Talk:Exploding head syndrome/Archive 1

Archive 1

I felt a slap

I've experienced something similar, however it was not an explosion, but what felt like the after effects of a slap across the face. I was watching the late news and dozed off on my back and was awoken a few minutes later, feeling like I was slapped. There was no pain at all, but I could feel a kind of vibrating in my cheek and I sat straight up, adrelanline surging. It's happened once since, but since then, I take care never to sleep on my back and it hasn't happened since. I will say that once when I was twelve or so, I fell asleep, possibly on my back, maybe my stomach, on a bunkbed. While sleeping, I somehow wiggled further and further towards the front of the bed until I fell off and awoke on my back, feeling shock and not being able to move for a few seconds, and some dulled pain. Take that as you will. --PhoenixAvatar2 04:38, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Everleader's experience

Hello. I have expierenced this before. The first time I expierienced it I was at ends. I felt something like a cock in my mouth, then an adrenaline rush. I was breathing fast and my heart rate was sky rocketing. My eyes poped open immediatly after and I thought something was wrong. The first thing I did was count then though then moved and talked. I felt like I had to do a "Systems Check". Later I had them once every night for about a week and 1/2 I was getting worried so I told my friends "Tape" and "Duct". Apparently Tape had the same thing going on and she described to me the same thing. I was amazed. We both desribed right at "middle sleep" there would be kinda a body surge and a loud pop like popping your lips kinda but inside our heads. I even got to the point beofre I told them I felt one kinda comming on... so i waited to expierence but thinking bout it it was the worst one I bolted uop and threw myself against the wall by my bed and was about to pass out from breathing. I felt hysterical. It was today the ided of March that we had a free day in science and I got off talking about it and my teacher looked surprised and told me it was called exploding head syndrome. Naturally i thought she was joking, but guess not. Please relay any information on this phenomenon you may have because I am very curious. thank you for you time ~ Everleader

Everleadr's experience more closely parallels my own than the one below or the description in the article. "something like an adrenaline rush" - yes, I felt my body/brain wanted me to alert and get up instantly. "middle sleep" - well for me it was always just after I was asleep - one to ten minutes after being asleep maybe. "a loud pop like popping your lips kinda but inside our heads" - this is EXACTLY it. It happened maybe a dozen times over a couple of months. It didn't worry me - much. 4.250.198.41 09:53, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I thought I was going to die

Without question EHS (exploding head syndrome) was the most startling event I have ever experienced in all of my 55 years. When I first had an event, I leaped from bed, didn't know where I was, heartrate through the roof, short of breath, complete confusion as to what happened. In short, I thought I was going to die right then and there. I was terrified and was not going to even think about trying to go back to sleep. I went to my doctor and tried to explain what had happened and of course he had no idea of what this could have been (a stroke, a siezure) and was unable to give me a diagnosis. He perscribed Ambien to enable me to get some much needed sleep and has worked beyond my expectations. I now can sometimes foretell an up coming event by my sensitivity to any kind of noise that occurs while I am starting to fall asleep. By sensitivity I mean if a sound or noise startles me when normally it wouldn't. I take an Ambien and all is well!! For those of you that have had this condition more than once, you will be able to feel an event coming prior to it's arrival. My solice to all of you and I'm here to help if I can. Brickyard

wow

I'm surprized I have ever heard of this,

I belive I have experienced something like this, I've heard an incredibly loud noise that didn't seem to exsist in the first place. I remember it happening a few times, sometimes somthing like a very loud 'gunshot' or 'boom'. I also hear the noise of something like (when in copland movie, when stallon has a gun shot right next to his ear, the sound effect they use of hearing damage) the "hearing damage noise" when I haven't even heard any noises above or even close to any damaging level (in db's)...It's kinda random, but I think it may have something to do with thinking about war and other random thoughts (in bed before falling asleep)

It definitely made me jump.

I'm only 18, and a male.

Mine are also accompanied by sounds of surging electrical current

I have been awakened more times than I can count by the explosion inside my skull. I remember them occuring as far back as seven or eight years of age. I was always frustrated because I could never remember anything about the damn dreams that I assumed I was having. I have even injured myself during those violent leaps out of the bed.

Now, in addition, I often hear the sound of surging electrical current inside the ole skull as well. This only occurs on my way down and prior to rem sleep. I often wrestle with myself trying to discern whether or not I felt those surges as well as heard them. They are very short but crystal clear and always an increasing decibel level, never decreasing.

