Exploding head syndrome Puns

So for a while now I have had this "exploding head syndrome" phenomena, but the more I think about it the more I kind of feel there is more to it. The sounds I mostly hear are screams & coughs, & Im talking RIGHT next to my ear. I will say it usually only happens when I am relaxing with my eyes closed. I do also get very weird vibes in my house but I have never witnessed anything noteworthy. Just the typical feeling of being watched & odd noises that I can probably contribute to settling or my neighbors, shadows from the corner of my eyes etc.

Does anyone else have this? If so, what kind of sounds do you hear?

Also, if this post is stupid or in the wrong place feel free to tell me. I don't mind deleting! TIA

Woke up the other day usually I check the blinds/windows so I can see if it’s morning vs early morning (7am is still dark especially in winter). I looked and it was bright and it suddenly got very bright and Boom like a bomb went off I yelled and woke up completely bewildered..

Never had that happen before in my life. Maybe quantum immortality (jet hit my apartment and I’m living in a new reality?) I doubt it. After some research it’s probably exploding head syndrome. Similar to other issues like sleep paralysis.

As you’re waking up an explosion that doesn’t exist happens etc. anyone else experience this?

I will experince exploding head syndrome around every other night. It started to get worse around the same time my VS got worse. Does anyone else with VS have this? Thanks!

Hello reddit team,

I am a man 24 y .o and I through out the time I have some incidents while going to sleep. The first thing that happens as soon as i fall asleep I start dreaming(the dream is different everytime) .The noise in my ears is becoming unbearable. As a result is forcing me to wake up. The problem is that even though i am trying to avoid waking up and open my eyes in the end i do it. Then go back again to sleep. Then it happens again. I have to wake up 2-3 times in order for this to stop. It is something that is happening rare . Sometimes it might happen twice in a week and then after months. I do not know from where i have to take advise for my problem. I do not know from which scientist I should take advise. i do not know if i have to take advise from someone as the problem is not that serious for now.

I have NEVER in my WHOLE life heard about this, but I'm 1000% sure I experienced the Exploding Head Syndrome yesterday.

I went to sleep at around 2 am and couldn't really fall asleep that well, after some while I was feeling REALLY FUCKING high (even though I didn't consume any drugs or whatsoever) and was in a trance-like state but still being awake.

(The following was definitely not a dream or a sleep-paralysis!!!) While my eyes were still closed I could see a butterfly-like entity directly looking at me made out of a really weird biological geometric pattern. At the same time the butterfly appeared I heard the loudest BANG that I've ever heard in my whole life. It didn't sound like a really loud explosion, it almost sounded like that this was the sound of some sort of entrance ceremony to some other state of mind... I don't fucking know guys... there were crackling sounds (almost like fireworks) in the mix.

The bang was only there for a good 2-3secs and buttefly also disappeared after 10-15secs.

None of this felt hostile at all, it felt weird.

I don't know what to think about any of this, any ideas guys?

I don't think there is a scientific reason for this happening, it felt way too fucking real, almost as if I was tripping on DMT.

I just woke up around 20 minutes ago,to what sounded like constant bangs on a door,but I also knew it was not a real sound?When I was waking up,the sounds were still continuing in my head,and it feel like it was trying to force me back to sleep,even with these sounds.I seem to have this experience every couple months.What do you guys think?

I wanted to bring it to you because I thought it was interesting that I'm experiencing two mfing sleep disorders at the same time, any tips to sleep? I'm not really stressed just to get it out the way

I may have exploding head syndrome, but one symptom that I didn’t see on the internet was paralysis from the fear. If you don’t already know, exploding head syndrome is when you’re either about to fall asleep or wake up mid REM to a loud noise followed by flashes of light. The sounds can be explosions, clapping and many more. The sound I hear is like a flash-bang with the ringing in the ear and my eardrums just shiver In a way as if someone put an air horn to your ear and set it off, but without significant pain. For me it is very uncomfortable, I just want to know wether or not it is just sleep paralysis since I cant move (only a little), or exploding head syndrome.

while falling asleep my thoughts will scream at me! it literally feels like someone screamed irl, it rings through my ears and i feel my heart jump a little. Sometimes it’s a random word, sometimes it’s just a shout. i think it’s a smaller (mental?) version of the whole Falling Off A Ledge While Trying To Sleep thing. it’s really distracting, and minor sleep paralysis usually follows. i also have tinnitus, u guys think that has anything to do with it?

if your head screams at you when you try to sleep, you’re not alone! does anyone have remedies?

For the past 2 ish years, whenever I’m really tired, I hear a “boom” or loud popping sounds in my head. Apparently the term is exploding head syndrome, because the pops can be loud, like an explosion. Also, because it’s technically happening in your head.

