The list of hard-to-believe medical maladies continues to grow. Restless leg syndrome stays high on the list, as does persistent genital arousal disorder. Comes now a paper published in the Journal of Sleep Research that describes a surprisingly high number of cases of, yes, exploding head syndrome (EHD).
Craniums do not physically explode from EHD. Episodes of the sleep disorder occur during the hypnogogic period, or the transition time between waking and sleeping. Those experiencing EHD hear loud noises, such as a door slamming, a bomb going off or a crash of cymbals. A noise is distinctly heard but it wasn’t real.
Also known as “auditory sleep starts,” episodes of exploding head syndrome can last up to a couple minutes. Brian Sharpless, author of “Exploding head syndrome is common in college students,” is the director of Washington State University’s Psychology Clinic, reports that some people also will see flashes of light “visual static like you see on a TV screen” and awaken confused.
Little research has been conducted on EHS. Until now, the malady was thought to be rare. This is not necessarily, true says Sharpless, who collated data from 211 surveyed students. In addition to seeing more cases of EHD in young people than expected, his findings also drew a connection between exploding head syndrome and sleep paralysis.
Although discussion and study have been thin, the first reference to EHD in scientific literature nevertheless appeared as far back as 1890. Doctors have since described such events as “snapping in the brain” and “sensory discharges.” It was not until 1988 that neurologist J.M.S. Pearce dubbed it “exploding head syndrome.”
In Sharpless’ study, a “shockingly high” 18 percent of the undergraduates had experienced an EHD episode at least once while 16 percent reported two or more. When they looked at the number of people who only experienced EHD but not sleep paralysis, the number dropped to a still high 13.5 percent.
What essentially happens is that, while drifting into sleep and the auditory, visual and motor neurons shut down, the auditory neurons do not necessarily follow suit. Instead, “they fire all at once,” said Sharpless. Such a “hiccup in the reticular formation” can make people hear noises that do not exist in the outer environment. Sharpless pointed out that the syndrome is physically harmless.
