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Re: exploding head syndrome

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 12:00 am
by Betty/WV
Question: :?: :?: I have seen it mentioned a few times on this site. Someone please explain "exploding head syndrome" to me.
:? :?
Thanks.
BETTY/WV

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 2:50 pm
by Neco
It's like you hear a loud noise but the noise actually never occured.. It seems a lot of people will describe it as hearing an explosion. Usually its most distressing when it occurs during sleep because you wake up terrified that something bad is happening..

I usually get it in the dozing off stage, and will hear various things from voices, to electrical type "pops" or another loud sudden noise like a bang.

There is supposedly a suggestive correlation between it and RLS, and RLS patients seemingly more prone to develop it.

I never had the problem until the past year or so also. Thought I was just weird, but then it was mentioned here.

On rare ocassion it occurs when I am awake, but I think that is attributed to the peak effects of my meds setting in and making me drowsey, as I often doze off if I overdo it with the cough syrup / methadone combo.

re: exploding head syndrome

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 3:10 pm
by Betty/WV
Thanks Zach for the explanation. This has happened to me for years. One time I was in bed, half asleep, and I heard someone call my name, even though there was no one in the house at the time. :shock: It scared me to death, as it was so real. And I have also heard noises, like loud booms, or doors slamming etc. I was beginning to wonder if there were some kind of spirits or something roving about. :twisted: Thanks again for clearing it up for me. BETTY/WV

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 7:03 pm
by SquirmingSusan
Oh geez, I have that too. I hear all kinds of things as I'm drifting off to sleep. I guess I never worried about it, though. Thanks for explaining it, Zach.

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 9:45 pm
by Polar Bear
It has happened to me too.

Perhaps only about 6 times over a period of 2 years.

Sometimes it has been just a strange sudden noise in my head. But once I was doing photocopying and turned cos someone called my name, and there was noone there. I thought I was starting to 'lose it'.

Re: Exploding Head Syndrome

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 10:50 pm
by Betty/WV
Why am I "blessed" with all these weird syndromes? Just like the RLS, I had it for years and just thought it was me, that I was strange. Then little by little I came to figure out I had something called "RLS". Now even though I have had these noises and voices several times in the last years, again I thought it was just me. Now I come to realize it is another one of those weird syndromes. Curious to know if anything else is going to occur. You have to admit, hearing your name called out, loud enough to make you sit straight up in bed is a strange occurance. :shock:

I wonder if anyone has any idea what causes such things to happen. I looked it up on the internet and one site said that it was a very RARE thing. But here we are several of us with the same weird thing happening.

Thanks for your experiences. BETTY/WV

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:27 pm
by SquirmingSusan
I think our brains are just "special." You figure that with RLS, we already have a screwed up dopamine system, and the chemical imbalanced make us a zillion times more likely to have depression and anxiety... Why not have a susceptibility to exploding head syndrome as well.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:29 pm
by ViewsAskew
SquirmingSusan wrote:I think our brains are just "special." You figure that with RLS, we already have a screwed up dopamine system, and the chemical imbalanced make us a zillion times more likely to have depression and anxiety... Why not have a susceptibility to exploding head syndrome as well.


Indeed!

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:21 pm
by Aiken
Y'know, I personally think exploding head syndrome is much more common than believed.

I happened to mention it here a few months back, and after some people talked about it in their own terms, I realized I'd had it myself for a while. I'd been hearing a really loud chime as I fell asleep. It would usually wake me right back up.

I suspect lot of people have had EHS, and they've just never mentioned it, because nodding off to sleep is a weird sensory experience in the first place. A new weird element isn't as subjectively remarkable as you might objectively expect it to be.

Here's a story to illustrate my point:

My stepdaughter was once telling us about something that had happened around bedtime the previous night. She pinpointed the time of the occurrence by saying something like, "I was in bed, but hadn't been to sleep yet, because I hadn't heard the voices yet." My wife and I turned to each other with raised eyebrows. My stepdaughter said, "You know, the voices. The ones you hear before you go to sleep." My wife and I both said we didn't hear voices. My stepdaughter was sort of shocked and puzzled. She was about 20 years old at the time, and she'd always thought everyone heard voices when trailing off to sleep. That's the sort of assumption I'm talking about. You just figure everyone has these experiences, when they might not.

(As an aside, I realized later that I do sort of hear human-like murmuring sometimes when falling asleep, but it's not outright voices and my brain doesn't try to turn it into words. She probably just has a more pronounced experience of the same nature.)

Re: EHS

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:13 pm
by Betty/WV
This is all very interesting!!!! When I experienced my name being called out, just as I was going to sleep. It was so clear and plain, as if someone was standing right by my bed.
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Has anyone heard any theorys as to what cause this.

BETTY/WV

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:31 pm
by woodsie357
I've heard its caused by sleep deprivation. severe sleep deprivation which is why I think a lot of us RLSers get it. The less you sleep the more often it happens. It's awful, you would think your body wouldn't do this to you when your at your weakest instead of targeting you at this time. I think it's got to have something to do with "fight or flight" adrenalin issues, from stress. Maybe in caveman time it kept you from getting eaten.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 11:07 pm
by Neco
I don't think its an evolutionary throw back like that, but on the subject that is why a lot of animals and people are light sleepers..

Although in truth, your senses never shut off when you are asleep, they just go into a power-saving mode of sorts. You still hear everything going on around you and feel things, but your brain somehow filters it out..

If our senses went totally dead when we slept, we wouldn't get up for alarm clocks, or because of really loud sudden noises (something falling/breaking) or from people nudging us awake gently.

I think EHS, is just another malfunction, in this case in your auditory system, like any other malfunction occurs when you may be deprived of sleep, or vital substances in the body, and with an already haywire dopamine system because of RLS it makes a lot more sense from a biological point of view..

I have been sleeping rather well as a whole (I think so anyway) since getting onto Methadone.. I rarely have insomnia or keep weird hours anymore and don't usually have an issue getting up for work, with an alarm, or just before its set to go off. It's the most normal I have felt in my entire life, and although the initial euphoria about it has died down, I know I am so much happier about the change, despite lingering fears my insomnia and weird hours will come back one day.

So I don't know about the sleep deprivation component of EHS, unless I have other problems like undiagnosed PLMD that is preventing significant restorative phase sleep (cause of course I don't have a partner and prolly never will...loser, lol) and its not uncommon to get EHS symptoms when I am tired in the middle of the day from medication issues, etc..

I don't feel sleep deprived for the most part, although sometimes I do feel tired if I don't go to bed early enough, which may be fatigue from the Methadone I simply haven't noticed until getting my real early morning job..

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:16 pm
by Sojourner
I definitely have experienced it (for about 3 months). Mine primarily took the form of a door being slammed shut and also, on on occasion, my name be called.