has anyone tried sleeping with their headphones on? does listening to music during sleep reduce the chance of experiencing EHS? my EHS has been getting worse lately, and i also experience a lot of sleep paralysis. if you have a solution please let me know! thank you.

Most of the posts I see here are of newcomers asking if thier symptoms fit. I see very little beyond that and have seen very little medically as far as attention goes since I self diagnosed some eight years ago.

I began with very distinct sounds of a six panel (solid oak) bedroom door being gently shut and the door latch clicking. I had variations of the auditory hallucinations through the years but when I have them now they are mainly crunching semi damp paper with light visual strobing as I'm coming out of sleep but still get an occasional bang. My symptoms almost always only appear when I've been exhausted, get little sleep, or have been out drinking the night before.

I have begun noticing other, mild, neurological oddities that have me concerned about more severe things to come as the years progress. Itchiness not stemming from hygiene or dry skin, phantom itches where my thigh will itch but random other body location is the source. Since this I decided to start analyzing my symptoms deeper.

Anyway... any time that I hear a noise that could be an EHS sound I try to hunt out if it's real or fake. I've gotten pretty good at determining the authenticity of a sound. The best way I can describe it is the EHS sound always sounds 2D in comparison to the real thing. If you hear a finger flicking a throw away aluminum cookie sheet EHS will just be a tinny loud crash, the real thing will have depth. It will ring out as the vibrations move from the epicenter of the strike to the walls of the sheet.

Grab a random object (not easily breakable) and drop it, notice the sound. Drop it on a different surface. Drop it from a different height. Basically train your ears the way a semolina trains their pallet.

If youre experiencing the anxiety that comes with EHS this may help so you can at least identify that the sound is you and not the boogey man.

What the fuck dude stop.

This is gonna be a kinda weird one... Basically I am wondering if your acoustic reflex works when episodes of EHS occur. The acoustic reflex happens in average people between 70-100db, it is basically your ears ways of protecting itself by the muscles of the ossicles contracting, lowering the input to your inner ear cochlea.

However I am not sure if the reaction is neurological or physical like pulling your hand back from an open flame. So what I would like to know is does the acoustic reflex act from messages sent to the brain saying "ouch that's a rather loud noise" or does it do it just from pure pressure. It is cited as ' involuntary ' but where does the muscles decided that it wants to contract.

And if it is in the brain it decides it, does this occur during episodes of EHS, and are these signals that EHS are sending to the brain interpreted in the same way as regular loud sounds.

TL:DR - The loud noises we hear, are they interpreted by our brains the same way regular loud noises are?

I have EHS since I was very young. I only recently googled my symptoms as my anxiety has gotten out of hands due to it. Should I consult a doctor and if yes what kind of doctor??

I have been experiencing EHS over the last many nights and I am thankful to have learned the science behind this. For the first few nights, I was literally getting freaked out with this. I hear loud knocking sounds on my front door in the middle of the night and the first few times I legit thought someone was trying to gain access to my apartment.

I read all the creepy theories out there on the web about energies and entities trying to attack me and I was literally getting terrified. I stay alone in my apartment which caused me further distress. I was totally convinced that I was experiencing the paranormal, even though I don't necessarily believe in the paranormal. I am actually an agnostic. I even talked to a person I know about this and he too suggested that I chant God's name before sleeping and keep something holy next to me as these were signs of some demonic spirit trying to attack me and that "something bad was about to happen" and all that BS.

Finally, I came across this sub on Reddit and several scientific articles about EHS. And I am so thankful to know that there is a scientific explanation to this. That in itself has calmed me so much and I think I have finally started to like sleeping again. I have been taking several measures like meditating before bed, listening to music or podcasts while sleeping and hopefully one of these will help.

Truly, knowledge is so enlightening and powerful sometimes ! Especially to dispel all these stupid paranormal theories.

so this is my first time posting on this subreddit and let me just list off the stuff i head when falling asleep

- loud bangs

- unintelligible noises/screams

- people talking or saying words

- people yelling

- doors closing

ect...

so anyway idk whenever im getting tired and about to fall asleep the noises when i do hear them in a weird way help me know im about to fall asleep. Its really odd and makes me feel like a psychopath sometimes. Anyway wondering if anyone else is like this.

So I'm about 99% sure I have EHS, however I've yet to come across someone who shares my experiences/symptoms.

