suddenly they would stop. Then I could go several months or longer before I have another one. Lately, I only have them 1-2 times a night before I fall asleep and they aren’t near as common as they have been in the past, maybe once a week or a few times a month. I truly believe anxiety is what triggers them. I wish they would do more research on what causes them and what really is going on in your brain. Thank you all for sharing!
PS LOL I love this! Association of American Head Exploders?
TOO FUNNY! I wonder if people would claim they had EHS, just so they could join?
Rockyj
I’m glad it helped you!
Hmm… im glad im not crazy. ive heard a wide variety of noises, but i must say the most interesting one sounded like someone had dropped a giant droplet of water in my head. i guess we are the special ones in the world now arent we.
I’ve had EHS since I was a child. My symptoms have decreased over time to now the event is very rare. I feel for those who experience this with any frequency whereas it is not painful it is very unsettling and typically caused me to bolt up in bed and wonder if WWIII had just started (because of the loud explosion).
I have to say, this explains my symptoms to a tee.
For years i have suffered EHS and could never explain to my doctor what was wrong for him to be able to diagnose me.
I seem to have many leading up to my menstrual cycle or if i’ve been up very late. I have even have EHS after looking at flashing lights (i have had a test for epilepsy and i don’t have that) another cause i have noticed is the night after i have had a good drink i seem to get it.
Last night i had about 12 in a row (usually only have one/two) and this has lead me to look up my symptoms on the net.
For the most part i can go months without having any but stress is my main factor.
Thank goodness i have found whats wrong.
I forgot to add, for people that suffer them as bad as myself - to a degree where by they become very frightening i have had perscribed to me Valium for anxiety and i have never ever had one episode of EHS while on them.
I hope this helps
I just happened on this web site- I am laughing because I have this for sure- and never knew what it was. It is unsettling- right before I am sleep mode- and wakes me up with a start! Sounds to me like a big Church or sports organ that rips through my head- feels like an electric jolt. Only happens occasionally but surprises you nonetheless.
Glad I am not alone!
I just told my wife I found a website that seems to explain what I’ve been talking to her about tonight. We’ve just had a really good laugh about it and we love the name! She’s gonna dine out on this one…
I suffer from this - only very occasionally, like a gunshot going off in my head at night and flash of light, although I can be less certain of the ‘accompanying’ flash. I also suffer from some kind of seizures in the night and I’ve been trying to find information on these as they are more frequent. I’m sure that sometimes the ‘bang’ and the seizures are coincidental. Feel it welling up inside me, think I’m going to have heart attack, remain sort of paralysed for 15-30 seconds, heart racing, can’t speak to raise the alarm! Maybe happens once or twice a month.
I’m a normal healthy person!
Further research has lead me to ’sleep paralysis’ and ‘hypnagogia’. Both describe to some extent my sleep ‘disorders’. I’d be interested to read if any other EHS people have similar experiences. Have enough now to have a chat with Doc! Thanks for the info.
I’m so glad you found it useful!
I have narcolepsy, a relatively mild case. But these explosions worried me more than anything I’ve experienced. They are SO LOUD, often with bright light and a sense of “yikes!” I’d get up and take a little aspirin, as I was afraid it was some kind of stroke. I saw a specialist last week. “Oh”, he said, “EHS” - “Exploding Head Syndrome” - I thought he was making fun of me and laughed with him, until he showed me the page in his book of rare disorders. This has to be the silliest “disorder” I’ve ever heard of. Thanks so much for this website - Exploding Heads unite!!!
I have had “EHS” it seems like, the last 16 years. Started when I was 18. I remember it started in the twilight zone of beeing awake and falling in to sleep. I heard a sound (Ssschhhhhhh) from a long distance coming closer and then a explotion in my head and then disepearing out of the other ear. Since then I`ve had it 2-3 times a week, and for the last 10 years 5-6 days a week, and in periods opp to 3 times a night 7 days a week. One thing I`ve found out these years with this condition is falling a sleep on my back is a guarantee exploding head, and I`ve also noticed my breathing drops (sometimes stops breathing for seconds(noticed by others) when sleeping on my back. Could lack of oxigen trigger this as well???
Christian, the sleep doctor could answer your question.
http://www.theinsomniablog.com/
I just experienced this thing about 5 times an hour ago, while I was half asleep. I tried to check out was causes it.