I was just wondering if anyone else with EDS had this. I know sleep stuff is sort of common with us. So far, since my hEDS dx a week ago, every weird symptom I’ve ever experienced has been explained by this. Wondering if my exploding head is part of it too

Has anyone ever experienced this and done something to improve it/ make it go away? This is literally the worst of my symptoms by far it completely prevents me from sleeping. I’ll try anything

Just curious if anyone is familiar with EHS or suffers from it as I do. I have VSS and tinnitus (tinnitus most likely unrelated due to ear trauma from firearms) , but I also have EHS and often get sudden, but brief flashes of bright white light, loud explosions or popping noises, and audible+visual hallucinations when on the verge of sleep. I have had sleep paralysis twice, once in the middle of the night and once immediately before falling asleep.

I find it fascinating how intertwined VSS is with other mental illnesses/defects/disabilities/conditions/phenomemons, especially revolving around sleep, anxiety, depression, and the 5 senses and I would love to know more.

Anyway, thanks for reading. TL;DR I have VSS and EHS, do you?

Im in bed rn and ive tried falling asleep like 5 times and every time im about to sleep i hear this faint knocking sound and its pretty scary. Kind of scared to try and fall asleep again.

I noticed it happen quite a lot. Usually after heavy doses or binges of pcp analogs, when I try to sleep, especially when taking any kind of sleep aid like melatonin or whatever, I get audio hallucinations that keep me from just passing out. Imagine loud, glitchy noises, similar to corrupt audio in music files. Sometimes other random noise or voices that jolt me back to a more wake state. Can be quite annoying.

I've read magnesium deficiency could be a reason but who knows, could me many things with me.

I just felt like asking for people's experiences since I've gotten this weird effect again after a rather heavy (unresponsibly eyeballed) 3-MeO-PCP trip.

I had an on-and-off relationship with kratom for about 2.5 years. Usually for 3-4 months at 15-30g per day, then coming off it either tapering or cold turkey. Then 1-3 months later I'd be back.

It always created disturbing issues with my sleep that I rarely saw expressed online, but do seem to occur for some small subset of people. It was useful enough to me that I just tried to ignore them, but my most recent run December-March was the worst. After a really bad week of this crap, I decided I was done with this shit for good. But the symptoms lasted for months afterward and I started to worry that they were permanent. FWIW, I took white or green strains about 95% of the time.

These symptoms included:- Waking up with a gasp. I wouldn't be out of breath though, and tested negative twice for sleep apnea. Often these episodes would include parts of my body spasming. I don't think they were seizures though - my partner observed it a few times and said it would be over in less than a second. This happened almost every night, usually multiple times.

- Flashes of light as I drifted to sleep that jolted me back awake. These were like hypnic jerks but much worse. The feeling I got in my head was momentary but terrible. This also happened almost every night.

- Waking up with my heart doing flipflops or vibrating. Thankfully this only happened 2-3 times, after very heavy doses the day before. Again, it only lasted about a second.

- Hearing voices or animals or other noises as I fell asleep. One time after a heavy kratom day I heard the word "trauma" whispered. Really spooked me.

- Sleep paralysis. This was very infrequent, and only seemed to happen with reds taken shortly before bed. I didn't actually mind this one because its great for lucid dreaming, but its obviously not good its happening.

- One instance of exploding head syndrome. Basically, I heard a very loud explosion as I was falling asleep. There was no associated pain or mental shift but it sure freaked me out.

- Limbs randomly jerking throughout the day, aka myoclonus. This was the main negative waking symptom. I've read it is associated with opioid toxicity.

I got tired of it and quit again in February. Then in March, my friend had a strain that I hadn't tried before from a vendor I never heard of. I had been off of kratom for 3-4 weeks at that point but you know how it is. Just two doses of that brought back most of these symptoms, and they were worse than ever. I later found out that an

Whenever I achieve sleep paralysis, I try and move. It doesn't matter how hard or little I move, this slow buildup to this intense loud ear piercing frequency starts turning up in my brain and it feels like my brain is going to explode. The frequency only gets crazy intense whenever I attempt to move a limb. Is this head exploding syndrome or something else. I wanna ap but this feel like it's actually going to harm me.

I recently started Lamictal 100mg and also abilify 5mg. Since i started them about 2 or 3 weeks ago I've been having weird sleep problems. I used to sleep a ton but now I'm sleeping maybe 5 hours a night. I take my medicine and fall asleep easily. As I'm falling asleep i have weird jerks, my head, leg, and arms will go forward or back fast and i can't help it. Then I wake up a couple hours later to a loud bang and I think its coming from the stairwell outside my kitchen door to all the apartments and as soon as Im awake it's over and i lay there shaking. . I woke up tonight and knew it was someone "violently pulling on my door trying to get inside" I have no idea what's happening, I'm so terrified. I have an alarm system but I'm still so scared just sitting here crying. My biggest fear since i was a kid was someone breaking in the house. I can't handle this on top of everything else. I don't even want to go back to sleep incase it happens again. Could this be my medicine? If so, can I take both in the morning instead of night? The bottles say once a day. Thanks for any advice

Absolutely anecdotal speculation on my part, but I never had it before HRT and it is more prevalent in women then men.