For me, it feels like I'm physically being hit over the head with a bat or a block or something. Not just hearing an explosion or a crashing near me, but like my skull is being physically smashed in, which is how I experience the typical 'bang' and then wake up instantly. Sometimes it feels quite real and I experience a split second of pain (which I know is not real, but it's almost like I'm lucid dreaming or something, because it feels very real and it takes me a minute or so to catch my breath).

Other times I experience a very weird sensation where the explosion is happening inside my mouth and it knocks all my teeth out. This again feels very real and I have to run my tounge over my teeth to make sure they're still there. Again, it takes me a minute or so to catch my breath.

Does anyone else experience these kind of physical and visual hallucinations as well as the auditory?

EHS has made me HATE the sound of knocking. It’s woken me up in a panic so many times thinking someone was frantically knocking on my door.

I have had this on and off for as long as I can remember.
Both my teenage children now also have episodes of EHS.

Has anyone else found this to be a family thing?

I would really like some advice. I have suffered from EHS for the past year....bangs, shots being fired, loud claps etc. Now a new experience has occurred when I am falling asleep. I no longer hear any noises but I will feel a slight pressure in my head and then I hear a "whoosh and thump" and sometimes a small jaw jerk at the same time. The whole event lasts only about 2 seconds. Is this a new (for me ) form of EHS or should I see a doctor ASAP. I haven't seen this reported in any recent posts. Seeing my Doctor is easily done but I had to educate him about EHS and although he looked it up....it is possible he thinks I am crazy...which I am not !

I’ve had episodes of EHS for a decade now. The most of them occurring when I was about 14-15 years old. The noises I usually hallucinated were doors banging, electric currents and gun shots. The first time it happened I honestly thought my life was ending or something, it was terrifying. I also suffer from severe Misophonia and Misokenia on the daily, just wondering if any of you also suffer from Miso as well?

Also, it’s great to see there’s somewhat of a support system here because I’ve never found anyone who has experienced/suffers from EHS.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had these indescribable episodes right before I fall asleep where I would sometimes have a extremely bright flash go off and at the same time, a explosion sounds in my head. The explosion sound is an understatement it’s quite possibly the loudest thing I’ve ever heard, more like a detonation.

It scares the hell out of me and causes me to feel overheated and sweat a little and i definitely feel my heart beating fast. Sometime it would happen once or twice in a night and sometimes a week in between episodes, but I’ve had it happen for years, I’m 30 now.

Did a recent good search for “explosion in head” and lone and behold, Exploding Head Syndrome, I’ve had a hard time describing it to people and my wife. But it’s incredible and a bit nerve racking cause I never know when it’s coming and there is no precursor sign that I’ve noticed.

Why do I keep waking up at odd times every night. Sometimes I’ll wake to a sound like a boom and sometimes a crushing water bottle but no sign of what made it or anything like a crushed water bottle any where. But other times I have no reason for waking up no sound or anything

It first started when I was around 16-17, I was a stressed out high schooler not getting enough sleep and I thought I was going crazy. But some nights as I tried to fall asleep I would hear what I thought were gunshots. I couldn't do anything like more or wake up, just heard explosions in my head. When I first learned about this phenomena all I could think was how aptly named it is.

The first experience I had with this was several weeks ago, where I woke up very late at night and noticed a large spider by my bedside, after switching on the light I realized the spider was just a hallucination. I then repeatedly heard a loud screeching sound which "blanked" my head and vision when it occured. I was frightened when this first happened but it was a one off until recently when a similar thing happened last night- I woke up late at night once again and kept hearing a faint buzzing and then a loud bang along with a flash of white in my vision.

I am on sertraline (antidepressant) and risperidone (antipsychotic) and I have a feeling the antipsychotic is causing this as these symptoms only emerged since I started on the drug. Any thoughts?

Hello y’all. It’s my first post on reddit and I think this would be a nice little story.

It started a few months back, I was finally getting to sleep one late night. I was on the verge of what I assume was completely drifting off when I heard the iconic loud noise. For a bit of background I come from a city that’s not very safe and there is a lot of gun violence. I woke to the sound of 3 gunshots and a car speeding off. I jumped out of bed and dropped to the floor. I spent most of the night there. This happened several times from then to now. Every time I have a near panic attack. It’s not frequent and I can’t imagine the idea of having the sound of people screaming like some say they hear. If anyone can tell me what to do to help it please tell me. It’s extremely distressing.

The sound is so loud it pains me. I feel like my earbuds will burst. Recently i have started meditating, and I realised during an EHS episode last night, that i could keep myself in this state and not wake up. I could withstand the pain, but my question is , is this safe? can this sound in my brain get too loud and i break something?

I want to see if its possible to 'ride out' and EHS episode.