To me it seems to happen when my thoughts become very very vivid and random (due to falling asleep) and also when I am feeling very relaxed. It almost felt like the explosions were meant to awake me from wandering to far in my thoughts.
The incidents were mild, and sounded like extreme synth effects, very electronic.
Then I woke up enough to start wondering how many braincells i destroyed, and searched the net. I finally found this site.
To me, EHS does feel pretty dangerous. I mean, if something is exploding in your brain, it can`t be good.
Wow i cannot believe someone else has something similar to what i experience. I have this thing that happens just before falling to sleep, and i somehow know when they are about to begin, where it sounds like a wave of electricity in my head, which i can also feel, and ends with a loud zap or sometimes bang. Also at times the same thing will occur where it starts at the bottom of my feet and travels up my body and ends in my head with a loud banging zapping sound. This is has occured almost every night for the last 7 years.
Sometimes frightening and other times not. With the whole body waves i had the loudest & strongest feeling waves and zapping bangs with white light at the zap/bang part. Those are the most frightening. At times i have awoken in the night from hearing a loud bang, which is very frightening. One time i awoke on the couch to the sound of my front door knob being jiggled and jerked around, extremely frightened, i got up and went to the door and opened it, with no one on the other side and realized that i had forgotten to lock the door as usual. If some one had been on the other side trying to get in they would have simply opened the door as it was unlocked. I wondered to myself if my mind was telling me to get up and lock the door by making me hear the door handle jiggling and jerking around. Or maybe i am just straight crazy, who knows.
I have lived in 4 different houses in the past 7 years and it has continued thru all of them, so i am under the impression there is no electrical problems in my home causing this to happen.
One thing i do know is 12 years ago i began having mild seizures and underwent testing where they found a cavernous hemangioma tumor in the front lobe of my brain. I went to another doctor across the state for a second opinion, and turns out this is a mass of blood vessels which are tangled and twisted together and is inoperable. It does how ever leave me with an elevated stroke risk and anurism risk. Seizures subsided after 1 1/2 years of the tests but i have long thought maybe this had something to do with the electric waves & zap/bang thing i go thru. I never wake up feeling refreshed or well rested as others claim they do, i honestly cannot tell you what that would feel like. I always feel tired and worn out even when i wake up. I have always been a person who can sleep 12 to 16 hours a day, even tho i am lucky to get 5 to 6 hours sleep as an adult. I have always suffered from nightmares since i can remember and still do at the age of 39. I always have headaches and / or what feels like muscle tension pain all over my head/skull. I have not a clue as to how the human body electrical system works, nor the nervous system, and have wondered if something in those systems in my body are out of balance. I have always been a very tense person and was born premature c-section 2 days before the 6th month of pregnancy back in 1968 weighing in at 1 pound. I am sure their is a logical explaination to this problem, perhaps not fully discovered yet by some doctor some where.
Perhaps our body is sending the mind signals for healing or repair work. All i know is i am alive and that is a good thing.
So should anyone of you come up with a doctor who has studied this and has a great explaination don’t for get to come back here and inform the rest of us.
It’s so great to see that you can find here people dealing with the same problem as you. It makes me really glad!
Bertalan Mesko…..Thank you……I am glad also because before i stumble across this web page i wondered many a time if i were just plain crazy.
Not that i am glad that others have this issue also, but that i am not crazy.
Yes it does help even if there are no answers to a specific problem.
Who knows, maybe together we may find the answer to this condition.
Blessings!