Luckily, despite the name, it's a benign parasomnia condition albeit a frustrating one. It occurs about once every 5 to 10 nights and just jolts me awake with a short and loud clap, bang, or whistle.

While disruptive to my sleep it's still totally worth it.

Actually this happened 2 days ago but I gotta say hot dang, it still has me shook.

I took a nap and I think I was asleep for about 20min when this happened. All I remember is seeing something was coming at me (like a baseball or a bomb) and when it hit me, I heard THE LOUDEST noise I ever experienced and it was an explosion, no lights, just the noise. Imagine a balloon pop but imagine that being 10x louder now imagine that inside your head. It immediately woke me up and I was VERY VERY scared. My heart was beating super fast and I was confused, I legit thought I had died in an explosion. I remember not being able to move for prob 20-30 seconds, I was just looking around my bedroom and slowly recognizing things and started to calm down.

I only found out about EHS because I googled meaning of head exploding dream!!!!

What is the recurrence of this??? Hoping for a one of thing! It’s absolutely BIZARRE!

>Individuals with exploding head syndrome hear or experience loud imagined noises as they are falling asleep or waking up, have a strong, often frightened emotional reaction to the sound, and do not report significant pain; around 10% of people also experience visual disturbances like perceiving visual static, lightning, or flashes of light. Some people may also experience heat, strange feelings in their torso, or a feeling of electrical tinglings that ascends to the head before the auditory hallucinations occur. With the heightened arousal, people experience distress, confusion, myoclonic jerks, tachycardia, sweating, and the sensation that feels as if they have stopped breathing and have to make a deliberate effort to breathe again.
>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

I've experienced insomnia for the past 2 nights. Slept 2 hours on Monday and 4 hours last night. I woke up around 4AM and couldn't go back to sleep, so I tried to go about my day. I drank coffee, rode my bike, took adderall, read a book, and finally 9AM arrived and I felt a little tired. I decided to take a nap or at least close my eyes for about 20 minutes. During this time, I lucid dreamed a little and I was aware I wasn't fully asleep. After the dream ended, my eyes still closed, my head began to feel tense and a small pressure started to build and release. Build and release all while my body remained still. I was semi-conscious of my breathing, but couldn't really move around. As the tension in my head kept building slowly, it felt like my brain was shaking and my eyes were involuntarily tightening as well.

Can anyone explain this phenomenon? And have you guys experienced anything similar?

No, it is not painful. I hear a loud bang or explosion when I am in that half awake / half asleep state. It used to scare the shit outta me! Now it is just annoying because it wakes me up and makes my heart race for a few minutes. When this happens it takes another 15 - 20 minutes to fall back asleep.

There was once when I heard a loud bang. I thought it was just in my head, then I heard another bang. Not in my head, but a gun shot in my neighborhood. So that sucked.

Here is a link if you want to learn more about the syndrome.

https://sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorders/exploding-head-syndrome/

I recently bought 100g of phenibut a week ago in order to severely cut down on alcohol use without much withdrawals. I take it daily for now in small 750-1200mg doses in the morning. Yes I know it’s not a good idea but I needed to cut down on alcohol for my own health. I’m very knowledgeable on how drugs work neurologically due to my college research years and am very healthy. Heavy lifting 5 days a week and loads of supplements. My doctor suggested Baclofen but no benzos due to the fact my doc is very conservative as far as controlled drugs and a history of alcohol abuse go. Due to no health insurance I opted to use phenibut instead. My plan was to use phenibut daily for a few weeks as described in Russian literature and taper off. I used phenibut before, never had an issue with stopping as far as cravings and withdrawal goes. So first few days I used 1500mg, next few including today it has been 1000-1250mg. The euphoria and music enhancement is gone but the anxiety relief and socialization remain, which is good because I’m not looking for euphoria. I was an amphetamine addict years ago, so the euphoria I feel from phenibut is underwhelming and not really enough to keep me hooked. Gotta love amphetamines making other drugs seem underwhelming as far as euphoria goes lol. So, I was looking for something to decrease the cravings of alcohol and keep my body calm. Worked well, went from 8-10 beers a day, every day, to 1 beer a day instantly. Cravings are gone. Over the next week, I will reduce my use by 250mg every 2 days like I have been doing until i reach 250mg and then cease use except for social occasions or anxious days where I would usually drink.

