Comments on: Exploding head syndrome

By: Tisha aged 52 of South Africa

Tisha aged 52 of South Africa — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:56:47 +0000

Glad to hear I’m not alone. Last night after about half an hour of falling asleep. I suddenly awake with a horrific start as a huge noise like a bomb blast was heard by me. My heart was racing and I was totally confused for a couple of seconds as to what was that noise. I looked about the room and saw my daughter still on the computer , then realised that she hadn’t heard a thing and that it was all in my head. I felt fine. No dizzy spells, no headache all was fine with me, and I just drifted off back to sleep. Weird.

By: steve

steve — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:37:53 +0000

Your episodes sounds like mine when I am awake. It’s more of a distortion of reality. If you think about it, it is kind of intriguing to know that somewhere in your brain there is something greater than everyday life going on in there. I find it exciting, as an intellectual, to be apart of something neurologically unique.

By: steve

steve — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:29:32 +0000

I have had exploding head my whole life. I have it during the day sometimes, my reality seems to shrink, and surrounding sounds get extremely loud for about a second then go back to normal like nothing even happened. Sounds can range from a simple SMACK! of a ruler on a table to a gunshot type sound before I fall asleep. I always thought it was normal for you hear stuff before REM. It definitely is more persistent if I had not slept in a day or so haha. Exploding head doesn’t bother me, I’m use to it, and it’s kinda cool. I never get headaches, I’m healthy, and active. Lucid dreaming is easy for me. I have “terrors”, or sleep paralysis, but it isn’t particularly scary in any way. I’m a nocturnal, and have insomnia as well. I guess sleep has a lot to do with EHS.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:57:11 +0000

I have been experiencing this now for the pasttwo months,or so… I was so relieved to find many others with similar symptoms. I tried to explain this to my wife and to my doctor. I’,m sure I sounded like a nut. It’s hard to describe. In my case, it was like a burst of energy with percieved vibrations and a bright flash. Not so much like a bomb going off. I thnk that they would occur for about 1 second or less. This only happens at night and while laying on my back just before falling asleep. I thought initially that I was having some kind of minor seizure or something. There is never any pain, but it sured scared the hell out of me the first couple of times. I was affraid to tell anyone. An odd thing… When this occurs (1 or 2 times a week) the first one always startles me,However,I can usually sense when the next ones will happen about 5 seconds before the do.
Oh yeah, another thing is that I get way too little sleep. 4 to 5 hours a night. Maybe that has something to do with it.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:52:42 +0000

I am 65yrs of age, i too experience EHS,not often but always at night when laying in bed, im sure in my case it is associated with inner ear problems, i tend to have a lot of ear infections, and more often than not when i lay down the room spins for a few seconds., the loud banging noise jolts me but apart from that i have no other symptoms, i have never been to the doctors with this problem and i think it is quite common

By: Lou

Lou — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:41:39 +0000

I’m 46 and have been experiencing EHS since I was a child (8-10 years). I hear a distant whirring sound that grows closer and louder until it is deafening. I get a sense of vertigo and fear, spinning wildly and waiting for my head to explode. Then I awake, but it often continues as soon as I close my eyes. This my repeat three or more times, until eventually it stops and I fall asleep. Occasionally, I awake from it with paralysis, terror and a sense that something or someone evil is in the room. It’s terrifying. This all seems to happen a few times every other month or so.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:02:56 +0000

I have the explosions in my head also. My doctor never heard of such a thing, wanted a sleep study done, which I haven’t done. I have to wonder about all kinds of causes. I had a brain concussion many years ago, which must not be a factor in them as so many are having them. Mine now come with different sounds rather than an explosion when I first noticed them. Hope we all can find answers to stop them.

By: Becca

Becca — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:39:49 +0000

Unlike almost every poster I only experience this when I’m awake? And I don’t mean lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. I mean *awake*- driving my car, doing the dishes, walking in a store. Only once when I was 16 did I experience it waking up. I swore at the time I heard a sonic boom. It didn’t happen again for nearly 20 years. Now I hear, ususally two to five times a week, a loud metallic bang- as if I’m standing in the middle of an empty gymnasium and the all the doors slam shut. There’s a quick not quite vibration that comes over me and then it’s business as usual. But I also get the sudden loud electronic tone that lasts for about 5 seconds as if I’ve just tuned in to a radio freq, and sometimes if I’m working in a quiet area I can also hear voices…as if there’s a tv or radio in another room on low volume. Veerrry creepy…
No mental illness, but I do have a rare migraine condition- I don’t manifest headache. The migraine is persistent, daily, and chronic. I also have rotational vertigo that is also chronic (me and the room *never* stop spinning) all three, or maybe all three are really one, started at the same time. There has to be an actual physiological cause…its too coincidental.

By: Mark Allen

Mark Allen — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:22:58 +0000

I experience this so often it’s crazy. Sometimes it sounds like a cartoon lightening zap, other times its almost like a gunshot in my brain and I can feel it. Then I panic because I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I’m honestly not sure when I started experiencing it. But it is almost most definitely when I’m in between being awake and asleep and it’s more intense when I use sedating medications like nyquil, vicodin/percoset/tramadol and the like. Sometimes it just scares the piss out of me.

By: undertownaufrago

undertownaufrago — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:39:23 +0000

Do you know the name of the episode? or the number?