Hello all. (Sorry, my English is very poor…
I wake up just the big noise, without any other body experience. Then I look around, to see, not some real thing blowed up. When everything ok, I going back to sleep. 1-2 times a year, maybe something really give the noise…
Hello,
Here’s my view on this. In spite of the fact that certain doctors and psychiatrists are on an neverending quest for discovering new and dramatic mental disorder conditions, EHS is no “syndrome” (which would imply that someone is beginning to go nuts). It is a perfectly normal experience associated with a transition between the waking and sleeping states - it’s one of the signs of entering the hypnagogic state or else, shifting one’s brainwaves from alpha to theta cycle. EVERYBODY experiences this shift when going to sleep, on their way to the delta state of mind (the actual sleep). The thing is that the majority of people lose their awareness of self (conciousness) when entering the deeper states of mind and usuallly experience theta and delta while uncouncious and therefore unaware of what’s happening to them. On certain occasions, when one is excited about something, under stress or simply doing a lot of thinking while in bed at night, one may retain self awareness as the braing enters the theta region and thus experience all those weird sensations like: sleep paralysis (a genuinely normal condition linked to the fact that the brain switches off the body’s motoric functions for the sleeping period so that we don’t run around the room when we’re dreaming of running), loud bangs or other distracting and sometimes scary noises as well as visual hallucinations (one’s attention is dissolving making the brain mix the external sensory inputs with the internal, imaginary ones), the sensation of falling, the sensation of conversing with oneself as if one was actually two persons (shrinks usually erroneously associate this state with the prelude to schizofrenia), etc. All this may happen also as a result of sleep deprivation, when upon going to bed, the body and brain transit into sleeping state before one fully loses self awareness. People practicing deep meditation and lucid dreaming experience all those strange events on a regular basis while crossing the barrier of the waking and sleeping worlds - they’re totally harmless (afterall they’re merely a product of one’s own mind) and the sooner one learns to ignore them and to treat them only as a roadsign that you’re actually there, the better. I’ve been indulging myself in these practices for nearly a decade now and those things are as natural to me as breathing. Earlier, when in a hypnagogic state I also used to have tactile hallucinations resulting in the feeling that someone was touching me but that’s just what they were - HALLUCINATIONS - and they quickly passed away as soon as I crossed the barrier and conciously entered delta and began dreaming. If one discovers oneself in bed paralysed and hallucinating just relax - nothing is going to hurt you and it’s all PERFECTLY NORMAL, you’re not going mad. Fear only magnifies the negative experience while relaxation induces positive effects.
For those interested, I have recently turned 30 and am a happy man with beautiful wife and kids and a succesfull business. Insinuating that I’m mentally ill, schizophrenic or whatever else, just because I experience these things would be just as true as saying that I come from Mars. Forget the doctors and psychiatrists advice on this, they usually don’t know what they’re talking about. Do some internet research on facilities conducting research on brain, brainwaves and the sleep phenomenon and you’ll see that I’m right.
Regards
thanks guys, i’ve only had this once recently. I quickly shifted my head off my pillow to look towards a noise i heard. then, when my head was half way around i had a short seizure (like an electric shok in my head) and my eyes were fluttering and rolling. wierd! i heard sirens getting louder when this happend too. didn’t notice a flash. do you all get siezures too?
I am a long-time meditator and have had ennumerable experiences in the dream/waking interval. The explanation by Max (No. 35, 11/27/07) is the correct explanation. Beautifully written, clear and accurate.
Wow, I vaguely remember a few previous experiences ( usually my verbal train of thought or music Im thinking of becomes an auditory hallucination just before I fall asleep) but just this morning, trying to sleep off a hangover, I remember leaving a rather wild dream (no recollection) to a half-wake state lucidly trying to get back to the dream and hearing a hallucinatory 2nd person voice say somthing like; Beware I am coming! My lucid mind for just a second thought (not said) I didnt say that, or think that, I dont think….
then BLAM, I litterally head what sounded like a rifle shot or an amplified baseball hitting a bat crack.
Ive heard similar (smaller) sounds before waking before (doorbell, knock, car horn) but this was the loudest, and it was as if some alternate/alien part of my brain was talking to my lucid concious right before….creepy
Sorry for the long post (and bad grammer; broken keyboard), I just wanted to get it off my chest.
I’m so glad to have found this thread. It’s a major asset towards explanation of some recent phenomena I experience on that threshold between awake and sleep. I meditate quite a bit, like some others who posted above. I’m pretty sure this kind of practice adds to the occurance of these weird things.
I have also taught myself how to nod of in aircraft, busses, trains, and the like. I close my eyes and start concentrating on regular “swooshy” feelings in my head, those that accompany drifting in and out of sleep under such non-bedroom circumstances. I try and make each wave synchronous with my breath. Invariably, the swoosh will take place of its own accord and if I’m lucky i’ll nod of to some kind of power-nap-sleep, but even a session of those waves will be refreshing. Unless they start getting aggressive (hard to find the right words) and harsher. In the extreme they will feel almost electric: beginning with a swoosh and ending agressively and abruptly. Anyhow, I think that practicing this too much has also let the phenomena creep into my normal sleep. This happenend recently after Christmas and I had been going through a lot of work and stress before. Many of the last nights have been horrid as a result, with both the horrid kind of swooshes as well as lots of jerky sleep starts, and I hope that I can balance things again. It’s beginning to make me scared of falling asleep. Ah well, it is a huge comfort to know that this kind of stuff happens to others!