So now that we have the background out of the way. Since I only take phenibut in the morning, I’m guessing there’s a rebound effect at night. I get irritable and unmotivated (could also be caffeine comedown too), but not something I can’t handle. Im guessing it affects sleep too. I still sleep like a baby maybe waking up one time. The sleep is still so much better than drunk sleep. I’m grateful. Woke up around 4am randomly and I swear to god I heard this loud noise like something big fell. Also heard the front door slam shut right before that. Walked out to the living room and saw everything was fine. My roommate just left so the front door closing was definitely real and was probably what woke me up. But no sign of anything falling. Looked it up, seems it was exploding head syndrome or hypnagogic hallucinati

Maybe some of you have had it before, it’s the third time it happens to me in about 2 months.

After my first attack I was so scared and confused I visited a Psychologist and she said the most important thing to me: it’s all in my head. But it’s hard to think about it when you hear the bangs and see the light.

For a bit of context, while I was falling asleep, for about 3 seconds (that felt long enough to die or be killed) I heard loud bangs and saw light. It was about an hour ago from when I post this. The sounds seem to change every attack I have, maybe because I am more and more aware of what’s happening.

I just felt like talking about it, it’s a very scary moment. I always think I’m about to die when this happens, and I have yet to find a method to help me cope with the terror.

If you’ve had this and manage to cope with it please let me know how… We probably all deal with it differently…

Hey there, so assuming you read the title. You will probably know what I'm talking about right now. So, I was on my couch when I was about to fall asleep, I then suddenly heard a cracking noise, similar to the clacking of a tounge. This wasn't loud, but it was just enough to wake me up. This is the first time it's ever happened, but I'm skeptical about the whole thing because people usually get EHS around their early 40 to late 50s. It's also usually described as a loud bang or explosion. But mine was a small click. So if anyone out there knows about EHS, or has it themselves. Please fill me in if I do have it, or if it was some weird coincidence. I'm 14 if anyone wanted to know.

During my last pregnancy I often experienced what I can only describe as sleep hallucinations. I would suddenly wake up out of a dead sleep, to see various shadows of things on the ceiling directly above me. Sometimes it would be like black bubbles coming out of the ceiling and dripping down, other times it would be a large dark shadow of a man in my room, sometimes mounds of bugs... and I swear my eyes were as wide as they could be physically. Because of the sudden appearance and drowsiness, I would often react by screaming and jumping out of bed and falling on my butt, and sometimes I would feel paralyzed like I couldn't move, or I would just cry. After waking up fully, it only took a few moments for me to realize it wasn't real, but it was disturbing nonetheless.

At the time I had been taking a combination of a sleep aid + B6, recommended by my OB for nausea, I had been taking it for several weeks in a row (without relief I might add). When I found that sleep issues could arise from drugs like sleep aids, I stopped taking it and it didn't happen again for the rest of the pregnancy. That was 4 years ago.

Now I'm 8 weeks into my next pregnancy, not taking the sleep aid but I am taking a B6 supplement (with other things) plus my regular prenatal. The other night my old shadow friends reappeared again, and last night I swear I heard a bomb explode over my head in the middle of the night, but everyone was sound asleep. I hate being frightened awake like this. I'm thinking it could be stress or anxiety.

Am I the only one? Curious to know if others are having this happen.

One day I was having a very bad day.

I was under a lot of stress and I couldn't relax.

My mind was going a million miles per hour...

Full of intrusive thoughts.

Heart racing...

It was dark in my room no TV or music...

As I laid there in the bed an closed my eyes an sorta drifted off I heard a loud explosion. Like a grenade went off in my room.

It was so loud my ears were ringing intensely.

It was the most freakest thing ever.

To add I've never been in the army or experienced any war.

Realized I have aphantasia about a year ago. Lately I have come to realize I wake up suddenly to a noise that does not exist outside of my head... Like a dog barking, or someone knocking on the door. Additionally, while I'm not quite asleep (eyes are closed) if there is a loud noise (dog barking, trash dumpster getting slammed by the collectors) I will get a flash of light. I finally got around to googling if it "is a thing" and it seems to be.

I'm posting mostly to see if anyone other aphants experience this. Perhaps it could also help those researching aphantasia to know that some of us have this as well.

So today I woke up to a loud clap. It felt as if someone’s hands were right over my head next to my ear and clapped really loud. I woke in chills cause it scared me so much. So I did some googling and apparently it’s a group conditions that are called parasomnias, which is a sleep disorder. It could also be called hypnogogic hallucination. This loud sound helps you wake up from a nightmare. Which is crazy cause before I woke I remember in my dream something scary coming after me. (So when we dream is it kinda like interception were we go to a different world kinda and if we get to far in this world we need something to bring us back, so our minds create a loud noice.) Lol anyways has anyone else had to deal with exploding head syndrome?