Wow, I get this (rarely) too!

I'm stunned to see this is a known condition (and, for me, thankfully rare). Since childood I've had the occasional (once every few years) sudden, and quite frightening, shock of this sudden blast of noise. In my dreams it sometimes is accompanied by a visual of a helicopter (although it doesn't sound like one, maybe it's a childhood thing) and it's so loud in my dream that I wake up immediately in mild terror --only to realize that it's quiet in my room and that it was, as surprisingly, a dream. I then calm down after a few moments (again, as others its adreniline) and then go back to sleep fine. These are actually the closest thing I get now to nightmares. Because my mind is in a different state when asleep, this experience feels truly terrifying in a way I've (thankfully) never experienced in real life. Bobak 00:59, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Oops !

FYI, I fixed a typo that said that EHS _does_ make your head explode when, in fact, it doesn't. :) Xenon 21:19, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Suggestions?

I may have experienced something similar. Occasionally, I would feel (in my right ear) something like holding a leaf blower up to the side of my head. I'd cover my ear with my hand, but it won't help much. Is this something close, or a different anomaly? p.s. I'm a 14 year-old caucasian male. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.189.81.2 (talk • contribs)

My suggestion would be to check with a doctor. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a medical forum. See our medical disclaimer: Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer. In fact, Wikipedia isn't any kind of forum; talk pages like this one are supposed to be focused solely on how to go about improving the article they're associated with, not on the subject of the article in general. Bryan 07:47, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Is this a joke?

No it isn't. See the external links

Real Phenomenon

"... exploding head syndrome is a real phenomenon and not caused by psychological disturbances." -- I don't understand; does this mean EHS has physical causes as opposed to psychological (or even psychosematic) causes? This is not backed up by the text. Do we have a citation? --Jquarry 23:02, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I have had this

I have had this happen several times. Just before drifting off to sleep it sounds like a shotgun going off and light flashing inside my head and one awakes scared to death with heart racing. It has only happened a couple of times. The first time it happened I thought someone had fired a gun off by my head, but my wife was sleeping peacefully and didn't hear a thing. It scared me thinking maybe I had had a blood vessel or something burst in my head. Glad to know it is nothing serious! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bronqito (talk • contribs) 11 November 2006

Be sure to read Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer - if you had some sort of medical concern you should really check with a doctor about it and not put it off because of something you read here, there's no guarantees about the accuracy of any of it. And also bear in mind that these talk pages aren't intended to be general chat forums like this, they should be used to discuss the editing of the associated article rather than the topic as a whole. Bryan 00:12, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

It was cool finding this because at first I didn't know what was going on. Same with the sleep paralysis. --ISeeDeadPixels 00:25, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Do I have exploding head syndrome?

Ever since I was little, whenever its completely quiet, sometimes I hear this loud tone in my head. It's not nessicarily before going to sleep, but its really loud. I never even noticed this was strange until someone told me about this syndrome... please help :) Thank you

Wikipedia doesn't give medical advice, please see Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer. If you have a medical question you should probably ask a doctor. Bryan 00:39, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't we Bold and all caps that it does not cause your head to LITERALLY EXPLODE? 17:59, 8 March 2007 (UTC)~

I'm not sure, it might be like the "ocean" sound of a seashell, except in your ear chambers. I don't know about loud, but after hearing no other sounds for so long it can subjectively seem amazingly loud. If it's pulsing, that's the sound of circulation in ear vessels. Sagittarian Milky Way 08:37, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Classic migraine with aura

This "exploding head syndrome" seems very similar to what I had during most of my childhood. That is, I sometimes woke up in the middle of the night hearing tremendously loud noises and continued to hear them for some minutes until they faded away. I know what it was in my case, it was "just" classic migraine with aura. Since it sometimes came with other symptoms that I have during my aura attacks. (I have been diagnosed to have migraine with aura by neurologists.)

Considering how aura attacks work I am not surprised it can cause such strong audio effects. But I always found it a bit strange that I never get such loud noises during aura attacks in the day, only in the night. (I only get minor tinnitus like continuous "beeps" during some aura attacks in the day.)

For anyone interested in hearing the noise I heard just listen to the first 15 seconds of Mike Oldfield's song Five Miles Out. It is the pulsating synthesiser sound you hear together with the drums just before the singing starts. Although I like that song it made my stomach turn every time I heard the beginning of the song for like the first 100 times or so I heard it.

--David Göthberg 21:04, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Is this considered a rare condition?