I love Max’s and Steves’ (35 and 37) posts.
hi, my father hear like hear beating in his head and green light going from right eyes to the left and wake up he sacred go to sleep and could hear even sometimes when he is awake.
No blood pressure and the entire test were ok.
The sound he hears is not to loud but like the banging with the heart beating reteam.
Is it the ehs or not i do not know….
god… i thought i was having and aneurysm, thank god.
still scares the crap of me though, sudden POP and what feels like a jolt of electricity. i had epilepsy growing up but was one of the few that outgrew it. wife thought i was nutz…
thanks for the site.
I am so relieved to know that others experience this. I have had EHS on and off for at least two decades, usually as I’m falling asleep. It’s the most tremendous bang, like a bomb explosion during the war, that causes me to wake up with a violent jump, sometimes almost falling off the bed. I have no pain associated with it, see no brilliant light or anything - just the loud bang. I was scared I was having a heart attack, maybe, or that my heart may have skipped a beat and caused this. I have not been on any medications whatsoever other than very briefly after a surgery four years ago.
I am wondering if this is what I have. Just started two nights ago. I awakened with a violent feeling that I had been hit in the head (right in the front of my head above my eyes). It wasn’t a dream, I’m sure of that. Then it happened again, same feeling, one more time that night. Last night it happened only once. Same feeling. Like maybe I’m moving forward and run directly into something with my head. I checked out my body and everything functioned fine. Very scary. I am not on any new medication. I’m a 66 year old female with the normal amount of stress in my life. Scary!
So I am not going crazy! Wheeeewwww. It had my anxiety going high and each night it’s like - ok, when is it going to happen again. Before I knew it 3 hrs could be attempted to try to fall asleep only because I feared the bang was something serious. After reading this blog the more I worried about falling asleep w/o the “bang” the more it seemed to happen. I am a frequent migraine sufferer and never noticed it as an aura prior to a migraine coming on. Stress can deprive us all of sleep and I understand fully blog # 35 and #37 above. Well here it is another 12:45 am night and I am still up and after having these episodes for 7 years that seemed to come in ‘flares’ I think I am gonna be able to fall asleep like a baby tonight or at least tomorrow night and know that it’s not a medical condition to be concerned with but my yellow light that stress level needs to be reduced. I am also dx’d with fibromyalgia and b/c that also has sleep issues I wonder if the two could also be connected. Well, my novel has to come to an end, warming up my bed with my electric blanket and gonna jump in and hopefully sleep soundly! Thanks to whomever started this blog!
As I read some of these comments. I noticed that my situations is slightly diffrent. yes I have the lighting and thunder. and it all ways just for I go to sleep. but i have no migrans .I do get head aches from time to time. I’m 28 male who get’s this 3 or four times a year. It happend the other night .no pain just a slap in the frontel obe a rattel clash sound in my ears.no meds not tomuch stress? I guess it just somthing that happens.
anyway I not worried about it. it ’s probley somthing in the line of that falling feeling.
I have had this happen a few times now and I must admit it’s a relief to know I’m not the only one. I suffer from narcolepsy with hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. I’m also a migraine sufferer and experience migraine auras which are not always followed by a headache. This is not something I’ve heard of before and hopefully it won’t be so scary the next time!
I have been having these electrical zap feelings just when I am about to fall asleep for about 1 year. I am also experiencing tinnitus and vertigo when awake, so wonder if it has anything to do with that. I mentioned it to my ENT dr. and he didn’t say anything about it. I thought I was crazy too. I have been taking an antidepressant for about 10 years…and I’m starting to think the drug might have something to do with it.
Anyone have any comments?
