Have you ever heard weird shit before you fall asleep at night? Well, come to find out, that is a disorder. Congratulations, you're messed up!

But that's okay. So am I.

Today, I wanted to bring a fun little syndrome to light that a lot of people have but have had no idea they have it! Not only is it quirky, and kind of creepy, it has an awesome name! Ticks all the boxes. Ladies and germs, I present:

Exploding Head Syndrome! (EHS)

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I happened to find out that I have this from poking around on REDDIT of all places. There was a thread on weird illnesses/disorders and since I like horrifying myself, I naturally started reading.

"Exploding head syndrome (EHS), alternately termed episodic cranial sensory shock, is a benign condition in which a person hears loud imagined noises (such as a bomb exploding, a gunshot, or a cymbal crash) or experiences an explosive feeling when falling asleep or waking up. These noises have a sudden onset, are typically brief in duration, and are often jarring for the person. Neither the cause nor the mechanism is known. Though harmless in and of themselves, episodes have been known to create distress or impairment in the lives of individuals."
~ Wikipedia definition

Weirdly, I never thought anything of these auditory hallucinations until I found out that it has a name. I assumed that those sounds were normal for everyone, so normal, in fact, that no one really talks about them. Much like the hypnagogic jerks that pretty much every person gets before falling asleep.

Well, I was wrong!

EHS can be different for everyone. For example, my brother has it as well, but he only has his when awaking and his sound is always the same, someone calling his name. Whereas in my case, I have it before falling asleep and the sounds are quite varied. Any given night I can hear blood curdling screams, explosions (sometimes accompanied by a physical "shock wave"), glass breaking, wood splintering, or even church bells chiming. Sexy.

Along with the normal auditory sounds, there is the possibility of brief visual hallucinations that accompany them. Most common are flashes of light like one would see during a detonation, static, or lightning. It can cause heart palpatations, sweating, even cause you to stop breathing and you have to make the manual effort to breath again. Think having the wind knocked out of you, it is just like that.

Needless to say, it can be pretty disturbing.

What is worse is that these episodes can come sporadically for sufferers. It can be every night for weeks. It can be once a week. It can go away for months only to hear a nuke going off in your backyard out of nowhere. There is no rhyme or reason, there is no way to predict it, AND no way to treat it.

Thankfully, it appears to be pretty harmless! Well, at least as far as the few studies done on it have concluded, although, there seems to be a strong correlation between anxiety sufferers and EHS. Which, if you ask me, could seem like a real "Chicken or the egg" question.

Do you have Exploding Head Syndrome because you have anxiety?
Do you have anxiety because it sounds like the damn world is ending when you try to nap?!

But the worst part?

No one really knows WHY this syndrome exists or the true root cause. It is literally all hypothesis based. There really isn't a lot I can tell you.

The most popular hypothesis is that it has to do with a little issue with your brain stem. Yes, your brain stem. More specifically, the reticular formation found there.

The reticular formation is made up of around one hundred wee neural networks that do some pretty mundane, but fucking important, stuff. Like communicating with your spine, cardiovascular functions, transference or blocking of pain, and meddles with your sleep/conscious state. It is also responsible for your ability to process things and turn them into white noise but remain alerted to other changes or auditory stimuli in your environment.

That last bit is controlled by your reticular activation system. And appears to be the little bugger that is at fault. Well... that and the part that dabbles with your sleep/conscious state and communicates with your cerebral cortex. The RAS is what controls your transition from awake to deep sleep and back again. EHS probably has something to do with how your RAS communicates with the rest of your body before dropping into REM sleep.

For example, if that part of your brain was damaged, you'd be stuck with Freddy Krueger forever. It is pretty important.

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Some theories of cause or correlation include:

• Minor seizures affecting the temporal lobe
• Ear dysfunctions, including sudden shifts in middle ear components or the Eustachian tube, or a rupture of the membranous labyrinth or labyrinthine fistula
• Stress and anxiety
• Variable and broken sleep, associated with a decline in delta sleep
• Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome
• Temporary calcium channel dysfunction
  (sourced from Wikipedia)

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That's all we got, folks. That's right, you're hearing the sounds of the coming apocalypse at bedtime and we don't really know why. But on the bright side... you aren't going to die from it! ( As far as anyone knows)

In closing: you may have something wrong with your brain!

But that's okay. I still love you. Bring it in, weirdo.

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Sources:

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

Gif credit to Sharegif, Tenor, and Tumblr. Cover image from Pixabay.

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