As long as I remember, I've had tinnitus all my life, and when lying in bed, it would ALWAYS intensify until it finally exploded and my eyes burst open in fear and startle...ment... every night it happened; it never failed and still doesn't. I doubt it's as rare as the EHS disambiguation page says. Dagron12345 04:48, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

The Mayo Clinic link calls it "uncommon" and one of the research papers linked calls it "rare", but considering how many people come on here and say they have it (including me) I'm pretty skeptical too. Recury 17:15, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

That's probably due to self-diagnosis through research on Wikipedia, or being drawn to the page after diagnosis by a doctor. I'm sure any medical page will have a high viewership by people who are described by the page. 68.181.241.86 (talk) 10:46, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

First described

It appears that it was first described in 1920 rather than 1988 as mentioned. Then as "snapping of the brain" in R. Armstrong-Jones, Snapping of the brain, Lancet ii (1920), p. 720 Perhaps someone who can access the Lancet (i can't) could have a look and change it if needs be. Nk.sheridan   Talk 21:33, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

A yet earlier (nonmedical) description is to be found in Henry Festing Jones's Samuel Butler: Author of Erewhon (1919). Jones records that in 1866 the novelist began experiencing

loud noises in his head when on the point of going to sleep, as though a violent discharge were being made suddenly outside. The first few times the noise came, he got out of bed and went into his sitting-room to investigate, thinking that the crash had taken place there.*

Though not stated, the source is probably Butler's notebooks, five volumes of extracts from which have appeared: The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Butleriana (1932), Further Extracts from the Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1934), Samuel Butler's Notebooks (1951) and The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1984), the last being the first volume of a planned definitive edition, publication of which seems to have been abandoned. I have the first four of these volumes, and to the best of my recollection there is nothing in any of them about his affliction. I have never seen the fifth.

* Vol. 1, p. 130.

alderbourne (talk) 13:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Saying I had never seen the fifth of those volumes prompted me to order a copy. It arrived this morning and I have now searched it thoroughly – more or less – for a reference to Butler's affliction, but without success.

alderbourne (talk) 22:38, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Exploding Head Syndrome and Out-of-the-Body Experiences

Having had occasional episodes of exploding head syndrome myself during the past 20-odd years, I have often been struck by the similarity of the symptoms to the mysterious clicks, vibrations, flashes of light, sounds of electrical discharges and roaring winds and so on that sometimes precede an out-of-the-body experience.

Before dismissing me as a crank, you might care to read some books on the subject. If you follow the instructions in Oliver Fox's Astral Projection (1939) and Robert A. Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body (1971) you might even begin having such experiences yourself.

Whatever your opinion of tales of the mind or consciousness functioning outside of the physical body, you cannot deny that many an intelligent, rational man has had the experience of finding himself in a disembodied state. It has happened to me a number of times. And on one such occasion I obtained evidence that I hadn't just stepped from a state of sleep paralysis (which is how all my out-of-the-body experiences have begun) into a lucid dream (which the phenomenon resembles): I saw two marks on one of the doors of my wardrobe and felt a small bump on the underside of another, none of which had I noticed before so far as I knew and which on subsequent investigation turned out to be really there. It was impossible to see them from my bed, where my body was, and I was definitely not physically wandering about my room, for, though I had been unable to see my body, I had not at first been visible in my mirror, despite standing immediately in front of it, and later, while in the garden, I "woke up" to find myself in bed. I wrote a detailed account of my adventure that day – 3 January 1985 – thus in my case rendering invalid one of the sceptics' favourite arguments, namely that an alleged paranormal experience remembered from years ago is more likely to be the product of a faulty memory than the accurate recollection of a real occurrence – an argument I personally have always found insulting. The only mundane explanation I am willing to entertain for my one veridical experience is that of cryptomnesia; in all the years I had slept in that room I must at sometime, if only subliminally, have noticed those marks and that bump.

I have often wondered how to devise the perfect experiment, something that would prove, to my own satisfaction at least, that all this is more than just dreaming, that I really do have a soul, which can leave my body, which may even be immortal. At this moment, in our lounge, on top of a tall bookcase – a good deal taller than I – is a sheet of paper on which is a drawing or message or something of the kind, the work of a member of my family. It has been there for about a year, awaiting my next out-of-the-body experience. I did something of the kind once before, but the results were inconclusive.

For the record I am not an alcoholic, have never taken a mind-altering drug and believe myself to be as sane as the next man.

alderbourne (talk) 01:04, 10 July 2008 (UTC)