What I have been experiencing for about 12 years now (I am a woman, just shy of 42) is neither noisy nor related to sleep, but I would like to tell about it nonetheless. I haven’t been able to link it to anything specific, except that, in some (but not all) cases it happens when I forgot to take my antidepressant (usually within six hours of the time at which I should have taken it). It feels as if my brain suddenly contracts and expands three times in a row (each pair, contration and expansion, lasting less than half a second). This is accompanied by a sound in my head and ears, which I can describe only as the sound that comes from those funfair balloons into which they put little grains of something: when you shake such a balloon, it makes a tch-tch-tch sound. At the same time, my brain feels nauseous (I realise that this sounds ridiculous, but that’s what it feels like). In some cases, it feels as if the brain very rapidly turns around in my head (imagine an axle through the brain running from the nose to the back of the head, and the brain sitting loosely on that axle; when this happens, it “turns” very rapidly “around that axle”. The cycle of three rapid contract-expand sensations, together with the tch-tch-tch sound and the “brain nausea”, repeats itself two or three times in the space of a minute or so; thereafter, it comes back maybe twice or three times in the next half-hour. It sometimes happens when I am walking (or otherwise occupied, awake), and sometimes when I am lying in bed, whether waiting for sleep, or reading, or whatever. Only very recently did I finally get a look of recognition from a doctor, a neurologist, to whom I told it; before, all the doctors to whom I tried to explain what it felt like, just looked at me with blank expressions. The neurologist told me that the medical profession was aware of this type of thing in some people’s brains, but that nobody knew what it was about.
Anyone else out there who experiences this?
One thing I forgot to make clear is that the feeling of my brain “turning around in my head” is not ongoing, and not a spinning, either: the brain “rotates” around this imaginary axle only once, very quickly, in each occurrence.
I first experience EHS, 40 years ago and I still experience EHS. Back 40 years ago I would be jolted awake from a sound sleep with a hissing sound which would rapidly increase in volume and then abruptly end with a blast sound like across between a gun shot and a sonic boom. I would awake in fear and tremble a bit. Slowly I would overcome the fear and go on. The severity, frequency and the associated fears have greatly diminished over the years, so as of today they are more of an unsettling annoyance, rather than a disruptive event like they were in the past.
Yes, stress makes it worse, and stress can help trigger an EHS, but stress is not the cause. And although certain medication may cause or prevent it, I believe that the cause is the result of the brain having experienced a traumatic event. And it is the brain’s sensitivity (conscious or unconscious) to that event that (triggers) causes the brain to feel imminent danger and it uses sound to alert (awake) the conscious mind. Why sound? Because we can hear when asleep (that is why alarms clocks work) and because we are born with a fear of loud noises. EHS is the brain’s way of telling us (right or wrong) that it has sensed imminent danger and to wake up immediately. Furthermore, while we sleep we can also feel. So in addition to the sound the strongest EHS will simultaneously cause the body to move (sit up, look around, etc).
This is SO interesting…
I’ve experienced this every once in a while since I was in my early teens. For me, it’s an electronic sort of ‘whoosh!’ followed by a crazy-loud ‘bang!’ and a white-heat field of light. It’s disconcerting, but I”m mostly already asleep, and fall back into my sleepy head without much difficulty. I also get semi-conscious falling dreams pretty frequently, and sleep paralysis now and again, and the occasional tactile or olfactory or visual hallucination as I pass from wakefulness to sleep.
I’d always imagined that this was a universal phenonemon, and I’d wager that it’s pretty common, but we don’t often chat about these inherently personal experiences with the folks on the elevator.
That said, I’ve never thought of this experience as ‘an affliction’, or something I ’suffer from’, or even ‘a problem’, as it’s been characterized in this thread. It wakes me up for a few minutes a couple of times a month, and I’ve always though it was just kind of cool… all the stuff my head can do, including, evidently, explode. Maybe I’ve read too much Huxley and Castenada, but not every oddness is pathology. You know, I am large and multitudinous, and it’s nice to hear from those who share one my not-singularities.
My six cents…..
This is FUN… my brain takes me to places I’m not completely cognizent of sometimes, and
I had this last night again, hence the internet search because its really getting me down.. thank goodness Ive found this, makes me feel tons better.