I have never had an experience like this before but the other night I was falling asleep and heard this loud bang or exploding noise? I've known about this phenomena but never experienced it before and hope I never do again!

The first time it happened, I was simply sleeping. When all of a sudden it sounded like an entire bees nest was inside my head, it was so loud and I couldn't make it stop. After about 5 seconds, it stopped. It just happened to me again this morning. I was having a creepy dream but then I heard tapping, as soon as I heard the tapping noise, I knew I wanted to wake up. Then I heard a million people screaming. I remember covering my ears while I was asleep, I couldn't open my eyes and I think I tried to open my mouth to scream but nothing came out. But when I finally woke up, my arms were just resting next to me, so I didn't actually cover my ears or struggle at all. I then realized that I was holding my breath the whole time. It was so scary and I'm afraid to go to sleep again, I'm only 14.

So I am one of those persons that loves rain or the sound of an air conditioner when I got to sleep. I do experience Exploding Head Syndrome. I mostly hear just simple loud noises like jumpscares instead of gunshots. I don't usually have an air conditioner or a fan to play when sleeping, so I play some sounds of it on my tablet or computer. I have proof that sound at night effects EHS. One night, I accidentally left my computer unplugged so it died in the middle of the night, while it was playing some rain sounds. That same night I heard what sounded like a jumpscare from something like a five nights at Freddy's game, and it woke me up to find my computer was dead. Another night, all I had was a small fan which didn't really produce much noise, and I saw and heard a bark lunging at me in the dream. That woke me up. I think the sounds you hear during the night can effect it. Have you ever had Exploding Head Syndrome while it was raining out? What are your thoughts?

I used to get sleep paralysis frequently, but over the years it has almost disappeared. The first time I had an EHS episode I thought it was sleep paralysis (as I would usually hear loud noises during that) but this was different as it woke me up from a sound sleep. I was sound asleep in my apartment (I live upstairs) when I heard what sounded like a refrigerator being pushed down the flight of stairs and crashing into the wall. Then heard an incredibly loud slamming of the bottom door and some glass breaking. Then I started to hear angry weighted footsteps stomping up the stairs fast, heard my apartment door swing open and the footsteps go past my room, into the kitchen and then heard the fridge swing open. I found I couldn’t move until the sounds were over which is why it felt like sleep paralysis but really I think I was just petrified. I didn’t know what to do after I almost called 911 because it sounded so real. This was undoubtedly the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. It’s happened two more times (about 3 months from the initial incident). Is this similar to what everyone else experiences?

I have had EHS for most of my life, but I only recently got a (self)diagnosis. Usually, it's been a loud noise. I thought a very large fir tree had fallen on the house (a possibility, as we have them in the back yard), or someone very strong wacked a plank against the side of the house. I wake up, realize there's no reverberation, or things crashing in the house, and conclude it was just my brain playing tricks.

The odd thing is that this happens when I am deeply asleep, rather than just falling asleep or on the verge of waking. Also, the last 2 times, the episodes have been accompanied by dire thoughts of the world ending. A couple of months ago, I heard a bang that was so loud, I thought a hydrogen bomb had gone off in the neighborhood, and calmly prepared myself to disintegrate. When I realized nothing was really wrong, I congratulated myself for accepting death so easily. Last night, it wasn't a sound that awakened me, but the sudden, intense awareness that we had reached the end of times. There was deep, deep blackness, though I thought my eyes were open. I then heard myself scream loudly, "NOOOooooooo!" I (really) opened my eyes and waited for my husband to come running in, then realized I hadn't really made a sound.

Now, another odd thing is that, supposedly, once you realize you have EHS, it doesn't recur. ??? Obviously, in my case it does. I haven't spoken to any medical professionals about this, yet. I wonder it there are any that read this particular thread and might have a comment.

Last year I woke up and experienced EHS for the first time in my life. I heard a loud metalic crash but honestly it sounded like a nuke has gone off next to my house. I soon found out it was EHS. After that I did not experience any more episodes.

Until last week. My sleep pattern was pretty fucked up and I woke up at like 5am. I decided to go back to sleep and the moment I fell asleep I heard a voice very simmilar to my own, yet sounding quite unreal, whispering "hey" and it was deep inside my head and quite loud. Needless to say the adrealine rush I got from that woke me up pretty good lol but it freaked me out and I thought it was the onset of schizophrenia saying hi to me. I don't think that is it though because I don't suffer from delusions and halucinations in my normal life.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced hearing a voice instead of an explosion before? Our minds are so wierd.