Last night, I was sound asleep when I heard a really loud explosion x 3 (its always in 3’s) but this time was different to others as after each ‘explosion’ I heard the word ‘mum’ after .. ie BANG ‘mum’ BANG ‘mum’ (doesnt this sound crazy?) I wondered what the hell was going on, so after the third BANG I dived out of bed to investigate, totally in a tizz and tripped over the dog who was sleeping soundly on the landing - obviously totally oblivious to what I had heard. Everyone else was totally comatose. I know deep down that its in my head, but I was still hoping one day that someone else hears it too just to prove that Im not crazy. The noise is similar to someone smacking my windows with the palms of their hands as hard as they could, to the point just before the window breaks. Its terrifying. Today, the top of my scalp is really tender as if I have been wearing a really tight pony tail.
The other strange this is……
During the day, I sometimes get a strange electric shock reaction at the base of my skull if I were to hear a ligitimate bang - such as a plate banging on the side or similar.
I do suffer migranes and excrutiating shooting pains in my head (usually temples) on a fairly regular basis. This can feel like someone is sticking a knitting needle through my skull and literally stops me in my tracks - someone mentioned Bipolar earlier, I wondered if this is possibly connected as 4 of my brothers and sister have it plus my father did who eventually took his own life.
Really good read. This has happened to me several times in the past, but the family doctor’s best guess was to tell me to take sleeping pills. I never bothered because the occurrences were always far apart. Just as I’m falling asleep, when it has happened, there hasn’t been any bang. Its as if the fastest moving object imaginable has flown directly through my fore head. I hear a woosh sound like a jet engine but not that loud and I always jump up instinctively to avoid it A few times I have thrown myself into the air and off of the bed. I did notice, though, I am more prone to this happening when I’m up many hours past when I usually go to sleep.
I used to use a sleep deprevation technique for lucid dreaming, and that point where I would slip over is definitely the same point where this occurs.
[...] people have the following… My experience is best described this way–the flash is like the flash you see when you turn on the light switch [...]
I first experienced this a few weeks ago. I was woken up at 5.55am by a loud bang in the middle of my head, as though someone had shot me in the head. My heart raced for a while. Then this morning I was woken up by an equally loud noise in my head, but this time it was the sound of a ferocious dog bark and again my heart raced for a while. I have no stress and sleep well for around 7 or 8 hours. The only thing that has changed in my life is that I’ve started trying to project my mind/use a guided meditation type CD and to stir my pineal gland. There could be some connection. All very interesting, although a bit unsettling to be woken so abruptly.
Hi there. I have had these symptoms for as long as I can remember. I think most of my adult life. I am male/50. Its a definate BANG, like an electric explosion. Have you ever heard a transformed on a telephone pole explode? Its like that. Electric explosion and a huge white flash and I awake iimdiately. I am not afraid of it anymore as I have grown accustomed to it. It only happens once every few months. It is refreshing to know that others experience this as well. I also beleive as some others have posted that this is normal and can be attributed to the different cycles of sleep. Our sleep cycles must be slightly off kilter and we are semi-concious when these episodes occur thus can remember and experience them the way we do. I think its kinda cool! But it fstill freaks me out to this day when it happens.
All my life I have heard electrical zap sounds about an inch above both ears varying in intesity at bedtime or AM.
Since dealing herbally with my ADD it never happens - unless I forget to take my tinctures.
I just went to bed tonight and had heard this loud pop and a rather large flash of light like a light bulb bursting. I woke my husband to see what it was. He didn’t hear anything since he was asleep. I thought someone had shot something through the window. I checked out the house and then I became very concerned that it might be in my head. My father died almost 20 years ago from an Aneurysm so of course I started to panic. I happened upon this site and feel a little relieved that it has happened to others. Should I mention this to my doctor or just wait to see if it happens again? I am so clueless. It is 2:54 in the morning and I have been so scared to go to bed and try to sleep for fear that it is an aneurysm. I appreciate having someone to talk to about this.
I had this happen to me a lot when I was a teenager. At the time, I was into smoking marijuana and would be out late, come home around 12 or so, and go to my room and crash. A couple of hours later, I would hear a loud explosion in my head and it was enough to wake me up out of a deep sleep. It would sound like a loud gunshot each time. Once it happened 3 times in one night and I seriously thought someone had fired a gun into my brain, but of course I awoke and I was still alive. This went on for a few years afterwards, but I haven’t had anymore episodes of it since (I am now 47). I often wondered if it was maybe the marijuana that contributed to it?